How to Ease One’s Mind
Before The New Semester
After finishing my first successful semester at Okanagan College, my body and brain needed a good break. The winter break could not have come soon enough. My last exam was on the last day possible, December 20th at 9:00 am. With two successful final exams done, I headed to the In Bloom Tattoo Shop for my planned treat to myself, a tattoo. I picked a flash tattoo that was catching my eye for the past 8-6 months and she did a fantastic job. Instead of the regular tattoo machine, Jill uses a hand poke needle. And on the contrary of some peoples beliefs, it did not hurt as bad as one might think.
In the evening myself and some friends went out to dinner. We celebrated the finish semester for me, Arca (a friend of mine who was taking business) and Lauren (who goes to school in Prince George). We also caught up on each others lives after most of us being preoccupied with school or work.
In no time it was Christmas, yet my body was still jittering as if another exam was near. I had to find a way to calm my body and my mind, to end the fight or flight response my body was producing. These calming techniques came in many forms and I hope that these tricks may help you in the transition between exams, break and then school.
Firstly, at home self care.
Although sometimes I felt like I was wasting valuable time on taking care of myself, I knew deep down that it was incredibly important. I took baths often, typically with a show playing in the background as I laid in the warm water. Or I would take care of my face, through face masks, pimple patches or trimming my eyebrows. The act of slowly taking care of the physical part of me healed a little bit of my mental.
Next is bringing back your hobbies or interests.
During exam season my whole life was to study, and I had lost my routine of the hobbies I loved dearly. This even included watching movies and tv, as I did not let myself get a break. So during the break I brought my hobbies back to life. I started to crochet once more and fixed my boyfriend Cooper’s hat. I started up scrapbooking and I have had so much fun with it. It gives a special purpose to all of the paper I have been hoarding for the past three years. I gave myself time to enjoy playing video games and I started the prequel to Red Dead Redemption 2. Additionally, I learned how to punch needle. I cannot wait to try a new pattern soon.
I also made time to hangout with friends. We spent a night scrapbooking and drawing in our journals as we caught up on our lives and any potential drama that we may have forgotten to tell each other. My boyfriend and I went on more dates and we spent New Years Eve together with his friends. .
Sometimes I found it hard to get out of the house for sure. But I always made sure to complete one thing each day. Whether it was work, shopping or volunteering with Lady of the Lake. On New Years I volunteered downtown and played Just Dance for half an hour. Here is a tip for you if you are ever cold outside: PLAY JUST DANCE, I worked up such a sweat dancing and was so warm.
But with New Years came the doom of remembering that school would begin soon again. And although I love to learn, my body and mind were not ready yet. The only thing I could do was to find ways to ease myself into this new semester.
Thrifting and shopping was an amazing way to start. I decided I would try to find my textbooks secondhand and although I was fine with buying them from the store, I liked the thrill of trying to find them. To my luck I found my niche history textbook (that is 170$) for only 7$ at Value Village. I was taken back by my luck.
I also decided this year to try a new planner for 2025 and found a beautiful Paperblanks planner on sale. It is the perfect size that fits into any purse and I ensure that I bring it with me often. I also started a journal where I am currently making a bingo card for predictions of 2025. One of my predictions include that there will be more weird tesla accidents. I would love to hear some ideas on predictions in the comments!!
A more daunting task I had to complete before the semester was resetting my notion and setting up the new course sections. To make this task more fun I made cute icons and pictures that I felt somewhat reflected the course. I punched in the teachers info, times of the course and any other information I could find on the course. Next I worked on my tables and filters for the new semester.
( I also made new playlist for the new year and I have been adding new songs daily)
My last task (and arguably the most fun) was to decorate each of my notebooks for the classes. I made these with my collected papers and some old National Geographics I had grabbed from a free book pile. I recently purchased some razors to ease cutting out images and it has made this job so much easier. I also bought little letter stamps which I absolutely love the look on the notebooks. Still working on my poetry notebook as I have not found images that I love. But if I cannot think of any, I will either leave it blank or decorate it with some random things.
When walking into school on the 6th I felt prepared and ready to learn once more. At the handout of each syllabus I entered in the important dates on my Notion and my planner. With my colorful pens in one hand and my notebooks in the other, I was ready to take the best notes one has ever seen.