If ever we had to designate a time of the year that made people feel the most "BLAH," it would be around now. The dreary weather and post-holiday lull make for a very uninspiring landscape that certainly do not help to foster creativity. I too fall prey to the monotony that is the mid-winter blues. (Is it even mid-winter? Realistically, has it even been a true winter this year? Are we feeling the ramifications of global warming? All good questions). Feeling like a sad, deflated, grey-tinged marshmallow, I can get really unmotivated to deal with work and school - which can be quite problematic at the start of a new semester. However, I have a few tricks to try and inspire creativity and productivity:
New Year, New Me!
“Woke up this morning I was laid out flat on the dark side With the moon and the room on the wrong side I took a needle, sewed myself right back at the seams I saw my universal gleam” - 'Flick of the Finger', by Beady EyeLiam Gallagher might not have the same vocals he did back in Oasis’ heyday, but his last effort to bring back the glory days with his (now disbanded) Beady Eye did bring back some of the open lyrical interpretation the band was known for instigating - but I digress. Nevertheless, it makes for a great quote that can relate to the idea of starting the new year with resolutions. It’s a time of year when - for whatever reason - you can see your errors more clearly, and when you decide to pick up the metaphorical needle and attempt to sew yourself back together again. I’m not typically one to fall into the societal norm of setting resolutions specifically to ring in the new year - but given that this will be my first full year as a university student, I decided to give it a shot.
That Forgetting Feeling
You know that thing that sometimes happens when you’re about to fall asleep but then all of a sudden you feel like you’re falling, you jerk violently, and you’re wide awake again? That’s how I feel when I realize I have forgotten something.
I don’t usually forget things; I’m a reasonably organized person and I have systems that I use to keep on top of things.
Every now and then, though, the occasional task slips through the cracks. One such occasion was just a little while ago. I’m taking this really interesting Legal Workshops course; I get to attend a few workshops at the Faculty of Law throughout the year. At the beginning of September, I chose the workshops I was interested in and signed up. I marked the workshops I signed up to attend in my calendar. I put them on my phone. You may have guessed, however, that I recently missed one.
First Years – Unplugging on Campus
The start of the ’gap’ between midterms and finals is definitely a good time to find more opportunities to de-stress where possible. As I’ve been emphasizing the importance I’ve placed on striking a balance between work and play, I’ve decided to find out where my fellow first-years have been going to relax on campus. Specifically, I’ve been looking for places to ‘unplug’ and unwind without keeping a constant eye on my phone.
First-Year: A Mid-Semester Review
This past month has undoubtedly been one of the more strenuous months of my life thus far, and that probably goes for a lot of my fellow freshmen. Midterms hit me hard and have left me feeling absolutely exhausted. Even though mental wellness month just ended, I still think it's important to make sure sure that I head into the second half of this fall semester with a healthy mindset.
Tackling the Big Bad Reading
Why did my professor do this to me? Why is she making me read this overly dense, buzzword-ridden, thinly veiled torture device of a book? We are repeatedly told never to make our essays too “wordy.” We’re told to keep…
A Song of Ice and Frosh
Hey there, fellow first-years! I’m Alex, a freshman Computer Engineering student. Over the course of the next few months, I’ll be sharing my experiences as a first-year student at the St. George campus. I'm one month into my time here,…
Hand Cramps Be Gone: The Art of Note-taking in Lectures
Maybe you got hand cramps from packing sand to make sandcastles all over a beach, maybe you got them from tapping lines of candy in the intense game that is Candy Crush, maybe you got them from whipping fluffy cream…
Lessons learned from my first year in the Life Sigh stream
Did you know: If you take a full course load for all years of undergrad leading up to med school applications, the U of T Faculty of Medicine will drop six half-courses with the lowest grades from your admission GPA?…
Legacy
We made it! April has finally arrived! I just survived three essays and four exams all in the last two weeks and I don’t even want to know what percentage of my final grade all those tests and assignments were…