As we move forward towards another semester of online classes, it is crucial to take the time for yourself in order to reinforce your love for learning, although that may look very different this year. Throughout first semester, I had an extremely hard time feeling connected to my professors and the material I was being taught, and unfortunately this led me to feeling as if I was losing a large part of myself as a student. When first enrolling here at Indiana University, I knew that in order to fulfill my collegiate ambitions I would need to find balance within all aspects of my new life in Bloomington, and this year that balance was lacking. In order to realign myself with my academic values and goals, I decided to make changes within my everyday life that would help me to re-sparke motivation, wonderstruck, and a passion within my learning. Some of these changes included journaling, reading, and following research/academic based instagram accounts. When I first started journaling I felt an immense amount of pressure to have something profound to write, and ultimately I found myself looking for relief in my words when there wasn't any. Only when I realized that the breakthrough doesn’t occur until you're not looking for it, did I begin to find peace and comfort from my casual reports. Just the simple act of daily writing and reflecting helped me to reinvigorate my love for note taking and finding new ways to organize my thoughts. Soon I found myself becoming more invested in my coursework and focusing more on application learning. In addition to journaling, reading has become a tool that allows me to find gratitude rather than guilt in my down time. I often find myself overwhelmed with anxiety when I know I’m spending my time poorly, and because of that It has been hard for me to implement relaxing time into my day. But through the practice of reading, I am not only fulfilled after my short 30 minutes, but I have grown to see reading as less of a task and more so as a treat. Lastly, and most importantly, I have started to follow more academic and interest based instagram accounts. Through doing so, I find that my time spent on social media is filled with educational learning and interest pulling topics and ideas rather than mindless bikini pictures. Rather than scrolling through my feed in a state of hypnosis, I find myself doing additional research when I read something intriguing, or looking for articles and podcasts that align with my newfound interest.
Implementing these small changes into my everyday life has not only built a better foundation for personal growth, but they have helped me to re-express my love for learning and equipped me with the tools in order to continue evolving as a student and individual.
