hi, hello & welcome!
this will be blog #5 and I’m excited to talk about my current schedule for my fall semester and the jobs I currently hold, and of course share any advice on balancing them :) !
As a second year student, I also hold first generation immigrant and first generation college student to my narratives. so I overwork myself to try and compensate, for what, I’m still trying to figure that out.
I’m currently taking 13 credits, used to be 17 but I had to withdraw from a class last week due to some personal adjustments. I realized I had to take a little bit more care of my health mentally and emotionally. So the classes that I am currently taking are a Sociology and Anthropology (SOAN) class called Genders and Sexuality on a Global Perspective, a Spanish class, a P.E class called Running, Walking and Jogging, and a Philosophy class called Selfhood and Personal Identity. Also as new semesters come, freshman please don't forget to talk to your advisors about registration!!!
My favorite class this semester probably has to be my philosophy class. I’m very much enjoying diving into the perspectives of identity and race and how they intersect and work with the world that wasn’t exactly made for someone like me, and I think my professor is also great! Only because I shared my favorite class I feel it’s right to share my least favorite class and that was probably the class that I withdrew from. I was not in the right space to put in the energy this class needed, so I removed myself from that environment all together.
In terms of jobs, I currently hold two positions. One as a Great Expectations Mentor (GE) and the other as a Student Blogger for LC. A bit more about GE, it’s a part of IME (Inclusion Multicultural Engagement department) and as mentors we have the sole purpose of being an open board of guidance and help for first year students who identify as first generation and/or BIPOC. I began my college career being a mentee, and as a mentor now I’m excited to continue my involvement. With GE I met my roommate who turned into my best friend and we’re still living together a year later and have the same job :) you could say we’re cute or something.
How do college students, especially those who are first generation and/ or BIPOC, manage and handle class work, work, and personal life/care? The honest answer is we don’t. If you’re something who can relate to both identities I think you’ll relate when I say, we do but we don’t manage. It’s become a norm for students to overload and overwork themselves and then imagine feeling like an outlier on your campus, classes, education- this will impact you more than others will ever know. The best piece of advice I’ve learned and been given is ALWAYS TAKE CARE OF YOURSELF. You’re no use if you're up until 4 am trying to read an assignment/information you’re not exactly retaining just to get up at 8am for a 9am class. Going to sleep is going to be one of the only things that makes sure you stay mentally, physically and emotionally alive.
And unfortunately I wasn’t able to post a video blog for this past weekend, so I’ll make it a must for this upcoming blog post to be a video one, discussing roommate things and common questions and concerns.
And I’ll think about making a video on how students of various identities handle and balance the work-school load in the future. :)
tchau, also i was able to borrow my friend’s car this weekend, so you know i had to take myself out on a little date! got me some food, and boba and watched not one, but two movies! and they were good.
