It's amazing how different MIT students approach their long vacations. A lot of my friends spend most of their vacation sleeping. We travelled all the way to Florida, to see sights and enjoy the warm weather. But most of the day was spent sleeping in. To my amusement, there was great anger at my attempts to have an early start so that we could see more of south Florida. I'm really not exaggerating: Waking up at 2pm and going to sleep at 10pm, sometimes with naps in between.
Why do these kids do this? What reasonable explanation could there be for sleeping away a vacation?
The desire to sleep on vacation is great since most of the school year is spent sleep deprived.
During the school week, most students are sleep deprived not just because of course work, but also by choice. Their logic is that with 24 hours a day, there's however long school work takes and 5 hours of fun. The time that's left over is for sleep. Often a 16 hour work day with 5 fun-hours leaves 4 hours for sleep.
Just 4 hours for sleep.
You might think that I'm exaggerating, but there really most students self report 4-6 hours of sleep a day.
You might be catching the logical paradox that I saw.
If their priority is staying awake for fun, why do these kids spend their vacation sleeping?
To me this makes a lot of sense with a slightly closer look. Your body needs 6-9 hours of sleep, whether you try to convince yourself otherwise or not. The body is crying out for sleep.
For long vacations, there's no work hours. It's just 24 hours of "fun". And sleeping is amazingly fun when your body is crying out for it. So amazing, that a disproportionate time is spent sleeping, trying to catch up on all the hours missed during the semester. An impossible task.
The moral: Work sleep into your schedule. 8-9 hours are the ideal for the college age group. If you don't you may spend your Florida vacation napping.
Saturday, April 20, 2013
Vacation sleeping insights
It's amazing how different MIT students approach their long vacations. A lot of my friends spend most of their vacation sleeping. We travelled all the way to Florida, to see sights and enjoy the warm weather. But most of the day was spent sleeping in. To my amusement, there was great anger at my attempts to have an early start so that we could see more of south Florida. I'm really not exaggerating: Waking up at 2pm and going to sleep at 10pm, sometimes with naps in between.
Why do these kids do this? What reasonable explanation could there be for sleeping away a vacation?
Why do these kids do this? What reasonable explanation could there be for sleeping away a vacation?
Tuesday, April 16, 2013
Over-committing: Classes, Clubs, Career
There's a big shift transitioning from high school to college. You have a lot more independence to pursue what you want when you want but more responsibility follows. Classes in high school were really easy for me; I could skate through lectures and rely on the repetitive style of teaching if I wanted to zone out for a day.
College is not like this.
At all.
The work load is more intense, especially since professors aren't holding your hand through the material. It's up to you to keep up with work and ask for help when you need it. Despite this, a lot of students coming into college try to replicate high school, signing up for tons of clubs and activities. While it's good to have things outside of lecture, the priority of a college student is their classes, in my honest opinion. Well, it's not just my opinion: it's the opinion of the faculty and advisors.
Here's some advice for the times when you've overcommitted in your classes, clubs, and career.
My first suggestion would be to listen to your freshman advisor. Challenge yourself but don't overload on your first semester. If certain classes are pre requisites, it's for good reason; don't try to skip around. If the advisor suggests your course load is too much, consider them seriously. Weight what your advisors says with the advice of upperclassmen who have taken the class.
If you've signed up for too many classes, speak to each professor. Ask how you're doing in their class and ask what you can do to keep up with the work from now on. Make sure to email the TA, asking about what tutoring is available and their office hours. Your school may have a Writing Center or Tutoring Office that you can go to for extra help.
Finally, meet with your advisor, reporting back what each professor has said and how you feel about your work load.
If you need to, drop a class. There's no shame in letting go of something that you aren't enjoying or doing well in. Make sure you keep track of drop date and the necessary paperwork.
Don't just disappear! Talk to the club, even if it's just an email or a stop by at the next meeting. Having been on both sides of this, I can say that it hurts to worry about a club member who hasn't been seen in a long time and to scramble to take over their responsibility. It also hurts to feel that you can't come back to the club because there was no clean break or explanation for leaving in the first place.
If you can't drop the commitment, ask another club member to split the work with you. Work something out to share the work, delegating parts of the project to others.
Plan out when things need to get done, organizing your time.
If you're paying your way through college, you may not be able to cut down your work hours. I totally understand that; I'm paying my own way with the generous help of scholarships. But what you can do is make sure that your work is either applicable to your major or allows you to do course work.
For example, I am a desk worker at my dorm. I can do a lot of my school work while sitting at desk, letting people in and out of the building. The pay is decent for the amount of double tasking I can do.
If you are just working for experience or extra spending money, remember that your course work is the priority. Plan out the number of hours you can do in the week. Some labs will let you come in on the weekends so if that works well with your class schedule take advantage of it.
Look at your syllabus at the start of the year and make sure to get time off for your exams. This might sound silly but you may have an evening shift that conflicts with a late evening exam time.
Block in the class work and let classes, clubs, and career work follow in to fill in your free time. Organize your time and don't sign up for things you can't follow through on.
I hope that this advice helps you. If you have any suggestions that you want to share comment below!
College is not like this.
At all.
The work load is more intense, especially since professors aren't holding your hand through the material. It's up to you to keep up with work and ask for help when you need it. Despite this, a lot of students coming into college try to replicate high school, signing up for tons of clubs and activities. While it's good to have things outside of lecture, the priority of a college student is their classes, in my honest opinion. Well, it's not just my opinion: it's the opinion of the faculty and advisors.
Here's some advice for the times when you've overcommitted in your classes, clubs, and career.
Classes
Coming into college, it's easy to think that classes will be like high school. A lot of high school advisors don't know what you can handle so you may be used to ignoring warnings of too much course work. Working as an Associate Advisor with freshman advising, I see lots of students think that they can handle five challenging technical classes while doing a varsity sport and who knows what else. Most of these students come back, a little bit humbled, hoping to drop their fifth class and transfer into a slower paced class.My first suggestion would be to listen to your freshman advisor. Challenge yourself but don't overload on your first semester. If certain classes are pre requisites, it's for good reason; don't try to skip around. If the advisor suggests your course load is too much, consider them seriously. Weight what your advisors says with the advice of upperclassmen who have taken the class.
If you've signed up for too many classes, speak to each professor. Ask how you're doing in their class and ask what you can do to keep up with the work from now on. Make sure to email the TA, asking about what tutoring is available and their office hours. Your school may have a Writing Center or Tutoring Office that you can go to for extra help.
Finally, meet with your advisor, reporting back what each professor has said and how you feel about your work load.
If you need to, drop a class. There's no shame in letting go of something that you aren't enjoying or doing well in. Make sure you keep track of drop date and the necessary paperwork.
Extra Curricular and Clubs
If you've signed up for too many extra curricular responsibilities, there's no shame in stepping back. Speak honestly with your club about why you need to re-focus on your school work. Make clear that you want to stay involved with the club, but will be less active until your work is better in hand.Don't just disappear! Talk to the club, even if it's just an email or a stop by at the next meeting. Having been on both sides of this, I can say that it hurts to worry about a club member who hasn't been seen in a long time and to scramble to take over their responsibility. It also hurts to feel that you can't come back to the club because there was no clean break or explanation for leaving in the first place.
If you can't drop the commitment, ask another club member to split the work with you. Work something out to share the work, delegating parts of the project to others.
Plan out when things need to get done, organizing your time.
Career
If you're paying your way through college, you may not be able to cut down your work hours. I totally understand that; I'm paying my own way with the generous help of scholarships. But what you can do is make sure that your work is either applicable to your major or allows you to do course work.
For example, I am a desk worker at my dorm. I can do a lot of my school work while sitting at desk, letting people in and out of the building. The pay is decent for the amount of double tasking I can do.
If you are just working for experience or extra spending money, remember that your course work is the priority. Plan out the number of hours you can do in the week. Some labs will let you come in on the weekends so if that works well with your class schedule take advantage of it.
Look at your syllabus at the start of the year and make sure to get time off for your exams. This might sound silly but you may have an evening shift that conflicts with a late evening exam time.
Wrap Up
The moral of the story is that coursework if the main priority of a student. Everyone's heard the story of a wise professor filling a jar with golf balls and then pouring in the small bits of sand to completely fill in the jar.Block in the class work and let classes, clubs, and career work follow in to fill in your free time. Organize your time and don't sign up for things you can't follow through on.
I hope that this advice helps you. If you have any suggestions that you want to share comment below!
Over-committing: Classes, Clubs, Career
There's a big shift transitioning from high school to college. You have a lot more independence to pursue what you want when you want but more responsibility follows. Classes in high school were really easy for me; I could skate through lectures and rely on the repetitive style of teaching if I wanted to zone out for a day.
College is not like this.
At all.
The work load is more intense, especially since professors aren't holding your hand through the material. It's up to you to keep up with work and ask for help when you need it. Despite this, a lot of students coming into college try to replicate high school, signing up for tons of clubs and activities. While it's good to have things outside of lecture, the priority of a college student is their classes, in my honest opinion. Well, it's not just my opinion: it's the opinion of the faculty and advisors.
Here's some advice for the times when you've overcommitted in your classes, clubs, and career.
College is not like this.
At all.
The work load is more intense, especially since professors aren't holding your hand through the material. It's up to you to keep up with work and ask for help when you need it. Despite this, a lot of students coming into college try to replicate high school, signing up for tons of clubs and activities. While it's good to have things outside of lecture, the priority of a college student is their classes, in my honest opinion. Well, it's not just my opinion: it's the opinion of the faculty and advisors.
Here's some advice for the times when you've overcommitted in your classes, clubs, and career.
Saturday, April 13, 2013
Staying positive: Lookin' Good
I've realized that a major part of me feeling good about myself is based on feeling that I look good. This spring and summer, my goal is work a routine of healthy self care and trying out a new more outgoing personal style.
Read more to hear about my rationale for this new commitment and the steps that I've broken this major goal down into.
I was raised on the belief that "cleanliness is close to godliness" and that "your body is a temple," so I associate taking care of my body with taking care of my soul. I may not be as spiritual, but the feeling of being clean is still linked with a sense of personal peace and reflection for me. I often spend my shower planning out my day or revving myself up for class.
Looking back on my low points, I see that personal care is one of the first things that I cut out. The sad thing is that removing self care makes it difficult for me to go out and leads to debilitating self criticism. While the first thing to go, self care certainly isn't the last. Cutting down on self care is a rather common thing for people suffering from depression or even just general stress. If you struggle with this, there's a lot of support out there. Even if it's not part of a serious difficulty, it's easy to rationalize exchanging showering time for cramming for a test. Maybe we can challenge ourselves to take better care together!
This year, I made a commitment to improving myself and I catalogued those resolutions in my day planner.
( Read my improvement commitments here.)
I want to commit to looking nice, taking care of my appearance, so that I can tackle the world with a more outgoing personality.
Read more to hear about my rationale for this new commitment and the steps that I've broken this major goal down into.
I was raised on the belief that "cleanliness is close to godliness" and that "your body is a temple," so I associate taking care of my body with taking care of my soul. I may not be as spiritual, but the feeling of being clean is still linked with a sense of personal peace and reflection for me. I often spend my shower planning out my day or revving myself up for class.
Looking back on my low points, I see that personal care is one of the first things that I cut out. The sad thing is that removing self care makes it difficult for me to go out and leads to debilitating self criticism. While the first thing to go, self care certainly isn't the last. Cutting down on self care is a rather common thing for people suffering from depression or even just general stress. If you struggle with this, there's a lot of support out there. Even if it's not part of a serious difficulty, it's easy to rationalize exchanging showering time for cramming for a test. Maybe we can challenge ourselves to take better care together!
This year, I made a commitment to improving myself and I catalogued those resolutions in my day planner.
( Read my improvement commitments here.)
I want to commit to looking nice, taking care of my appearance, so that I can tackle the world with a more outgoing personality.
- My goal is to shower daily, taking the time to shampoo, condition, exfoliate, and just enjoy the process of getting clean.
- I will try to do my hair well, so that I feel confident with it.
- I want to wear make up on a regular basis rather than "giving up" on my appearance.
- My outfits will be things I confidently enjoy rather than things that let me feel slouchy-comfortable.
- I will take advantage of my clothes and jewelry that I own.
- I should try to feel brave and adventurous trying out new clothes, rather than cautious.
Staying positive: Lookin' Good
I've realized that a major part of me feeling good about myself is based on feeling that I look good. This spring and summer, my goal is work a routine of healthy self care and trying out a new more outgoing personal style.
Read more to hear about my rationale for this new commitment and the steps that I've broken this major goal down into.
Read more to hear about my rationale for this new commitment and the steps that I've broken this major goal down into.
Tuesday, April 9, 2013
Conventions are not your playground
To make a long story short: Conventions are not your playground. You do not get to ignore people's personal boundaries just because you are wearing a costume. If you or your fandom in general do harass people, expect con-goers to avoid your fandom. Don't be surprised if people talk about your bad behavior. Instead, acknowledge what's wrong with your fandom's behavior and understand why people are suspicious; do your best to change the community. Or maybe, if you don't like what this community does, consider that maybe it's not a community that you should be a part of, much less defending?
There are rules at conventions. You are expected to read the rules of the con. In the same way you'd have to pay if you lost your con badge to get a second one or return to your hotel to change clothes if your costume contains contraband, if you harass someone you will have to pay the consequences. If the person harmed goes to con staff, you could have your pass taken away or even be banned from the con.
More than that, if you and many members of your fandom treat the con as a personal playground and take that as an opportunity to harass, catcall, or otherwise abuse other con-goers, guess what? You don't get to be upset that your fandom has a bad name at cons.
There are rules at conventions. You are expected to read the rules of the con. In the same way you'd have to pay if you lost your con badge to get a second one or return to your hotel to change clothes if your costume contains contraband, if you harass someone you will have to pay the consequences. If the person harmed goes to con staff, you could have your pass taken away or even be banned from the con.
More than that, if you and many members of your fandom treat the con as a personal playground and take that as an opportunity to harass, catcall, or otherwise abuse other con-goers, guess what? You don't get to be upset that your fandom has a bad name at cons.
Subscribe to:
Posts
(
Atom
)