Well, with Valentine’s Day looming, there are two reasons why I thought it might be worth mentioning an entry that a friend sent me from her blog.   

The first is that around Valentine’s Day we often make the mistake of thinking about love in a really narrow sense.  Sure, there’s romantic love, but there’s also the love that we have for our friends, our family, for this unexpectedly mild weather and, of course, for Reading Week (yay!).  It makes sense to point this out in a blog about Academic Success because it’s easy to let things in your personal life (Do you have a partner? Do you wish you DID have a partner? Do you wish you DIDN’T have a partner? etc.) interfere with your ability to focus, concentrate and, well, just be your very best self academically.  Remembering that there are people and things in your life that you love—regardless of what’s going on in the “romantic love” arena—can be a powerful way to keep things in perspective.  

The other thing I like about my friend’s blog entry, and that I think is an important reminder at this time of year, is that it looks at the idea of “the list” in a way that’s a little unexpected. We all know that if Reading Week is here, well, Crunch Time can’t be far behind.  With that certain (and certainly anxiety producing) knowledge, there’s a tendency to make lists—on paper or in our heads (usually in the middle of the night!)—of the thousand-and-one things that we need to do (catch up on course readings, write essays, apply for summer jobs or graduate school or…well, you get the picture).  In this blog entry, though, the focus isn’t on all the things that we need to do, but on all the things that we have—and love—in our lives.

NP