Moving Forward.

Wow!! What a time to be alive!! I don’t know about anyone else but the last couple of months my head has been spinning. Between COVID, transitioning to college, and meeting new people life has been extremely crazy. Transitioning to college can be hard for anyone, but especially in a time like now. If you are reading this and are anything like me you are probably feeling overwhelmed, anxious, and excited all at the same time. So I would like to share some of my college transition tips and what I have been learning in my day to day life. My college experience started out rough. I was not prepared for all the adjustments I had to make and all the unforeseen obstacles I encountered. One unforeseen obstacle I ran into was my health. I figured when going to college the one thing I didn’t have to worry about was exercising and eating healthy because I have already created those habits in my life. WRONG! Being healthy in college has been hard for me due to eating out with friends, finding time to exercise, and living a very sedentary lifestyle. One small thing that I have started to implement into my daily routine and help find my balance of healthy living is blocking out an hour each day to do something for myself. This doesn’t make you selfish, and I have truly noticed a difference in my life by creating this daily practice. Most college students struggle with emotions, their health, and just being happy on a daily basis because there isn’t a lot of time to do the things we know we should be doing. By taking that one hour I am able to meditate, reflect on myself, exercise, or do anything that is making me a better version of myself. It is one hour of my day that I get to focus on myself. It has helped me build up confidence and self-love in who I am and who I want to be. It has helped me discover who I am as a person. Another habit I have been slowly trying to implement into my life is reflecting on what I eat. Eating healthy is hard but is especially hard in college. I’ve found it helpful to just train my mind to be intentional and not to overthink “eating healthy”. I have tried to make it a habit to always consider what the healthier choice would be food-wise. A perfect example would be my daily coffee. Instead of getting a large latte with lots of extra sugar, I get a small latte with sugar-free sweetener or a natural sweetener (like honey) and then non-dairy milk or half-and-half because it contains less sugar. By practicing this small mindset of “what would be the healthier option or do I really need this?” throughout my day when making food choices I have noticed made a big difference. Struggling with anxiety and depression is typical for most college students, myself included. The majority of people want to look for a “quick fix” that our culture easily offers when we should be promoting how normal it is to have those feelings. It is 100% okay to feel anxious and sad. By accepting that these are normal feelings we can become more self-aware of when we have these feelings and then find ways to implement healthy behaviors in our life to control those feelings. College is a time for self-discovery and knowing what type of person you are and what type of person you want to be. The hard part is finding the road that connects the two. Remember to be kind to yourself while you are going through this journey and extend grace to yourself when necessary.