Mastery

The idea of mastery is weird to me. Ever since our class on Tuesday I've been thinking about it. You can never completely reach mastery, perfection is impossible. When the asymptote was explain in class, saying how the line will never cross the X axis, it just gets closer and closer it made perfect sense. It also made me think, why try to work for mastery if you can never truly master something? You work your whole life on something and to never master it is frustrating. This reminds me of the movie Black Swan. Black Swan is about a girl that has the lead role in the Black Swan ballet. She was bent on perfect to the point that she started going crazy. In the end, she reached the perfection she wanted in the show, but it drove her to killing herself. I guess perfection comes with a price. It's frustrating to think we can't master something but you can always look at it like there is just more we can learn at all times. You more you know, the more you realize that you don't really know everything. There is always room for improvement.

Much needed rest

This break is exactly what I needed. I wish it was a little longer, but I cant complain too much. I had no obligations for a whole week and it felt amazing. No practice, no waking up at 6am and no class. I was extra lazy this break and I didn't care at all. I woke up late, went on the couch and watched netflix all day. It's a little funny that that's all I did but it was the break I needed. I feel so much better than I did a week ago. My battery is nowhere fully charged, but it definitely is charged much more than it was before. Being able to catch up on my tv shows, hanging with friends and seeing family was amazing. Thanksgiving was great, great food and greater company. It was a little different this year compared to previous ones due to my uncle passing, but I feel like his passing was a blessing in disguise. It brought me closer to my family and individuals I would have never met/talk to if it wasnt for his death. Moving on, I should've done more homework over the break, gather my notes together to get ready for my finals but I couldn't get myself to do it. My want to not do anything overpowered my want to get ahead. I mean, I'm not behind by any means, but it would've been nice to get ahead. What I do know is that this gave me the energy to get through these last few weeks of school. It gave me more motivation to finish strong, and that's what I plan to do. I cannot afford to let all this work I've done this semester go to naught in these three weeks so I will keep pushing towards the finish line. I hope everyone had an amazing thanksgiving!

Be Smart

Tonight is going to be an exciting night. Everyone that went to the concert at JPJ last night will still be on a mini high for this football game tonight against UNC. That being said, drinking will occur, especially amongst the fourth years. This is the time of year they do the "Fourth Year Fifth." That means they drink a fifth of alcohol before the game, and this is extremely dangerous. To consume that much alcohol can be harmful to not just yourself, but to others around you as well. Fights occur and other crazy things may happen due to people blacking out. It is a scary time around the university for individuals will sometimes get alcohol poisoning and end up in the hospital, while others may pass out by themselves and nobody may be around to help them. It is or almost as bad as Foxfields in the spring. That being said, please be careful. I am going to the game tonight and I do not want to see anyone I know drunk to the point where they cannot function. Or anybody else actually. Even though this blog post is very short, I feel like the subject matter on hand was more worth it than the length of it. Please do not participate in the fourth year fifth tonight, and if you do, I pray that you be safe and make good decisions tonight.

Thanksgiving Break

Thanksgiving is coming up very soon, and I cannot wait. I need a break from UVA so badly. These past few weeks have been horrible. It's like I'm in that phase where I want to say "forget school." Classes seem less interesting, and I am easily bored now. The work seems to be more daunting, and easier to not do. I wake up sometimes like, "I'm going to not go to this class." Its been a struggle, but Thanksgiving is only around the corner. Even though the break it short, it is worth it. To get away from here can be nice. Just the change in scenery, and I get to see family and my friends that I've missed so much. I haven't seen one of my best friends in about 7 months. My closest friends are like brothers to me; we've been through it all and I would never change our experiences for anything. Just to be able to see them again will just change my mood and outlook on life instantly. Also, to go to my aunt's on Thanksgiving day will be great as well. To see my cousins again will be amazing. We dont really get to see each other that much, but when we do we always have fun and at the end of the day they know I have their backs and vice versa. I also like to just joke with my aunt's and uncle's. They seem to take life too seriously sometimes (it's probably because their old lol) but I end up messing with them the whole day and it makes them laugh and smile. Lastly, the fact that we wont have class for almost a week is amazing. I dont have to wake up 6 in the morning, I wont have any commitments. I can sit down and watch tv and play video games all day if I wanted to, which I might do actually. That being said, I still need to do some work. I cannot let the whole break pass and not get anything accomplished. I need to at least begin making study guides to stay on top of everything so when finals come around I wont be swamped with work. I can also start on my papers that will be due at the end of the month, and the beginning of next month. I'm not saying I will write the whole paper over break, but at least make an outline, and formulating my thoughts. Doing that will put me in a much better position coming back after this break. The break is almost here, and it's pretty much all I can think about at this point. We just have to buckle down for another week and we're all out of here. I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving.

Get Enough Rest

Rest is such an essential part of life. No matter what anyone says, you cannot function without getting an adequate amount of rest. The doctor prescribes 7-8 hours of sleep a night to be at your top, and usually I get about 3-4. This is partly my fault, for I dont do my homework until late at night. I feel like I get my work done better/faster when 11:00 hits. I will then be up until at least 2, and then I'll have to wake up for practice at 6:30 in the morning. Needless to say, I am exhausted that next day, struggling to stay awake in all my classes. Other times I'll just be up for no reason. I'll have everything done but I'll be up just because. Maybe its because I don't ever really get time to see and talk to my friends so I'll stay up late with them even though I should be in bed. This isn't a good strategy if I want to be alert in class and ready for practice the next day. I will take naps during the day when I have a chance to, but I end up sleeping for 2-3 hours, and that will make me go to bed even later at night since I wont be tired. The most effective naps are supposed to be between 20-60 minutes, and anything else isn't truly beneficial. A 2-3 hour nap is pretty much a mini sleep and this just messes up your natural sleep cycle.I need to change my habits indefinitely.

This week I have made it a priority to go to bed earlier. I've forced myself to stop what I'm doing and get in the bed before or by 1. Even though that will be 5 hours of sleep tops, it is at least a start. At the beginning of the week I was going to sleep at 1 and that extra hour of sleep made a noticeable difference. Throughout the week I've been getting in the bed earlier and when I wake up in the morning I feel refreshed and ready to take on the day. Sleep is so important for it helps with the functions of many things in your everyday life. This is why I don't understand how one can pull all nighters. In my opinion, it doesnt work. You won't be able to retain all the information you tried to cram earlier that night. In the end, go to bed earlier. It will make your day go by so much better.

Election Day

Today is Tuesday November 6, 2012. This is probably the most important day of this month (next to Thanksgiving). Today is election day, and we are in control of choosing who will run our country for the next four years. Whether you want to pick Romney or Obama, just go out and vote. Just earlier today actually I was having a conversation with an individual about the election and whether I was going to vote or not. We began to talk about policies and the pros and cons of each individual. We didn't go into who we are both going to vote for, but we did meet on one common ground. We need to do what's best for the people. We went into a discussion about health care, jobs, and even the fact that each candidate spent 1 billion dollars each on their campaigns. A billion dollars each?!? Are you serious? All of that money they spent could've been used to help those poor individuals without a home, or a warm meal to eat. That 2 billion could've went to help fund underperforming schools, where they have been using the same textbooks since the early 90s. Some of that money could've even gone to me! (Just kidding.. but not really) Point is, as a country, we are hung up on the wrong things. Of course everyone wants to get ahead in life, who wouldn't? But at a certain point we need to stop, look around, and see whats really going on. We are not on the right path as a nation. As of right now, we care more about the individual rather than the people. We need to begin to help one another because in the end we would want someone to help us. Privatizing economy sounds great especially for me because it means there will be more jobs out there, and coming out of college in a year I definitely need one. But at the same time, we need government to help those in need. It upsets me when people say "they are poor because they are lazy." Those individuals are ignorant of what is truly going on. Nobody wants to be dependent on the government, its embarrassing and ruins your whole mindset on life. People begin to not believe in the system and that's when children end up running with the wrong crowd, because they feel as though they aren't cared about. I feel like I'm just rambling right now, but the point of this blog post was to say just get out there a vote. Every vote counts, regardless if you think yours counts or not. Go out there today and make a difference.

Hurricane Sandy

The effects of Hurricane Sandy around this area were minimal, but were great towards my academic success. Everyone was waiting around all day on Sunday waiting to hear whether school would be cancelled or not. We all wanted to know whether or not we had to do or homework or if we could take a break for once. When the email finally came out it was a relief. Finally, a day off of school! It felt like high school all over again when we would get off for snow. Needless to say, I did not do my work Sunday night because I had all of Monday to do it. Monday came, I went to practice, came home and ended up playing video games with my friends for the rest on the night. Luckily, we got Tuesday off as well for precautionary reason so I still had time to do my homework. Tuesday came around and the same thing happened. Practice, came home, and played video games all day. I did no homework for two days. I convinced myself that it was okay because I had no major assignments or tests coming up in the next week so I can slack off. I don't know what got into me this weekend. I guess it just felt like a big fall break to me, and I can finally do what I wanted. I should've done some work because now I will be behind going into next week, and will be struggling to catch up. I was so lazy this weekend it was terrible. I even debated not going to my Wednesday classes/ just not going to class for the rest of the week just because I wanted a full week off, but this was a terrible idea. If I were to have done this I would've felt terrible. I'd be wasting my time, and my parents money by doing this. And I would've done nothing all week, furthering my hole. I feel like my academic success project just took a huge hold this weekend, but now I am getting back on track. I'm buckling down again, making sure I get my work done and I am going to my classes because this was unacceptable. I am making a lot of progress this semester with the help of this class, and I need to continue to make progress in order to cement these new strategies into my routine.