As you all probably know, physical activity and living a healthy lifestyle is very important to me. Therefore, our group in H449: Mass Media and Health made a video to promote this perspective. Please help us out by giving it a quick view on the main YouTube page and “liking” the video using the button below the player. Thanks!
These days have been ridiculous — and by ridiculous I insinuate they have been neither good nor bad. They really have just been really busy. I have never been so preoccupied in my college life. Early mornings are dedicated to getting my swol on at the gym, and later sitting down with a couple of my best friends for coffee and great talk. Then it’s off to class, work, class, and finally work again. Different weekdays have slightly different agenda arrangements, but these are my recurring five days in a nutshell. And now helping out on a research project, I have to cancel various work shifts just to fit this participation in. Fridays are my favorite, not only because it’s the day before the weekend, but because aside from my one class I get to work a solid six hours. I love working at the Center and having a source of income from doing something I enjoy.
Not tomorrow, though. This has been a crazy weather week. With already a couple two-hour delayed start days on campus due to snow/ice, tomorrow marks the actual first day the university has decided to close because of the massive amounts of precipitation. The melted snow and deluge of rainfall has caused extensive flooding in Corvallis, swaying President Ed Ray to close the university for safety precautions. This is very exciting for students, but partially bittersweet for me because I want my work hours.
It just all adds to the complexity of this term. And so I figured this very moment can be ironically envisioned as swimming in a flood. Not only are areas of our city underwater, but my life right now makes me feel like one would feel in the middle of a flood. You’re on edge, trying to get from one side to the other yet worried if your quick departure from point A to point B is wielding unseen mistakes. I extensively plan my days out, have my calendar, agenda, and reminder notifications all on my phone. Everything would be all so different and challenging without my iPhone — I’ve never thought I would need to use it this much beyond apps, calls, and texting.
The term has just started. By each week’s end I am gradually more exhausted. I hope and think I’ll make it through okay. I always tend to perform better in school when there’s more pressure on me. Like my usual approach to things in life, I say bring it on and let’s live it up!
In about a month classes begin again. I have never been more eager for this time to come. I usually hang onto every last minute of summer, but this time it’s so different.
Working indoors from 8:30 to 5 every weekday, I suffer when I’m not outside. I crave to have the sun shine on me and to enjoy the relaxation it brings. I miss the people about, and the hangouts with friends. But I have also come to look past this and to realize how fantastic these near three months have been.
Work has not only been awesome, but also inspirational. In our everyday lives we get in sort of a rut when we travel the same path too long. And for me that path was school and unemployment. It has been pretty much the same thing every day. Classes, hang out, study a bit, hang with friends, bed, repeat. I mean I had great times with friends and all, but in general it has been the same routine. At first it’s really nice and feels great to live like that, but over time you don’t realize how much it brings you down. Working has completely reignited me — and I think this fall term at school will be the best ever.
And as for this season, I really don’t know how to explain why I crave the cooler crispness of fall. I just think about sweatshirts, hoodies, falling leaves of all sorts of colors, people on campus, coffee, tea, hanging out at a café, reading, working, applying myself. It just sounds so inviting. I think this is one of the rare summers where I can actually say I feel I made the most of it — and we’re not even done yet! There’s the road trip to Grants Pass this weekend, maybe a family outing, our grand opening at the Hallie Ford Center — who knows what else is in store! I think I am simply content with the way things are and am confident in the way they will continue to progress.
Onward we fall, in just a month, to another stage of our lives — where people return, the lights go on, and we get down to work and to building memories. I am so ready to make this the best.
Image provided by Oregon State University
Possibilities are growing more visible, and so is my excitement. I have thought that my only path to interning abroad was a list of opportunities on some website. But, just like in other life applications, I’ve come to step back and re-imagine things.
Thanks to a conversation with a nice visitor at the Hallie Ford Center, I have realized that I should look into creating my own bridge to success. Why follow an internship option that so many others may participate in? Rather, I should strive to make my own way. I need to sit down and write what I want from an internship. Where do I really want to go and what do I want to do? I create a solid list of interests and desires and I take it to the experts and I say, “This is what I want. Can we make it work, and what are my next steps?”
College is fantastic. You’ve got advisors that know your academic path and what you need to do to accomplish it. You’ve got someone to aid you from the beginning to the end. But let’s push the envelope… Let’s build our own bridge — a unique one with just your name on it. And let it be that special, personal connection between what is the general pool of education, and the actual applied field that holds your passion.
I’m ready to make my own way. I’m ready to pull my resources together and see what I can construct. I have the university, Hallie Ford Center, a knowledgeable, helpful supervisor, and a slew of faculty core directors. There are opportunities awaiting creation, and I’m on my way to bringing them into actuality. Next week, my supervisor and I are sitting down and having coffee to “talk about my future”. I don’t know if this is in regards to work during the school year… Or something more. I think I’ll make it more — and I’ll have some research and notes together for when we meet.
The adventure begins.
Published from my iPad.
The past 2 years have fostered so many beautiful, unforgettable changes in my life. I am thankful for the strength and support I have encountered along the way. In these 21 months, I have taken the image of who I want to be and have done my best to sculpt it into reality. There are some odds and ends, but they will resolve in time.
In the past couple of days something new and inspirational has harvested. I was daydreaming in the shower, like I usually do, when a provocative tagline came to the tip of my tongue.
Spare some change.
You may think of a street dweller asking for money — but dig a little deeper and you’ll find the meaning. We need to open up a little more to the idea of change. I sometimes believe we hang on to “the daily grind” because we fear what we cannot change. We are afraid in the things we cannot control or the fate we may face in time. But right now… Right now it wouldn’t do too much harm if we could just spare some change in our lives. Stop worrying, and start planning. Maybe this means you loosen up, or maybe this means you get down to business.
Why should we fear change? Every decision we make in our daily lives should be working towards a better, sustainable tomorrow. If we are afraid of tomorrow then we are not doing enough today to ensure our comfort, confidence, and success. We have such a large say in what tomorrow will look like. Like our physical health, we can take control and succeed because we are at the helm of control.
I have embarked on a fourth phase in my life. I am thrilled to be recently employed with Oregon State University as the only student assistant at The Hallie Ford Center. We moved into the brand new building last week and it’s not just a fresh start for the healthy children and family programs but for me as well. It’s an all new stage in my life and it feels incredibly invigorating to be working and engaging with others in the variety of ever-changing tasks I perform. I like going to work and I embrace the challenges I am dealt.
But I am also excited to be forecasting for a fifth phase of change to come in time. I enjoy my public health academic major and I am eager to see myself in a dedicated career. I am still uncertain about a primary focus, however. I am not sure Health Management and Policy is something I am cut out for. It feels extremely over my head right now and each term I just face a queue of more predestined classes. I’ve been sort of fishing for some inspiration, and while working at The Hallie Ford Center has already proven to be a great start, I’ve actually been acutely interested in taking my studies abroad.
Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia is on my front page. I am at the drawing board laying out blueprints for achievement and success. The schematics require some focus and extensive planning, but I really think it’s worth it — and thinking, reading, and researching about studying abroad fires me up and I get very excited. It feels right. I think I need to do this… I need to do it for myself. I can’t let it pass me by.
Studying abroad is normally seen in college sophomores and juniors… But I’m going to be a senior. I’ve thought about this and I’ve felt that my opportunity has been passed up. But then I think about what people have told me… College is your chance to explore and make your own way. Why do I have to follow the same path everyone takes? I already know I won’t be graduating the end of my senior year due to a late switch to public health and a reevaluated approach to the classes I’m taking. This has been somewhat discouraging, but I am living my own adventure so let’s live it up!
Some people get “senioritis”, an uncontrollable eagerness to finish school and graduate. But I’m experiencing the opposite. I’m on what seems like the last leg of college and I’m not ready for it to be done. I feel like I haven’t experienced all there is to be had. I’ve gone three years with the same routine of forecasting and attending classes. It feels a little stagnant, though. Studying abroad is not just a temporary fad I have. It’s a revelation that I need to act upon. During these last three years I have witnessed so many people travel to other countries as part of school, They post beautiful pictures and tell of engrossing stories. I have longed to be in their shoes — to sit in that classroom, to see the scenes, to meet the people, to truly live that dream. I will not get another chance if I don’t do it today.
I believe studying abroad at Deakin University is right for me because it is an outstanding opportunity to thrive. Life in Melbourne will be a fun and an academically enriching experience. I will enroll in a span of human development and family science courses taught by Australian education professors. I will meet new people, have incredible experiences in new activities, and explore an urban paradise. This is what I’ve always wanted. I want it so bad and I am ready to work for it. I am more than ready to spare some change.
Published from my iPad.
