Distractions

Wow, can you believe it is almost time for spring break? I think we can all use this time, professors, faculty, and students.

In case you want to get a hair cut or your nails done, today on campus at Fullerton College the Trendsetters are giving free hair cuts or manicures for people with A.S. Benefits. I got my hair trimmed up and really enjoyed it. I think here on campus we forget that there are services like this offered to us at a discounted rate, by people who are talented and are not going to mess up our hair, like we may think since they are in school. So I am giving them a shout out this week!

I do not know about you guys and what is going on in your lives, but I have been having a rough few weeks in all parts of my life. I do not like to divulge too much of my personal life on a public forum. I know I have mentioned in previous blog posts how with technology today, people do not often reach out to each other anymore. So today because of lots of reasons I actually deactivated my Facebook account. It will not be forever and it is just a little test I guess. A test for me, but also a test for those around me that only seem to think they know what is going on with me because of what they read on Facebook. People make assumptions, we all do it, but the best way to clear up assumptions is to talk to the person and not take what you hear or say as truth unless you talk to the source. I keep lots of settings private anyway on Facebook, for the fact that I know people do make assumptions and out of all the people you may have as a friend on there maybe 10 out of 100 people will actually ask about it, the rest think their assumptions are the truth. So today is a new day for me. I am often so concerned about others, I forget to put myself and my needs first. I answer texts, messages, and make it seem like I am available 24/7, which I am, but to those I care about. But this little experiment makes me wonder how many people notice things, and how many will reach out to you outside of the easy means that are available to us. But also how much more productive I can be without the distractions constantly coming to my phone or computer, if I take time to just shut out the world for a bit.

If you think about it we are living in a generation meant to distract us, if we didn't have all those distractions what would life be like? I was listening to the radio on my way to school, and the girl was saying how easy it is for people to meet people. Even being an online gamer gives you the chance to meet someone online, and people get distracted. These distractions come in many ways, for me it may be slacking off on writing a paper, for others it may be giving someone attention in an avenue where they shouldn't be giving that person attention. I do not want to seem like I am lecturing though, but we do make it easier and easier on people to cheat on each other because of the distractions we have out there.

Okay so I realize I kind of went off on a tangent. I get that way sometimes when I am inside my own head and have lots of things going on there. Lots I want to say, and rarely do I ever say it.

If you are someone at Fullerton College, it is almost time for spring break, I think over spring break we should be distracted from school though so that we can clearly focus when we get back from break. I want to have some healthy distractions though, and I hope you do as well. I know distractions can be necceassry sometimes, just like they can be destructive in other cases. Lets strive to only involve ourselves in the healthy kind and not forget that communication should be more than reading about someone on Facebook. Communication and being in someones life requires effort on both ends. So this spring break, hang out with a friend, and go to the beach to get distracted! You may see me there relaxing too!

Serena

Tolerance

I hope you all had a safe weekend. Sunday's weather here in So Cal was a bit crazy! At 11:00pm when I was trying to fall asleep listening to the rain outside, a neighbor shot off some firecrackers. I had to laugh, even though it’s not something you expect on a rainy night in March.

On Friday I had the opportunity to go to the Museum of Tolerance, hosted by the Cadena Cultural Center at Fullerton College. I have never been before and had a good time; well I should say a thought provoking time.

Before I get more in to the serious matters, I wanted to say something on a less serious note. People that are tall, you KNOW you are tall, so why do you stand in front of short people who cannot see around you? I am usually one of the shortest in the group, and some of the girls had to keep pulling me in front so I could see the exhibits on Friday. I appreciated them doing that, because sometimes I am too polite to actually say anything.

Okay back to the museum, have you guys ever been before? It is all timed for you to go walk through and lots of information and pictures to soak up. You are given a photo of a child to follow throughout the tour. They first talk about the idea of tolerance, and you go through the history of the United States on the ways in which we as a great nation were not tolerant at all, and we were downright nasty to those who were different, looked different, acted different, then what at the time seemed ideal for the society in place. It also takes you through the people who stood up for change, and for what was right. Now our tour guide was quite passionate, which is great, but I think with his passion and everything going on, and it being lunch time, I got over stimulated and by the time I left I had a massive headache.

They tried to make what happened in the Holocaust come alive to all who walked through. You read the story about a child and follow their life, and they paint a picture of the Nazi’s, Adolf Hitler, and the difference between an actual race, and a religion. They talked about the idea of something being taught enough and talked about, that people started to believe it. You walk through an area that is made to look like a concentration camp and then lead to a room that looks like a gas chamber and you were told of the stories of the people who lost their lives simply because someone hated them enough to want to wipe them off the face of the earth. We go through and realize that throughout our own lifetime there have been countries who tried to eliminate a race, a religion, or those who someone thought was beneath them. Then at the end you get a print out of your child and it tells you if they lived or died. The little girl I got was named Helena and the fate of her and her family is unknown.

I wanted to talk about this today, because everyone is predicted in some way. We need to learn and educate more, and be weary of not standing up for what is right. No human deserves to be treated like an animal. Just wanted to start this Monday off asking how you can make sure that you make a positive change for the future today? We need to learn to not breathe life into stereotypes and stop essentially bullying each other. It can start with you, but it’s up to you to educate your family and friends, but most importantly your kids. We have the power to change and we also have the power to make change.

Serena

Late Late For a Very Important Date

Okay so I don't know about you guys, but do you ever feel like the rabbit from Alice in Wonderland? I know that sometimes I can't seem to enjoy the moment I am in because I have a list of things to do that grows 10 times bigger after I check one thing off. I don't want life to be like that. I don't want to feel overwhelmed where I can't just enjoy the moments of living life and being happy in that moment.

I am not sure how to make sure I live in every moment. I know I do not have all the answers, and as college students or students in general we are constantly thinking about our next assignment, or next test. SO how do we make sure that we also try and enjoy the moments each day? I would like to know your secrets for making sure you stay focused, yet live in the moments. There are times when I wake myself up thinking about what I did not get done the day before. Today even I was almost late to my first class, rushed to my next one, ran to get something to eat, went to my next class and was late to my AGS meeting. So I felt like the rabbit all day. But it was in the moments after the meeting where I was sitting with friends, where I did not want to rush. I still had a list of things to do a mile long, but finally for the day I was in a moment that I did not want to rush out of. So I am sitting here writing this blog and I am realizing that sometimes its the people we choose to place in our lives that help us live in the moments. I would like to surround myself with people who make me present in the moments, rather than with people who make me want to hurry and get out of there, or worry about the next thing I have to do. Its not easy but I think technology is part of the problem too. There are people I hang out with that I don't even feel the need to c heck my phone. I think that is a great feeling, when you can be in the moment with out having to feel the need to see who is texting, who is emailing, who is facebooking you. I am not perfect and realize I do this, but I love realizing after hanging out with someone, that I didn't need to check it and life still went on with out being at every one's beck and call.

I think to live in the moment, you have to BE in the moment. Maybe we could help each other, and call each other out. Help each other reconnect to one another because lets face it life is too short. I know this is easier said then done.  

Well I hope your week is going great and that we can all live in the here and now before life just passes us all by.

Serena 

Mental Health Day

I don't know about you guys but it is easy to get overwhelmed sometimes. Right now we are about 2 weeks from our spring break and it is much needed! Between work, classes, and life, I need a mental health day!

I feel at times i am constantly playing catch up, but haven't quite felt caught up yet. It seems like something always suffers. When I am caught up in school, my place is in desperate need of cleaning. When i feel caught up with work, my school work falls behind or I forget about an assignment so at midnight am hurrying to finish before class the next day. Its a constant battle of playing catch up and days off do not always feel like a day off, because they are often times spent running around doing the errands that you couldn't accomplish during the work and school days. Oh which makes me think how desperately I am in need of going to the grocery store, because all I have in my fridge is almond milk, and V8 smoothie juice! Plus this girl's cupboards are bare!

So don't you think we all could use a mental health day? I know for me spring break couldn't come soon enough, but I was silly and told work i could work so I am hoping that i can at least get a day or 2 off during that time or I will not really get my mental health day! I think we all get this way about now and all those of us who are graduating and transferring are starting to feel anxiety about the end of this semester and where we will continue on to.

Okay well that's all for today because I have to scurry off to my next class.

As we try and take time for ourselves, remember to do the little things like smile at a stranger. You never know that you may have made a person's day ten times better from a smile gesture!

Serena

Mind Over Matter

So for some reason, the time change has made me feel even more tired, and its already been a few days. You would think I would be used to it by now! I usually get up before classes at 6am to work on my insanity workouts, and today I shut my alarm off and continued sleeping!

I am in a speech 100 class this semester. You ever wonder what the people's secret is that seem to be so confidant in speaking in front of other people? I rehearse, I pick topics I know, and yet I get so nervous. I used to never talk in my classes either because I was thinking of how I can feel the whole class stare at me. I found the solution to this problem though was to be taking classes that I felt passionate enough about to raise my voice up, but even more then that to sit up front so I could feel like I was in a small class with just one row of students and the professor. That really made a difference for me to start making sure that I was contributing in classes. Sometimes I wish I had learned this trick many years ago. I have had professors and teachers in the past deduct points for not speaking up in class. I never thought this was fair to bring down a good students grade simply because they were shy, or had a fear of talking in public. This could go into a whole conversation also about extrovert versus introvert, but that may be a little of what I wanted to say today (although it would be a good subject in the future). I have learned through out my time here at FC though, that no matter what you will always have to do presentations, or speak in front of people. So there is no way around it and I need to be comfortable with it. I have done acting in my life and people always ask me "how can you do that, and then have a fear of speaking?". I always tell them that it is different, because when I am talking, I am myself. I am not a character at that point, and I am not in a scene acting with others.  I need to just say to myself "this is me, you may not like me, but this is what I have to say." I have not perfected speaking in front of people. I know that I have not hidden behind my fear so that i can try and still take opportunities that come my way. But the fight of flight response happens every time. My heart starts to race, my hands start to shake and perspire and I feel like I am speaking super fast.

Oh and for the record, I don't know who actually can picture their audience naked to make them calm. Sometimes I think to myself "is this just something that some bored person made up and then some how it got started that it was a technique to make you less nervous?". I don't have the answers, I admit i even get nervous going on stage, but there is a rush that I can't describe after the performance is over. I am waiting to someday have that rush for speaking in public. Until then I just try to mask to the best of my ability the fear I have. In my speech class though, you realize that almost everyone has this same fear and it makes you feel that you are in a safer environment simply because you are not alone in feeling this way.

Okay well today i just want to crawl back into bed but I have another class. I hope you all are adjusting to the time change better then I seem to be!

Live life to the fullest and don't forget to smile at some one today!

Serena

Spring Forward

I hope everyone remembered to set their non digital clocks forward and so that no one was late for anything! My internal clock seems to be waking me up regularly at 6am everymorning, and on Sunday it was no different...I still woke up at 6am, which was actually like 5am! I was just glad that I was able to go back to sleep because the worst is waking up and not having to be awake that early!

Okay so I really try and reduce stress in my life. In my Sociology of Gerontology Class we could do an assignment for extra credit. If you go to the website realage.com it will calculate your real age according to your body, and many other factors. So I did the test, and even though I am slightly younger than my actual age after taking the test, I want to be able to bring that down. Well sometimes I ask mysylef how do I not get stressed out, when life is beyond our control. When I can control things I feel less stressed. I think that is normal for everyone, but you can't control life. I have tried to not wait for the last minute on deadlines, and homework and such, but there always seems to be one thing I forget about and then I have to hurry up and get it done before its too late. I try and eat healthy and excercise on a regular basis, which helps with stress. What do you guys do when you feel stressed or anxious? I would love to hear any useful tips to help get my biological age down! The little things in life that I will never be able to control, I know that I need to not try and worry about them as much as I do. Worry I believe also causes stress, and often times I have noticed I worry about things for no reason. I myself am trying to let more worry go in my life. But like many bad habits, it is easier said then done. But we are almsot to spring break you guys! we have made it to this point and I would like to challenge you all, as I challenge myself, to break one bad habit and turn it into a fantastic habit. New years resolutions are made to be broken, so I never make any. Plus its not the new year anymore, so what bad habits can you give up before spring break that will help your bilogogical age make you younger in years to come?

Life is short we all know that, but how we live and what we do can drastically decrease or increase our time here on earth. Happy Monday everyone and I look forward to hearing what bad habits you are going to kick starting now!

Scholarship time

Hello everyone! It got a bit chilly again here in California! I wore the wrong shoes today! So today I felt like informing you all about stuff going on at Fullerton College. I think sometimes there is so much going on that its easy for people to not get the information.

First off, tomorrow you can give blood because the American Red Cross will be there for one more day. I don't know about you guys but I hate needles. But last year I decided to start giving blood every year around my birthday. Did you know that you could help save 3 lives when you give blood? I decided that my fear of needles should not stop me from helping others. If I was in need I would be kind of hurt if someone had the choice to help save my life, but they let this fear get in the way. So I try and suck it up once a year now.

The other thing I thought I would remind people of, is that its scholarship season. I think people don't realize it could be beneficial. A little hard work can go a long way. One club on campus (and I am in this club, many great ones to get involved in if you haven't yet.) Alpha Gamma Sigma actually will be doing some great scholarships for club members, and you do not need to be graduating or transferring to get them. But there are so many scholarships that I think you all can look into and take advantage of. The Fullerton Foundation is the first place to start. If you have any questions on what websites and how to find out more about scholarships, feel free to ask me. I know with the economy, and high costs of college we could all use some more money. I know there are so many different types of scholarships out there too, and many go unused each year because people don't apply.

Okay well i must admit that my arm is hurting from giving blood today. But I got a really cool sticker that said "Be nice to me, I gave blood." Lots of people tried to take my very much earned sticker from me, because they wanted people to be nice to them also, but I earned the sticker. I told them if they wanted a cool sticker, then they needed to give blood also!

Remember that it only takes one person to make a difference and that life is short. Do what you can with your time on and live with no regrets. Happy wednesday people and remember its not to late to make someone smile today!

Serena

Did you know?

The weather for the last two days has been amazing. I played hookie from all responsibilities and enjoyed the lovely weather, and hope you all did as well.

My birthday was on Saturday, and if you didn't know this already, you can get a free boat trip with a registration on the Catalina express web page. It is a $70 boat ride that you can now enjoy for free on the day of your birthday. because I am not from California I like to take advantage of many things that you can take for granted if you have lived here all of your life. I was actually surprised at how many people have lived here so long and have not ever ventured out of the 10 mile radius of where they live. So if you haven't gone to Catalina Island, you can now go on your birthday and enjoy the beauty.


One thing I was not aware of when I decided to go and have an adventure on this island, was that you really can't be that spontaneous. I don't know about you guys, but with school, work, and life it seems like we have to schedule everything, and we do not leave much room for adventure and spontaneity. I feel like those moments keep me feeling care free and young and I love being able to just fly by the seat of my pants.
I had a really great time, but because it was my birthday I wanted to sleep in. The boat ride itself is an hour long, so leaving at 12:15 now put me getting to the island at 1:15. Well I was quite hungry and so this now put our activities having to start at after 2pm. I really liked the idea of kayaking because I haven't ever done that before, but my friend did not like that idea as much, so then we thought about para sailing. I got information that you could para sail for only $20 on your birthday. I was so excited when I saw the place and the lady informed me that they were booked solid for the next two days. Okay so then we thought lets go hiking, well they said that it started to get dark at 5, and again my friend seemed less then thrilled about the idea because all the hiking trails seemed like a full day needed to be planned. Well as we were eating, we looked up possible other tours, and because it is off season there is not as many tours so we missed our chance for that.
Don't worry though we still had fun, not what we had thought originally but we were able to go to the Wrigley Memorial and Botanical Gardens, which is also free on your birthday. It was beautiful and you could see faintly in the back ground, Mt. Baldy, which didn't get captured in the pictures because it was too far and faint. So the lesson I learned in this trip is that if you want to experience more you have to actually plan, and not fly by the seat of your pants.

Happy Monday everyone and remember to live life to the fullest and not let moments pass you by!

Serena