The Universities at Shady Grove (USG)

Today was one of those days when I looked at my calendar and audibly gasped. When did it become November, and how did my schedule get so busy?

So this post is a way to center myself; to regain my “zen” if you will.

Three Ways to Keep Your Head in the Game When Your Heart is Prematurely on Vacation (Thanksgiving break- I can literally taste you!)

1. Make an ACTUAL Calendar.

Buy one/create one/engrave one onto your hand. Find an easy to follow system where you can record all of the happenings of your very busy life! My gCal has become one of my closest confidants…when I remember to check it.

2. On that calendar, schedule time for YOU!

Before nursing school, the thought of scheduling time for myself seemed preposterous! Free time just came naturally. Now I realize that this time, though hard to squeeze in, is essential! We all need a good Netflix chick flick every now. Find your “you” time each and every day!

3. Remember why you started.

This one resonates with me the most. When schoolwork seems daunting, exams never ending, and mornings so early, remember what inspired you in the first place. You have worked hard to get to where you are! You have made many sacrifices in pursuit of your dreams, and the courage it takes to begin this journey is always worth celebrating!

Many people have taken on the roles of spouse, employee, parent, and caregiver before even beginning their career as a college student.  If like some you choose to take on two or more of these roles, sir/madam I applaud you for your super powers because it takes extraordinary abilities and effort to pull it off.

My Job

Finding the income to pay for all my living essentials and at the same time accommodate my work hours to my school schedule limits my opportunity to work a regular weekday 9-to-5 job, for this reason I have chosen a temporary career in the restaurant industry. Working nights and weekends is ideal for the college student, I benefit from the compatible work hours to make money in my time off campus and acquire skills that will equip me for my future position in a professional field.  So far I have learned from the restaurant trade inter-personal skills, teamwork lessons, and relationship building techniques that will serve me in my career in business once I graduate.  The sacrifice I make for all of this is time, and I can promise you, time is only missed when you really need it.  All together I forego over 40 hours in a week.

My Classes

I am enrolled in 15 credit hours this semester, represented by the five classes I take.  The golden rule in college is to multiple your credit hours by three to estimate your total course load.  Think of it this way, for every hour you spend in class you can expect to spend an additional three hours reading, preparing for exams, writing papers, and completing group projects and homework.  The 1:3 ratio puts me at around 45 hours a week.

My Tips

I have made it this far with a summa cum laude academic standing and these are the tips that have helped me achieve this.

1. Prioritize! What is more important, going out with friends or catching up with your studying for the mid-term? The choice is clear, place school first and at the end of the day your goal can be achieved.
2. Schedule. Proper time management is essential.  Make a weekly schedule to organize your waking hours so that you can meet your most pressing obligations first.  Then create a monthly schedule so that you can request time off from you employer in advance to avoid conflicts.  
3. Contingency Plan. Inevitably you will find yourself slammed with school work.  Projects and exams have a habit of sneaking up on you, even all at once and you will find yourself falling behind.  Find flexibility with your employer, discuss it with them and let it be clear that there will be times where you won’t be available.  When times are slow do favors for your co-workers, like picking up shifts, so that when you need it most they will return the favor. Professors want to see their students succeed, often deadlines and exam dates are open for extension if you simply reach out to them and express your needs. 

I hope this advice helps you in your journey to the podium.  My experience shows that it can be done! Albeit, with no social life and sleep deprived. But the sacrifice is worth all the sweat, blood and tears. To make it you need perseverance, and from what I have been told it does not get any easier after college. Go YOU!

I went on an Alternative Winter Break to the Bahamas in January 2015. I know this was many months ago, but I was recently reminded of it because I just got accepted to go on another one to Guatemala! All the wonderful memories came rushing back, especially now that I’m preparing for another trip.

The Bahamas is much more than just the sun, sand, and sea!

Last January, our AWB Bahamas team went to Nassau and Andros Islands in the Bahamas. The local community partners included the Bahamas National Trust (BNT) and a pastor who rented us a small house. The topic of our trip was Ecotourism and Environmental Sustainability. In the beginning of our trip, we attended a very informational lecture at the College of Bahamas about their environment and ecosystem. We bonded with some of their students, who later took us to the underwater coral sculptures at the Jaws Beach. (Yes, that’s the beach where they shot the Jaws movies!) We saw how these underwater sculptures alleviates the strain on corals (by environmental factors such as ships, tourists, and natural disasters). We also helped with the environmental cleanup in the College of Bahamas. For the remainder of our trip, we helped BNT with the maintenance of Blue Holes National Park on Andros Island and did beach cleaning on our free time. Andros is very underdeveloped and did not have much manpower to sustain many local tourist sites. Despite that, we lived beach front in a very modest little home, immersed ourselves in their culture, savored our days without the internet, and appreciated our time together. Not to mention… we were enjoying the sun and the sea while everyone back home was freezing their toes off!

Local Bahamian children loved to play with us (and our hair)

We had many opportunities to reflect on our trip about our work, ourselves, and our lives. What shocked me was that the locals were content and happy even though they did not have much, compared to the American standards. I asked the local pastor why that is, and he explained to me that this is their way of life; that they never felt the need to want anything since they were never really introduced to temptations; that they are just happy to be able to live in a wonderful place where your dinner can easily be caught for free. We gained a whole new perspective on life there. I especially felt joy and peace from the simplest things for the first time in a long while. The people were great, the food was awesome, and the times we spent are very educational and memorable.

I’m afraid of heights but jumped into the Blue Hole after a hard day of work maintaining the Blue Holes park. If you don’t know what a Blue Hole is, please google it! You won’t be disappointed!

I feel so blessed to have the opportunity to be a part of the Alternative Breaks community. Once I arrived back from my AB trip, I shared about my trip on Facebook, Instagram, twitter, and via email to everyone and anyone. I was just so inspired by the trip that I even wrote a 25 page paper on how coral reefs can directly impact the Bahamian ecosystem, country’s income, and residents’ way of life. I also have been talking to anyone who would listen about my AB experience. I want to let UMD students know that there is such an opportunity for them. I love that AB can provide such an alternative to possibly an uneventful or a less impactful break. It also allows students to discover more about themselves, meet like-minded people, learn more about the issues that they are interested in, and allow them to challenge their limits.

If you’re reading this, and if you’re a UMD student, I hope that you will sign up for Alternative Breaks as well!

I left my heart in the Bahamas ❤

October is breast cancer awareness month! Help support the National Breast Cancer Foundation, Inc. (NBCF) by participating in the USG Costume 5K Race – now an indoor boot camp due to the rain.  The indoor boot camp will start at 4pm in CRC Game Room.

In addition to attending events and making monetary donations, it is also important to remember to give yourself breast exams. Here, I  have created a user-friendly, follow along tutorial for how to do self breast checks 🙂 Forget the fear,  self exams are all about getting to know your body. Take a deep breath, and lets begin!

**I am not a licensed nurse or doctor. Always listen to your body.

As I begin to settle into my semester routine, I find it is easy to become complacent and overly regulated. Though I am a self-proclaimed creature of habit (i.e. oatmeal for breakfast every morning, peanut butter sandwich for lunch, etc.), every now and then I like to remind myself that I CAN in fact switch it up, and even more shocking, I often find that I like and appreciate the excitement that surrounds a new experience!

Flashback to last December: my sister and I took an introduction to rock climbing class and we LOVED it…and ten months (and many dollars) later, I am still captivated by the sport. But alas, my sister and beloved climbing partner moved out of state, leaving me to fend for myself in the climbing world!

So I used whole “try something new!” “it will be fun!” speech as outlined at the beginning of this post to convince some nursing friends to give it a try. And we had a BLAST! After a week of long and arduous preparation for midterms, we released all of our pent-up energy and conquered some fears!

It seems that new experiences have the ability to set off a chain reaction! So next time you challenge yourself, encourage others to do the same! You never know where it will lead…