Keeping A Balance In University

Hello and welcome back to my blog! Whether you are in university now or planning to attend university in the fall, this blog post can be beneficial for you. I hope you enjoy reading and take away valuable information from it. Thanks for visiting my blog!

(Photo: Me and another member from Your Edu Connect at the conference this year while I was creating social media content!)

Most of you could probably guess these aspects I'm about to list, but it can be hard for people to understand the importance of it and implement it in their lives. The first thing I suggest to maintain a good balance with the crazy and busy college experience... is to get sleep. I don't mean 3 hours a sleep a night, but at least 7 hours. During the first semester of my first year of university, I had an 8:30am class on Tuesday's and Friday's. In order for me to not wake up exhausted I made a routine of going to sleep at 9:30pm and waking up at 7:00am. Having this sleep schedule definitely made it easier to wake up and get to those classes instead of skipping. It was hard at first to fall asleep at that time, but your body does get use to it overtime and then it becomes a habit. Running on less than 7 hours of sleep doesn't only go hand-in-hand with being late for classes, not being able to pay attention, and skipping... but is very bad for your health.

The next thing I suggest to maintain a good balance is to eat healthy. What is important to mention is that eating healthy doesn't just mean the food itself... but eating a breakfast, lunch and dinner every day and not eating very late at night. When it comes to finishing last minute assignments or studying for final exams, eating healthy food or even drinking smoothies can make your energy levels higher, make it easier to mentally focus, and leave your body feeling great. I'm sure you all know what foods are considered healthy and what aren't so I won't get into that! Just know that eating healthy should be an important aspect of keeping a balance in university.

The next thing, which you may have not thought of is... having downtime. When you are surrounded by students all day, trying to finish assignments, projects, or essays, running errands, possibly working, and hanging out with friends and family, it can be hard to have downtime for yourself. However it is important to put aside even an hour a day just for you to be by yourself and relax without feeling busy, and have time to do things you want to do or simply... time to think. Life can get busy, especially for a university student so making time for yourself is important because you need to be in a space every once in a while where you can reflect on whatever it may be (yourself, your life, your future?). It can also clue in to your mental health. Are you happy when you are alone, are you sad? These are things that can be shown more obvious to you when you spend time alone.

School, whether it is high school or university... is not your life. It is a big part of it, but it's important to do things outside of the classroom. Going on a hike, swimming, bowling with friends, watching a movie with a significant other, going on a road trip with family... whatever it may be is an important part of your quality of life. It's a good way to escape the stress of studying or doing assignments for school and can definitely put you in a great mood. As cliche as it sounds, life is too short to be buried in books all the time. That being said, if you decide to spend time outside of classes (evenings or weekends) with friends that don't treat you like a real friend, then find new ones. It doesn't matter if you are in high school or in university or even a college grad, you are old enough to make the decision for yourself if the friends in your life are real friends and to not be friends with the bad ones. By real I mean if they put in the same amount of effort to talk and hang out as you do and if they overall treat you like a good person. It is sometimes hard to figure out if a current friend is a good friend, so ask yourself questions like these below and see what you answer.

Have they asked me how I was doing, how my life is going, or some aspect of my life recently?

Do they only talk to you when they need a favour?

Do they talk to you like you are beneath them?

Do they blow off plans with you more than they commit to plans, without giving an explanation?

These are just a few questions, but I'm sure there are more to consider. You can strike up a conversation with anyone, and possibly be friends with them... so if you think that some of the friends in your life are toxic and are just simply not a good influence or energy in your life, then you don't need to be friends with them. If you do realize that someone in your life is not a real friend, I would suggest letting them know how you feel and being honest, because no one likes to be "ghosted". On the other hand, some people can be mean and subjective, so decide what you believe is the best way to take on the situation! Having good quality friendships plays a big part in how you perceive the quality of your high school or university experience, so make sure that the friends you do have are true ones! When I left my hometown and moved to university, my friends were like my family away from home, so as I just mentioned... make sure your friends are true friends!

#university #college #advice