Articles of the Month

How was summer? Good or bad, hit the books.

Every year is the same during the last few weeks of freedom before school. We party like there is no tomorrow or we panic until we pass out. Even if everything seems to go fine, there is always something going wrong at the worst time like procrastination, forgetting important dates and etc.

It's the end of August, you still feel summer is not over yet or you want your summer to last longer because you have a fun and good paying job and time is money. Or you're the other group that had a summer class and were jobless the whole summer, sobering whenever they see their bank accounts shrinking and are getting really impatient for start the upcoming semester.

Now, if you were working most or all summer, then you should be pretty happy with all the hard earned money. Maybe you even want to continue working part-time during your studies? It may be good but it may hinder your marks if you're a first year student even if you're a genius. Yes, geniuses can fail tests too. I've seen people a lot more intelligent than me failing the driving theory test. Go figure. However, if it is a calm job, then the work load should not be too much to hinder your marks whatsoever. At least, you're not stuck at home or wandering around trying to find something to kill time.

On the other hand, if you were jobless the whole summer because of XYZ reasons, either you will get very impatient because summer got super boring or you are most likely having a hard time not spending too much or the rest of your own money sitting in your bank account. What to do, to get you back in the rhythm for a fresh semester of studying? Go take a very long walk anywhere to either have a long reflection on your goals and what have you achieved up to now or just relax. If not, go take a bike ride. Not just a simple half an hour ride but a journey on the bike paths around your town. Try to do something around 50-75 km. Exploring might be long and not full of actions but it's good exercise and it can test your endurance physically and mentally. Some people can be afraid of things because it looks to too demanding too much effort and time. Studying is the same. Takes a crazy amount of time and effort to not fall asleep or get distracted mentally by something that's in your mind. You have to learn to fight the fears of failing.

Tips to help you not to forget important things to do or dates. Just stick a paper on somewhere that is very visible and very distracting like on your monitor screen or on your door knob if you close your door often enough. If not, put a note on one of your shoes. Yes, it looks silly but you never know.