{"id":23710,"date":"2017-10-25T09:25:25","date_gmt":"2017-10-25T13:25:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/?p=23710"},"modified":"2026-03-26T09:59:07","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T13:59:07","slug":"amandas-blog-fall-changes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/2017\/amandas-blog-fall-changes\/","title":{"rendered":"Amanda's Blog \u2013 Fall Changes"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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\n Amanda's Blog \u2013 Fall Changes\n <\/h1>\n \n \n <\/header>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n\n <\/div>\n<\/section>\n\n

October \u2014 the air is crisp, the leaves are changing colour, and midterms have arrived. It\u2019s a busy time of year: everything seems due at once and you have no time to stop and take a breath. It\u2019s a time when you look forward to Reading Week and make all these great plans for seeing friends and getting caught up on readings and writing papers and presentations and studying for quizzes, tests, midterms\u2026 and then actually spend most of it curled up in a blanket watching a movie or doing something equally unproductive. Now, don\u2019t be too hard on yourself; if you\u2019re like me, this so-called unproductivity is good for mental health. Everybody needs a break now and then.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

However, I found myself getting lazy even before Reading Week arrived. I\u2019ve noticed stress hits me in one of two ways: panic attacks combined with late nights spent studying because I can\u2019t sleep, or an absolute avoidance of my responsibilities. Neither is good, but somehow, either way I end up getting everything done on time. Weird, right?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This time around I’ve been avoiding school. I\u2019m still doing school work, but I dread it and make up all kinds of excuses to myself so I can do ANYTHING but what I actually need to get done. I combat this with many, many “To Do” lists and self-imposed deadlines etc.etc.etc. It works\u2026to an extent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The one class I\u2019m managing to stay on top of this semester is my MA course in 18th<\/sup> Century Transatlantic Literature<\/a>. It\u2019s my favourite course this semester; although, it doesn\u2019t have much competition as I\u2019m only taking two lit classes right now. The class definitely<\/em> stresses me out. It\u2019s a higher-level course than I\u2019ve ever taken; I have to read a novel and write a paper every week, and I have to participate in discussions every class, yet, I actually look forward<\/em> to it. While this may not seem weird to most of you, I must add, it is at 8:30 am, so this level of enjoyment is shocking. I might feel like crying when I wake up at 6:30 to a pitch-black room because the sun still hasn\u2019t come up, but once I get to class I love the small-group dynamic. I love hearing my peers\u2019 opinions and having a class based around discussion instead of lecture style (which often makes me sleepy). In my opinion, if you have the chance to take small seminars that focus on discussion, DO IT. It is so worth it.<\/p>\n\n\n

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In my opinion, if you have the chance to take small seminars that focus on discussion, DO IT. It is so worth it.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

Now, despite enjoying at least one out of five classes every week (admittedly, some weeks I enjoy more than just the one), I\u2019m still a huge ball of stress. Yes, midterms and papers have got me down, but this whole upcoming-Master’s-deadline stuff is FREAKING ME OUT. Let me ask you, when do I have the time for this? Yes, I really want to apply to OGS and SSHRC and I really want to make the best application that I can, but right now I have about 0.0001% brain space to spend on these applications. So, what do I do? Shove it off to Reading Week\u2026along with preparing three presentations, two papers, an assignment, studying for a midterm and a quiz, and reading three books. In seven days? I don\u2019t think so. Not to mention, like many others, my part-time job doesn\u2019t just stop. So again, I wonder, when do I have the time? The other thing is, these applications are just for grants for my MA, what about applying to the actual MA!? I\u2019ve tried to figure out the things I need for the online application, but, personally, “online” is not my best friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I\u2019m getting at is October is hard and many of us get hysterical… and by ‘many of us’, I mean me. In a perfect world we would only have to take courses that we wanted to, we would have a surplus of time to finish assignments and applications, and we would be able to confidently say \u201cI did my best\u201d when we submit our work. But this isn\u2019t a perfect world, this is University, and if it wasn\u2019t hard it wouldn\u2019t be worth while or important.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, I need to get off my lazy behind and get to work. And if the stress starts taking over again maybe I\u2019ll step outside, take a deep breath of cold autumn air, and admire the beautiful fall colours\u2026 Before getting right back to work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Good luck on your mid-semester deadlines everybody!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

October \u2014 the air is crisp, the leaves are changing colour, and midterms have arrived. It\u2019s a busy time of year: everything seems due at once and you have no time to stop and take a breath. It\u2019s a time when you look forward to Reading Week and make all these great plans for seeing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23713,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[387,25,849],"tags":[395,396],"class_list":["post-23710","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-amandas-blog","category-student-blogs","category-student-voices","tag-reading-week","tag-stress"],"acf":{"cu_post_thumbnail":false},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23710","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23710"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23710\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":53658,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23710\/revisions\/53658"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23713"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23710"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23710"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/carleton.ca\/fass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23710"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}