Relaxing Retreat

College = Stress

            My entire college experience has been defined by the stress that my classes and organizations have put on me.  The singular weeks are broken down into homework weeks, midterms weeks, and finals week with meetings and commitments throughout.  My weeks are defined by the way I handle my time and the stress.  Time is a premium during most weeks, and the lack of time from stringing myself too thin is the cause of the majority of my stress throughout the school year. 

However, the biggest stress factor that I run into is the anticipation that is built up leading to midterms and finals.  Leading up to major tests, I will go into a phase where I barely eat, sleep, or talk and am solely focusing on studying by myself.  I realize that this is an unhealthy lifestyle to live, but my nerves and conscious will not allow me to relax unless I know the material by heart.  My perfectionist in me will not allow me to accept anything other than my very best in my studies. 

I let stress build up on my shoulders until after the tests are over, but occasionally I have to sneak a break from studies and responsibilities every now and again.  To give myself a break and relieve some of the stress, I usually run or exercise and forgot about all of my worries.  Somehow, whenever I run, lift, or play games, I am recharged to attack the next day or problem that comes my way.  I know certain neurotransmitters, such as dopamine, are released and bind to receptors in the brain that give the feeling me a good feeling about myself during exercise.  (Sorry, I somehow had to prove to others that I could prove that I have learned something so far this semester.)  Sometimes, I treat myself to a desert or big meal if I pushed myself harder than normal for a project. 

The best thing that I can do for the future to manage my stress more effectively is to not overwork/over-schedule myself.  Since that is not likely, relaxing more with more breaks would probably be a better way of managing my stress.  People try to keep advising me to relax a little more and not to worry so much; I think if I take a couple short breaks as a compromise to their thinking compared to mine, I feel that that would be a better stress manager over for me. 

Another resource that I could think about is the many counseling or tutoring sessions that OSU offers.  A specific example is the Managing Distress: Self-Management Skills Workshop offered by the ODI throughout the year that aims to help students learn how to manage negative thoughts, tolerate difficult situations, and develop coping skills for different emotions.  By attending those kinds of sessions, they would help me to relieve pressure off of me, and they would help to organize my stress in a way that makes my life semi-enjoyable.  The knowledge that I gained about myself and about relieving stress would probably be a benefit to me in the future.  I could potentially use the new stress relieving techniques to better myself as a student and as a person.    

Realistically, I will fight through the days that are the most stressful and try to make it to the next one; I am aware that that might not be the smartest option, but it is how I operate.  One of these days I will listen to the advice of others and try to find different avenues to relieve stress, but until that day comes, I will continue my life-numbing ways.  Stress is a part of my life that helps determine who I am and what I will become.  I welcome the challenge of my stressful life, and I would not want it any other way.

Finding a Meaning to Achieve Success

       The goal setting workshop opened my eyes to how truly lost I am.  Most of the other fellows have a reasonable grasp on what they think they would want to do with their lives after OSU; however, I cannot even scratch the surface on what I want to attain in life.   In the worksheet to list twenty life-goals and rewrite ten, I only came up a total of ten- in the time that most had already finished the worksheet.  The ten goals I did come up with were stretches at best and not one had anything to do with a specific career field.  This specific task opened my eyes to how I lack the futuristic characteristic in my life, and it might be time for me to figure out what I want to get out of this life. 

            Due to my lack of career plans or goals, my definition of success is more generalized for life events, rather than specific causes or plans.  To me, success can be defined as when a person holds nothing back and gives everything they have in a situation that is important or worthwhile in their life.  Success can be one small thing, small things building up, or one big breakthrough.   I realize that most people will define success at achieving or reaching a milestone or goal.  My thinking to counteract that logic is that a person has to find his or her own definition of success and what makes them happy in life.   To some people—like me—getting good grades in school is what drives them to succeed, to others it may be how many friends they make or the possessions they accumulate. 

In essence, the definition of success is ever changing from person to person depending on many variables and environments.  The basic definition of success to me is to find a calling in life that makes a person feel worthwhile, and to give it every ounce of ability and effort into that subject.  If you are going to spend time doing something, why not give your best effort and do it to the best of your ability; instead of wasting yours and everybody’s most valuable possession: time.  Success can be achieved by anyone at any age as long as they find meaning in it and give their heart into it.   

Like politics, sports, or debates, every person thinks their way of thinking is better than the next persons’.  Defining success or meaning falls under that same category; every person values success in different ways on different scales.  The key that I have found is to allow them to dictate what they want to specifically achieve and mold their achievement in a way that would best benefit the group and/or me. 

My roommate, one of my closest friends, has different definitions of what success means at the college level.  To me, success in the college atmosphere is to attain the best education possible by challenging myself in the classroom to the best of my ability.  On the other hand, his definition of success is by simply finding what gives him joy in life, and to attain as much reasonable amount of fun and good times as possible.  He constantly lectures me on why should he give the extra eighty percent effort for only twenty percent gain.  In our value system, I place a high importance on achieving in the classroom setting, while he would rather focus on making life memories and enjoying the little time we have—he still excels in the classroom, but only by giving the minimum effort necessary. 

No way is better or more right than the other; we just have two different philosophical ways of going about things.  Even though we think differently, we have been able to grow our friendship and have not had minimal arguments or confrontations while living together.  Both of us will occasionally try to push our point across, such as I will tell me to study more and he will tell me to go have more fun.  Regardless of our different definition of success, we have found a way and lifestyles that fill our need to feel valuable in life, while giving our best in whatever way that we see fit.  Our goals and achievements may be different, but we are both content and happy with the lives we live.     

Self Viewed Leadership (I think I have a lazy eye)

The Goodwill Games

            I was not able to attend the challenge announcement because of my class schedule, so my knowledge of it is spotty at best.  Luckily, Ian was able to fill me in on the overarching goal of the challenge.  (We have the same class on Tuesdays and Thursdays, so we can catch each other up if we miss anything.)  He described the challenge as which team could get the most cars, trucks, and boats donated towards the Goodwill Columbus Auto Auction.  Then, based on the info gathered from our iTunesU course, it was told that teams were to be judged on: 1. The number of cars they were personally accounted for in the auction. 2. The revenue that those same cars garner.  The cars would have to be received by December 31^st and auctioned January 7^th (I believe). 

            My first reaction to this challenge was “Ian, do you know what my dad does?”  --For those who don’t know, my dad owns and operates a used car dealership back in my hometown. à http://remysusedcars.com/.-- I was pretty ecstatic that my connections, both my grandfathers’ were/are car dealers, in the auto world could actually come in handy for once.  I texted my dad as soon as I could with the details I knew, while still half-paying attention in class.  Ideas about whom I knew and what I could bring to the table started racing through my head; however, my dad brought a lot of reality back into my life when he started talking about the minute details.  He wanted to know how the auction was run, how nice of cars, what type of condition do they need to be in, how did the titles transfer, tax questions, payment styles, etc.  The biggest complication he posed to me was that not many car dealerships would just give cars away, even to a great charity like Goodwill Columbus.  Even after all the little details hit me, I am still super excited for this challenge and want to hit the ground running as soon as my studies allow me to.

            The skills and strengths that I am going to be able to bring to my club are the possible connections that I have through my family.  I am unaware of anybody else in the BLF juniors having the inside track that I have, in regards to inside connections.  The challenge for me is to be able to use the resources my dad has, while even connecting with dealers he does not know, and try to convince them that donating to Goodwill Columbus is something that each of them should do out of the goodness of their hearts.  I understand that outside resources and alumni not in the auto business will also be valuable, but for me, in particular, I need to exasperate the dealership world for all the cars they are worth. 

            The skills that I will need to work on through this challenge is my communication skills to be able to articulate my words and vocabulary in a way that best represents my group, BLF, OSU, and Goodwill Columbus.   I will need to be able to grow my creative skills in how to actually pull this accomplishment off.  Also, I will need to polish off my family skill of bartering and negotiating in the best interest of my group.  In the two years of BLF, there will be no better challenge for me to test the connections I have.  I feel that my group has the upper hand due to me, and I do not want to let them down.  I guess we will see how this all plays out in the upcoming months…Let the games begin!