{"id":39391,"date":"2019-10-15T08:33:20","date_gmt":"2019-10-15T12:33:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=39391"},"modified":"2019-10-15T08:33:20","modified_gmt":"2019-10-15T12:33:20","slug":"finding-the-balance-between-my-school-life-and-social-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/10\/15\/finding-the-balance-between-my-school-life-and-social-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Finding the Balance Between my School Life and Social Life"},"content":{"rendered":"As we put an emphasis on mental health this month, I decided to write about my struggles in trying to find a balance between my social\/family life and school life.\r\n\r\nLast Sunday,\u00a0my dad had a rare day off of work and he asked if we wanted to go out somewhere as a family. I would normally go without hesitating, but I took one look at my agenda and my heart sunk. There was no way I could afford losing a whole day when I had 2 midterms in that week. So, my entire family remained cooped up in my house on a beautiful Sunday all because of me (they refused to leave me behind) and I felt so guilty.\r\n\r\nWhen my friends come back into town from university, they ask if I want to meet up. Each time, I say the same thing, \u201csorry, I\u2019m really busy this week\u201d. School has always been my main priority, but it\u2019s also important to allocate time for the people I love.\r\n\r\nI struggle with finding time for the people in my life, because being a university student is a full-time job. But I\u2019m trying to find the perfect balance between my social life and my school life, because <em>both <\/em>are important. Here are some things that have worked for me:\r\n\r\n<strong>Study buddies<\/strong>\r\n\r\nA good way to have some sort of human interaction <em>and <\/em>do schoolwork is to find good friends to study with. Normally, the people I meet in my classes have similar (sometimes identical) courses, so it\u2019s easy to coordinate schedules with them and study during our breaks. This way, I\u2019m still doing schoolwork, but have some sort of social interaction (as opposed to talking to a wall, which I frequently do when reviewing material for a test).\r\n\r\n<strong>Checking up on friends<\/strong>\r\n\r\nI bumped into an old friend the other day, who I haven\u2019t seen since high school. When he saw me, the very first thing he asked was how my mental health was. He didn\u2019t ask me how my grades were, or what classes I was taking\u2026 he asked me how I was doing, mentally, and that was really heartwarming.\r\n\r\nI realized it doesn\u2019t take much to make someone\u2019s day. Every now and then, I text some of my old friends and ask how they\u2019re doing. It\u2019s important to let people know that someone cares about their health and well-being. It can make a big difference in someone\u2019s life and is important for maintaining good relationships.\r\n\r\n<strong>Taking time off <\/strong>\r\n\r\nThis Thanksgiving weekend, as busy as I was, I decided to take a day off and go hiking with my family. It was a hard decision for me, especially since I had a midterm on Tuesday, but I knew that I needed a break from schoolwork. I was really glad I did because it was super refreshing and helped calm my nerves.\r\n\r\n<figure id=\"attachment_39392\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-39392\" style=\"width: 225px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/10\/IMG_0044.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-39392 size-medium\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/10\/IMG_0044-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Picture of me in the forest, fall leaves on the ground \" width=\"225\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/10\/IMG_0044-225x300.jpg 225w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/10\/IMG_0044-768x1024.jpg 768w, http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2019\/10\/IMG_0044.jpg 1537w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 225px) 100vw, 225px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-39392\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">A beautiful fall day for a hike!<\/figcaption><\/figure>\r\n\r\nRemember, school is temporary, but family is forever.","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nAs we put an emphasis on mental health this month, I decided to write about my struggles in trying to find a balance between my social\/family life and school life. Last Sunday,\u00a0my dad had a rare day off of work&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/10\/15\/finding-the-balance-between-my-school-life-and-social-life\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Finding the Balance Between my School Life and Social Life&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2019\/10\/15\/finding-the-balance-between-my-school-life-and-social-life\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Finding the Balance Between my School Life and Social Life&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":377,"featured_media":39393,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7204,6669,62,1,66,67,68],"tags":[1905,86,78,405,153,88,9307,1439,138,286,172,85,25506,25507,89,237,696,1804,441,1837],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39391"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/377"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=39391"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39391\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":39440,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/39391\/revisions\/39440"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/39393"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=39391"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=39391"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=39391"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}