Keeping Up with Friends
Under COVID, it's safe to state that having a typical college social life is nearly impossible — the key pillars of meeting people in large groups are…
If college life were a sequence, it’d diverge by oscillation. Pardon the metaphor, but this week marks my first college exam that happened to be all about sequences and series. And as much calculus as I’ve learned in the past month here, I’ve learned even more about the nature of life in college and realized that the pressure is cyclical; it can go as quickly as it can come.
Of course, you can and should try to manage your time to make the surges of work less stressful and the lulls more productive, but the week of/before a test or due date is inherently more intense than one without. In the past week, I’ve found ways to make studying for a test no less intimidating but infinitely more enjoyable by surrounding myself with classmates who crack jokes and talk through math problems, and I can’t stress enough (no pun intended) how much this sense of community has improved my experience with test preparation.
At the risk of sounding obsessed with FOCUS, I can’t explain the title of this post without mentioning my incredible FO-moms who put the whole quirky Tufts image into perspective as early as my first night at this school when they announced that instead of sharing bland “highs” and “lows,” we’d talk about our “freshly dried sheets” and “sea urchins” of the day, along with what we were most looking forward to; namely, our “chia pets.”
Earlier this week, my sea urchin would’ve been the challenges associated with worrying about an upcoming exam when unexpected circumstances interfere, like when a close friend gets very sick and another loses a beloved friend back home. My freshly dried sheets actually would have been just that; taking time to wash my sheets, clean my room and organize my clothes reminded me of the importance of putting effort into my own well-being, and served as such a simple but refreshing pick-me-up. Today, my chia pet is the next two weekends, with the first bringing homecoming festivities and the following bringing my wonderful parents and sister to campus!
The function has to reach its lowest point before it can increase again to its highest, so bumps in the road aren't always a bad sine ;)
As I continue to navigate the new academic environment, social circles, and extracurriculars offered here at Tufts, I’m comforted by knowing that impending exams can bring new friendships and study buddies to make them more bearable and that the feelings of excitement and enjoyment might sometimes be overwhelmed by circumstances, but that they can surely come back into the forefront as quickly as they faded. So, even when math tests push my limits (pun intended) and sea urchins prick my skin, I’m learning to appreciate the freshly dried sheets and chia pets that are never too far from reach.
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