{"id":15801,"date":"2013-01-24T13:19:04","date_gmt":"2013-01-24T18:19:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=15801"},"modified":"2014-09-09T09:53:54","modified_gmt":"2014-09-09T13:53:54","slug":"dealing-with-grief-a-students-tale","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/01\/24\/dealing-with-grief-a-students-tale\/","title":{"rendered":"Dealing With Grief: A Student&#8217;s Tale"},"content":{"rendered":"<iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/CnQ8N1KacJc?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"autoplay; encrypted-media\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\r\n\r\nThis weekend, I attended a memorial service for a friend and colleague that had passed away very suddenly in December.\u00a0 To say that I was shocked to hear the tragic news is an understatement.\u00a0 A deep sadness set in after I got over the initial stages of shock and denial.\u00a0 At that point, it definitely became difficult to keep a composed face when around others, particularly those in residence.\u00a0 The truth is sometimes I simply wasn\u2019t able to.\r\n\r\nFortunately, I wasn\u2019t left alone to grieve and for that I was extremely thankful.\u00a0 It was difficult being alone in the weeks following this tragic news and I was really grateful that there were others in residence that felt the same.\u00a0 That being said, I didn\u2019t actually want to talk to anyone; I just wanted to spend time with friends and colleagues for their physical comfort.\u00a0 That certainly wasn\u2019t the case for some who sought to grieve by talking about how they were feeling, while others preferred to grieve alone.\u00a0 During this time, I came to realize that everyone\u2019s grieving process was different and that a wide spectrum exists for the manner in which students cope.\r\n\r\nSchool started back up far too quickly and I was still struggling to cope with this sudden loss.\u00a0 I\u2019m sure others who have experienced loss can understand the difficulty of trying to continue on with \u2018business as usual\u2019 while still grieving.\u00a0 I know that I\u2019ve certainly felt overwhelmed at times over the last few weeks, but something I\u2019ve also realized is that I don\u2019t have to go through this alone.\u00a0 There are numerous resources available on campus to help grieving students.\r\n\r\n<a href=\"http:\/\/caps.utoronto.ca\/main.htm\">CAPS<\/a> is probably the most obvious service available for short-term counseling on a wide range of emotional and psychological problems.\u00a0 Your College Registrar can also be helpful to students who do not feel capable of keeping up with their academic demands given their grief process.\u00a0 This could take the form of a Registrar\u2019s Note to a student\u2019s professors, help with deferring exams or term work, or even advising on withdrawing from courses.\u00a0 <a href=\"http:\/\/www.multifaith.utoronto.ca\/\">The Multi-Faith Centre<\/a> also offers not only the physical space for any spiritual needs while grieving but also many programs centered on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.multifaith.utoronto.ca\/Memorial-Page.htm\">grief support and memorials<\/a>.\u00a0 I also recently learned that there are <a href=\"http:\/\/www.multifaith.utoronto.ca\/GriefSupport.htm\/\">monthly Grief Talking Circles<\/a> for students who have experienced a loss. \u00a0This drop-in support group provides students with a safe space in order to share stories and learn how different students deal with their grief.\u00a0 Finally, a <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/Grief-workshop.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-15807\" src=\"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/Grief-workshop-252x300.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"252\" height=\"300\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/Grief-workshop-252x300.jpg 252w, https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/files\/2013\/01\/Grief-workshop.jpg 541w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 252px) 100vw, 252px\" \/><\/a>special <a href=\"http:\/\/www.multifaith.utoronto.ca\/Events-And-Programs\/Grief-Sharing-Evening-Jan-28-2013.htm\">Grief Support Event<\/a> will be taking place on Monday, January 28<sup>th<\/sup> from 6-8pm in the Academic Success Centre (in the Koffler Student Centre) to share grief stories over dinner.\u00a0 It certainly sounds like a great opportunity to identify with other students experiencing grief and, most importantly, know that we\u2019re not alone in struggling to cope with our losses.\r\n\r\nIn all honesty, things will never be the same and I doubt I\u2019ll ever be able to go back to living life as it was before this tragedy.\u00a0 However, that may not necessarily be a bad thing because healing means remembering and celebrating our memories of the ones we\u2019ve lost.\u00a0 Learning to accept and deal with grief from loss is the first step in this healing process.\r\n<p style=\"text-align: center\"><em>\"Grief is a necessary passage and a difficult transition to finally letting go of sorrow - it is not a permanent rest stop.\" - Dodinsky<\/em><\/p>\r\n- Vivian","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<div class=\"entry-summary\">\n<div class=\"entry-summary\">\nThis weekend, I attended a memorial service for a friend and colleague that had passed away very suddenly in December.\u00a0 To say that I was shocked to hear the tragic news is an understatement.\u00a0 A deep sadness set in after&hellip;\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/01\/24\/dealing-with-grief-a-students-tale\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Dealing With Grief: A Student&#8217;s Tale&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div><div class=\"link-more\"><a href=\"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2013\/01\/24\/dealing-with-grief-a-students-tale\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &ldquo;Dealing With Grief: A Student&#8217;s Tale&rdquo;<\/span>&hellip;<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"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":[1,66],"tags":[2337,9307],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15801"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21178,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15801\/revisions\/21178"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15801"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15801"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15801"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}