Scheduling Time for Me

We all have our own issues that we struggle with, and it can be very challenging to try to balance school, work, and our personal life. A few challenges I faced while in college was commuting back and forth from home and school and just strongly focusing on coursework not allowing myself to have any free time.

I drive about one hour each day, five days a week, that’s 20 hours of driving per month! Although that number may not seem too bad, think about gas price and how many times I have to pump gas. The distance from where I live to Cleveland is approximately 25-30 miles, and since my vehicle gets 30 miles per gallon, I use up two gallons of gas every day. I pump gas at least three times a month. Even though I’ve been able to manage these gas bills, I’m still very limited on income. Luckily, this is all about to change in a few weeks. I’ll be moving to a new location where it’ll only take 10 minutes to get to the campus.

In the beginning I strictly concentrated on doing really well in school. What I was forgetting was to let my body and soul enjoy the presence of life. I later developed a plan where I divided my time up equally. I set up a goal time of when to work on my class assignments and when to spend some time for myself whether that’s getting some exercise or hanging out with family and friends.

So, you can say I have found some success to my challenges. I’m an easily motivated individual and always look forward to accomplishing new tasks.

Stop and Smell the Flowers

When spring arrives, the LTC campus is such a refreshing sight to my eyes. Everything that was dead or just looked dead is alive again! The sound of birds chirping gives me a radiant sensation as I walk to class and hearing the graceful flow of water from the stream is very calming. The temperature is nice and cool which makes me feel so relaxed. To me, this is an excellent start for a regular school day.

I normally take walks inside the building during class breaks, but since the weather is getting better, I definitely plan to take walks outside. Just the other day I realized how peaceful and quiet it was to sit out on the benches. Of course there were students walking by but I was able to just take in a deep breath of fresh air and enjoy the beautiful sunshine. I think spring is one of the best seasons because the pleasant weather puts everyone in a good mood, outside activities can be achieved, the roads are finally clear, flowers are blooming, and residents are doing yard work and gardening. Please take this time to re-embrace the joy of spring!

Spring Break!

Some students and staff may be relieved that Spring Break is on its way, but I’m on a different page. I’m looking forward to coming back to the campus to work in the Marketing & College Relations office throughout the break. On Tuesday, March 13, there will be an event held on campus called Junior Achievement, and I’m pleased to have the opportunity to work with the rest of LTC staff members and local employers as they educate and help motivate high school students about business careers.

I don’t plan on doing anything major or going anywhere special at this moment, but maybe next time around I’ll have to rearrange for some time to myself. Although this may sound ridiculous, I have found that I’m always eager to come back to class while on semester break because I begin to lose my momentum. I guess I feel this way because I want to continue learning and studying until the actual semester is over. What I’m hoping to do before the break comes up is to complete all homework assigned so that it’s finished and out of the way. If the weather looks nice during that week I would like to go for a jog along the beautiful Lake Michigan. Have a safe and fun Spring Break!