{"id":30081,"date":"2016-11-30T16:08:39","date_gmt":"2016-11-30T21:08:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/?p=30081"},"modified":"2016-11-30T16:08:39","modified_gmt":"2016-11-30T21:08:39","slug":"on-staying-in-touch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/2016\/11\/30\/on-staying-in-touch\/","title":{"rendered":"On Staying in Touch"},"content":{"rendered":"University can get\u00a0stressful at times, and it can be difficult to stay in touch with friends, particularly with those who don't live in the city. But\u00a0few things bring me more joy in life than hanging out and catching up with good company. As the holidays drew nearer this week, I wanted to reflect on my\u00a0friendships and some of the ways I\u00a0stay in touch with those closest to me during the school year.\r\n\r\n\"Two\r\n\r\nWith my high school friends who have gone off to different universities, I like to\u00a0reach out with a quick message on Facebook when I think of them. These messages may\u00a0include a link to a video or an article that they might like,\u00a0or an anecdote of something that happened to me that day, or even a simple \"I miss you\". Then the next time they are back in the city, we make sure\u00a0to try to\u00a0hang out in person as much as possible.\r\n\r\nEven with some friends who live in Toronto and go to U of T, I only\u00a0get a chance to see them once every few months for a brunch date. While that may mean we won't get to speak much\u00a0in between our scheduled food outings,\u00a0this system tends to works for us.\u00a0Plus\u00a0it's an easy way to keep in touch while avoiding the busiest times of the year.\r\n\r\n\"Waffles\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nWith friends I talk to more regularly, study dates and commuting are great times to be together, quickly check in, but also be productive at the same time. Arranging a study date with a friend makes me more accountable to getting work done. It's also much more fun to have company, even if we're just working on separate things side-by-side, and to share the highlights of our week for a few minutes at the start and end. In arranging to commute together, we also have a full thirty minutes to an hour of catch up time.\r\n\r\nAnother way I find super effective for staying in touch is joining groups together, on or off campus -- clubs, classes, volunteering. When I volunteer at Caffiends<\/a>, I get to see my shift mates every Wednesday; I remember being surprised in first year at how quickly a bond can form with just one hour of interaction a week.\r\n\r\n\"Two<\/a>\r\n\r\nExercise dates are also a fun\u00a0way to\u00a0stay in touch with friends in the city. Like studying, it's something we all have to do anyway, and going with a friend makes me\u00a0more committed\u00a0to the activity. There\u00a0are traditional runs and indoor workouts at Hart House, the Athletic Centre, or the Goldring Centre -- fitness drop-ins<\/a>\u00a0make fantastic dates -- but exercise can also come in more creative forms. In the past, I have\u00a0done archery and dance classes\u00a0<\/a>with friends. I also know several people who have taken advantage of the climbing wall at U of T Scarborough<\/a>. A few weeks ago, a group of us went bouldering as part of a free\u00a0event hosted by the Victoria College Commuter Dons, who plan on organizing more similar events this year.\r\n\r\n\"Bouldering\"<\/a>\r\n\r\nOn a related note,\u00a0going to campus events is how I most often get my social fix. These can be quick one-off events -- cupcake decorating, a movie night, a social -- or regular ones that reoccur. For example, every year, I go to the Cat's Eye pumpkin carving event on Halloween with the same people. Likewise, since we went to the September lunch<\/a> together, I have been attending all of Hart House's $5 lunches with my friend, Julie.\u00a0Events on campus take place every day, and you can choose to attend however many or few you want. Although I have regretted some\u00a0times when I've stayed for hours and neglected my work, as long as I stay disciplined about leaving after a set time, I come out of these breaks feeling refreshed and relaxed.\r\n\r\n\"Three<\/a>\r\n\r\nExcuses to hang out come up every day. When Starbucks had their buy-one-get-one-free holiday drinks special a few weeks ago, I\u00a0went with a friend two days in a row. We commuted together, chatted as we waited in line, picked up the lattes, then went to the library and studied. And even if seeing each\u00a0together is too much to fit in, which can happen, there's nothing wrong\u00a0with\u00a0sending off a short text to just\u00a0check in and be assured that someone is there for you.\r\n\r\n\"15231506_10207691634596878_618541593_o\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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\nUniversity can get\u00a0stressful at times, and it can be difficult to stay in touch with friends, particularly with those who don't live in the city. But\u00a0few things bring me more joy in life than hanging out and catching up with…\n<\/div>
Continue reading “On Staying in Touch”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>\n<\/div>
Continue reading “On Staying in Touch”<\/span>…<\/a><\/div>","protected":false},"author":295,"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":[1758,7204,62,65,1,66,82,67,68],"tags":[25504,259,152,88,151,25506,23712,696,1883],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30081"}],"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\/295"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=30081"}],"version-history":[{"count":13,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30081\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":30184,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/30081\/revisions\/30184"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=30081"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=30081"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.studentlife.utoronto.ca\/lifeatuoft\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=30081"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}