A Writer's Wanderings

Even though everyone has unique lives, we all have many responsibilities that often distract us from our priorities with school. Often times, the 24 hours we get are not enough to tackle the many tasks we have throughout the day. Apart from the 8 hours some are lucky enough to use for sleep, many people often become overwhelmed with their busy life because there is not enough time to be productive as well as active or relaxed. As we get older, we realize that sometimes we got to make sacrifices in order to get things done. I used to get very stressed when trying to balance my time. Not only do I go to college, work part time, and dance folklorico twice a week, but also try to find time to spend with my family, fiancé, and friends. Ever since I moved out I realized there is less time since I have more responsibilities with cleaning and cooking. That semester I forgot to take an online exam because of how busy and distracted I was. I was very disappointed because I am not one ...

Summer time. A time of renewal, relaxing, and reflection on another semester completed. Job well done.   Summer time. It can also mean an intense series of short term classes, summer heat and exhaustion, finances and health challenges. Summer time can bring so many complexities with looking for summer employment, catching up with “to-do” lists, and other summer challenges that arise in everyday life. Its summer time and we may have more free time, but perhaps have to save for tuition and books for summer and fall classes. Summer heat can also be hard physically on the body, while avoiding burn out and undue stress. Taking moments to be fully present in enjoying small daily victories toward our goals, we can celebrate those positive joys in our lives. Social awareness of stress triggers and understanding the types of stress, we can actually take steps forward to alleviate stress in our lives. Typically, all stress falls into the following four areas:   Anticipatory, si...

           Before I began writing, it seemed like a daunting task – something that could never be accomplished or fully realized. I had so many ideas swirling around in my head, like a tornado destroying a community that was once rich with organization and understanding. I would come up with one idea after another, excited at the prospect of getting down to business and creating something, but I was never able to complete my projects. Sometimes I wouldn’t even be able to start them! Not only did this lower my confidence in my ability to write, but it made me feel like my creativity was being wasted, like my ideas were being thrown away. It was an incredibly frustrating feeling, and I was about to give up on writing altogether.             Then, in my final semester of community college, I took a creative writing class. One of the main assignments that my teacher had given us was the upkeep of a worki...

As the stigma around mental health subsides, there is still work we can do to understand ourselves and how to navigate our mental health. One way to do this is by journaling. When I was in high school, my mother had a nervous breakdown and as a result, had to stay in a mental hospital. As you may know, adolescence can be a time of hormonal imbalance as your body adjusts to changes. Hormone changes, which can happen at any time in your life, have a huge impact on your mental state. When my mother was in the hospital, I was worried about what she was going through and how she would feel when she returned home. When this event started to affect my parents’ relationship and our family as a whole, I felt like there was so much out of my control and there was nothing I could do about it. Then one day, my dad suggested I keep a journal to get all my feelings out. I was surprised that my dad was even open to talking about feelings in that moment because I had never seen him cry or heard...