spring semester

Spring Semester: New Year, New You! New Year’s Resolution Guide

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After three weeks of family fun, gifts, and sleeping in late, it’s time to come on back to Ohio State. Spring semester is upon us and in my opinion, it’s fantastic! I know for some the lack of football games and cold weather can be a damper; however, for me, second semester has and always will be a time of growth and expanding friendship! For most of you, I assume that with the new year comes one thing: New Year’s resolutions. While cliché, resolutions have consistently kick-started my motivation and led to major growth. The reason for this is primarily centered around the approach I take not only to New Year’s resolutions, but also to spring semester in general, which I break down into four simple steps.

What are your goals?

This is the starting point, what are your goals, really? If it’s just to lose weight or to increase your GPA, that seems incredibly oversimplified. I would suggest getting a sheet of paper, and writing down specific goals you have in mind for this semester, and how you plan to achieve them. For example, instead of listing, “raise my GPA” as a goal, write instead the specific GPA you wish to achieve and the steps you are going to take to do so, such as going to tutoring on Wednesdays and Thursdays from 3-4 and going to office hours. This will allow you to have a realistic expectation of the time commitment and work necessary for your goals.

Start right away!

Everyone wants to wait until tomorrow to do things. It’s logical–starting a new journey is hard, it’s full of fear, anxiety, and doubt. However,

It’s important to just do it! Go to office hours these first few weeks to get in the groove of going. Go to the gym at Monday morning 6 a.m. Whatever you have set as your specific goal, do it as soon as possible to avoid delay and quitting.

My motivation is fleeting

Everybody can go to the gym in the morning during this first week. However, as the weather gets colder, you have more and more work to do, and more and more of your clubs start to ramp up your time commitment. Your motivation may begin to diminish and it may seem really hard to get out of bed to do your workout, or go to office hours at 8 a.m. While motivation isn’t always there, discipline can be there. Routine is a magical thing, and if you can just push through the harder periods, you will reap the rewards tenfold. Remember to stay the course, and that hard times are only for a little while.

I missed one time…it’s over! (Nope.)

Let’s say you snoozed your alarm at 5:50 so you could get an extra 7 minutes of sleep after a really long night of studying. Then you wake up, your roommate’s gone, and its 1 p.m. You freak out, and it’s as though all your hard work has culminated into failure. You missed a day and that’s it, why bother continuing to go? Well, if we were all machines this would be a fair statement. However, life is difficult and mistakes happen. You didn’t go one day, THAT’S OKAY! Things come up, stuff happens; however, it’s important to stay the course. Get up just like you normally would the next day.

Overall these are my four steps to have a killer second semester! I hope this semester will be among the best times of your lives!

Peace and Love, Nick Pavelec

If You’re Reading This, It’s Not Too Late

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Congrats, you’ve made it through most of fall semester. The question is, do you know how to prepare for spring semester?

 

My first semester was two years ago, so I would be lying if I said I remembered exactly how I spent it. I do, however, remember feeling both relieved and anxious and I can confirm this because it’s exactly how I felt during winter break last year. It feels good to know you’ve accomplished something and you are one step closer to your next goal, but it’s scary to realize you don’t know what the future will bring. It’s hard not to worry about your progress, or think about how satisfied you are with your current work ethic, your major or just your life in general. My first semester, I spent more time focused on classes and personal problems than I did taking care of myself, which led to me forming some unhealthy coping mechanisms and being unhappy overall. Not to mention, I was considering changing my major and felt so lost about what I wanted to do. It was a difficult time, but I survived it. There is a way, however, to alleviate that stress and that’s by taking time to think about what you want to prepare for next semester and setting goals so you can do things differently in the future. 

There are a lot of different ways to set goals. My personal favorite is writing all of them down as a gigantic map in my bullet journal (it’s really chaotic). There are also more structured ways, like S.M.A.R.T. goal setting. However you choose to create your goals, make sure your goals are specific and include specific steps on how to achieve that goal and measure your progress on achieving that goal. An example of a goal you could set is getting into your desired major by a certain date.

And so, here are my tips for the best way to prepare for spring semester: 

Remember that you are the boss of your own education. If you were unsatisfied with your classes for autumn semester and are reconsidering your major, don’t feel pressured to stay in classes you don’t want to be in. Use this break to do some research and explore other majors and schedule to meet with an Exploration advisor or consider career counseling. It’s normal to be unsure or lost about what you want to do but it’s important that you address it and make efforts to figure it out.  

Transform your health. If you ate a lot of crappy food and/or didn’t work out in autumn semester, use this break to change that. Drink lots of water and take advantage of home-cooked meals if you aren’t staying on campus. Likewise, try a new recipe if you are sticking around. Maybe learn how to do some yoga. Use this time to improve your health, mentally and physically. I don’t know anyone who hasn’t fallen victim to the “Freshman 15”, but believe me when I say it’s an exhausting way to live and not how you want to spend your first year of college.

Start a routine! Having a routine gives you small goals to accomplish throughout the day and you’ll feel better after each one. Over winter break, these goals don’t have to be “big”. For example, your routine could be getting out of bed by 11 a.m., eating breakfast, making your bed, working out and sleeping by 11 p.m. Creating and sticking to habits during the weeks you aren’t on campus will help you slide into routine when you get back on campus. It will help you manage your work without wasting time and give you time to take care of yourself.

Did you have a good support system in autumn semester? Winter break is the perfect time to reflect on the relationships you created over the last few months. It’s important that you have people on campus who support and uplift you. If the people you hang out with aren’t good influences and don’t encourage your growth, it might be time to distance yourself from them and seek better connections.

Get a planner, calendar, or journal and write down all important deadlines and exam dates at the start of the semester for each of your classes for the entire semester (based on your syllabi). This can include homework, readings, lab reports, essays, basically anything you could get assigned; you can do it during the first few weeks of classes and it will make you feel a lot more prepared later on.

You may have already realized this, but time goes by fast when you’re in college. You might feel exhausted after finals and find yourself wanting to not think about school for a few weeks, but pushing the thought away isn’t going to make the first day of classes come any later. When everything slows down, take time to do some self-reflection, I promise you’ll feel better when you do. Good luck!