Eating healthy

Many college students know that the struggle with your diet and what you eat can be very hard. We are constantly trying to find time to eat at all let alone watch what we eat. With our busy schedules and hectic college lifestyles we find ourselves skipping meals, eating lots of unhealthy snacks, and fast food. Skipping meals is never a good thing. You should always schedule time in your day to eat no matter how busy you are. Breakfast is the most important meal of the day and you should always eat something even if its small. Breakfast helps to start your body off on the right foot for the entire day. This helps to fuel your body and mind, increasing your alertness and makes you feel better over all.With the freedom college students have they spend lots of money on unhealthy snacks like Zebra cakes or Twinkies. It is very easy to make the decision to pick these snacks because 1. they are very delicious 2. they are cheap and 3. they are easy to just grab and eat on the go when time is short. Snacks like these are o.k. some of the time, but when they start becoming over used they can become fattening. For first year students they need to watch out for the dreaded freshman fifteen. This is a not just a college myth it is for real. It has been proven that 1 out of every 4 college students gain at least 5% of their body weight the first semester of college. This on average is over 10 pounds. Another antagonist in a college students food problems is fast food. Greasy, unhealthy fast food establishments swarm college areas and make lots of money because of it. Because college students are so busy it is very easy to stop at fast food restaurants because they are cheap, fast, and they taste pretty good. I myself have found that dealing with this problem is very difficult. Many of these bad eating habits present themselves because they make things easier for a student. My most common slip up with eating is going out to fast food places. I do feel like I am at less of a risk of gaining weight because I am so active. Because of all the running I do in soccer I end up just running all the weight off. I am going to strive to cut back on the bad snacks and eating out for the spring semester.

The transition from high school to college

It is now getting close to the time for finals which means that my first semester of college is now coming to an end. The transition has been a very big one but I feel that I handled it very well. It is amazing how much free time that I have compared to how much time I had in high school. My weeks aren't planned out to where I start school at the same time and end at the same time every day. I make my own schedule now, not the school. I decide when I want to go to class, when to eat, and when to study. The responsibility factor has increased a ton. But it is nothing that is going to make or break me. I am very good at making my own decisions. I do have a problem with my time management therefore I often end up staying up late working on homework because I didn't plan out my time well enough. The work load is another huge difference that I am having to deal with. Im not use to having homework every single day of every week and having to study more than thirty minutes. In high school homework and tests were relatively easy. High school never really forced me to actively participate and work to succeed to get good grades. With how much information we cover and how fast we fly through it I am now being constantly asked to take extra time out of my day to study more than I am use to. For me another big change from high school to college is how far away from home. Texas Lutheran is nine and a half hours away from my home in Amarillo, Tx. Although I am very good at being away from home and away from family, I do occasionally get home sick. I can go weeks on end without being homesick but it's more than just missing my family. It's missing the environment at home, and my friends, and just the familiar part of my life. I have lived in Amarillo my whole life so it is definitely a big move living somewhere else, especially so far away. I am very excited to go home for thanksgiving break as well as christmas great to visit. I hope that my college experience will continue to be good and get easier the longer it goes on.

Fun

When I think about the word "fun" and what it means to me I think about something that is enjoyable and exciting. If something is fun then you should want to take part in whatever the activity may be. But even though the winding road of education is not always fun there are many ways that you can help to make them fun. I found found that I always enjoy playing study games or doing certain activities with learning. Theses activities not only help me learn but they allow me to better be engaged in something exciting. When learning becomes fun you often find yourself wanting to do it more times than not. This can be true for any aspect in life especially sports. Conditioning is never the fun or easy but is essential if you want to be a top athlete in whatever sport you participate in. But there are many types of games that you can play that even though they make you tired they are fun. Playing games for your conditioning is helpful because it gets your mind off the hard part. wouldn't you rather want to participate in something where you can use a ball like in soccer. Things are always more enjoyable when you can actually use the ball instead of just straight running. The concept then becomes a mental thing. If you are focused on how much you hate just running then you are going to dread every moment of conditioning. This also takes place in the class room. If all you can think about it how much you don't like the teacher or how boring the class is you aren't going to want to participate, therefore you won't learn. One of my personal favorites for study games is called trash ball. In trash ball there are two teams. Whenever your team gets a question right you get the opportunity to chose from one of three spots marked each further away from a trashcan then the other. The further the spot away the more points the shot is worth. You then proceed to shot a ball made of wadded up paper and try to make it in the trashcan. If you miss then you get no points. This game can get very competitive and is very exciting so you always want to make sure you get your questions right.

Mistakes

Making a mistake is one of the most inevitable things that occur during one's life time. No matter how hard we try to avoid them, they always seem to happen no matter how big or small the mistake may be. The mistakes we make as individuals affect our lives in many different ways. It is what we do in response to those mistakes that shape our lives as a whole. People who are mentally strong are able to respond to mistakes in a positive manner, which is why the strong at mind are most likely to succeed. They have the will to succeed and they will not let anything get in their way. Mistakes challenge us to become better people. I feel that athletes are better suited to handle mistakes because they in counter them so frequently. An athlete may have to repeat a task over a thousand times before they are able to accomplish the task without making a mistake. This trains them to better adapt to any bumps they may hit along  the way. When you mistake the first thing you have to do before anything is acknowledge that you even made a mistake to begin with. After you accept that fact you must being to plan on how to fix what is wrong. after you fix it you must learn from your mistake so that you do not repeat what happened. You should always try to fix any missteps that may happen throughout life. You should do this so you are not making yourself miserable by carrying around guilt on your shoulders. My dad has been one of the most influential people in my life because he has helped me learn to not let the mistakes I make get the best of me. I use play baseball when I was younger. I was a very good pitcher but I had a problem with letting my emotions get the best of me. When I would through a pitch that I knew without a doubt was a strike and the umpire had a different opinion in mind I would get flustered. If it continued to occur I would eventually get so upset I would lose control and get to the point where it was affecting my performance, and not in a good way. My dad would always tell me to just not worry about the call and just play. He would tell me to shake it off, and he would actually shake his whole body. Although it was funny to watch him shake it always made me feel better and it always made me work to control my emotions. Because of this I am now better at not letting mistakes I make affect me in a negative way. This also has helped me with making mistakes in school. Whenever I do make a mistake I just shake it off and continue to practice to get better at whatever I am struggling with.

Focus and Concentration

The transition from high school to college is a very huge challenge for  a lot of people. There are many different reasons as to why it is so difficult for some. I believe that one of the main reasons they struggle is because they aren't mature enough to handle the responsibility of being on their own. They make poor decisions like going to a party instead of studying for a test they have the next day. To many poor choices can ruin your college career as well as your ability to succeed in life. One needs to be understand when they have time to relax and when they need to be focused on their school work. They must go out of their way to take time out of the day to study and prepare for what is going on in their classes. Being an athlete it makes it very difficult to find free time because of all the practicing, traveling, and games that take up so much of the day. Because of all the time it takes up, it makes it very hard to have time to study and hang out with friends and do things that I want to do outside of school. For my focus and concentration to improve I need to do better with my time management so I am not having to cram things in last minute. I need to understand that there will be times I will have to sacrifice spending time with friends to study that way I make sure I stay on top of my classes. I need to stay away from just living in the moment because when that happens I make rash decisions and don't always make the best choice. When you are rapped up in the moment your emotions can play tricks on you, making you do things you wouldn't normally do.

Relationships

Reading this weeks blog post really hit home with me and I was able to relate to the feelings many people are having from the loss of Dr. Deborah Hettinger. The shock we go through when we unexpectedly loose somebody we love is devastating. A couple years ago I lost my aunt. Everything happened out of no where and I didn't know what to believe at first. I was so hurt when it happened I broke down and shut myself off from the rest of the world. For me, losing one of  most influential people in my life as well as my role model, was a total wake up call. This realization that everything in this world isn't always a basket of roses really made me evaluate what are the most important things in my life. Family is something that is very special to me and will always be important in my life. My family has helped me with everything since birth and still continue to support me with whatever decisions I decide to make. Education is another thing that matters a lot to me. Without education I could never even think about being successful and going anywhere with my life. Soccer is another thing that is very important to me. It is a passion, something I love to do. Playing soccer allows me to be able to take my mind off of the rest of the world. When I play I enter my own world and don't think about anything else but playing. Along with soccer, the relationship I have made with my team is something I will always be grateful for. They have become part of my family. The last and final thing that is most important to me are my friends. Not all my friends have an close enough relationship with me as others but they are all equally important.. I am thankful for friends because they are always there when I need someone to talk to, or someone to hang out with, or just someone to keep me company. I understand that to be successful I must keep my priorities straight and always remember what is most important in my life. I will always keep the things most important to me close to my heart.

Confidence

Confidence is a characteristic that every person needs to have. It is something that allows people to many things. Having confidence makes the things you do in life, no matter how hard the task or how big the obstacle, reachable. Confidence gives one courage to step outside of their normal comfort zone and try something new. People with a lack of confidence seem to live a bland life. They do not take risks or do things that are abnormal to them. I believe that over time, my confidence in myself has continually been increasing, from all the things I've done in my life such as sports or being in a school environment. One of the things that has recently increased my confidence was my first soccer game at TLU. Before my first game I was unsure if I would be able to play soccer at the collegiate level. I mean I have great faith in my capabilities, but this being my first time to experience it first hand made me wonder.  After my first game my eyes had been opened to a new world of skill. But the way I preformed in the game made me very excited because I saw that I was capable of playing at the collegiate level. This event greatly boosted my confidence and gave me motive to keep going and keep improving my sports career. Similar situations these present themselves in the classroom, such as struggling in my math class. Calculus is very confusing and difficult for me to understand. Not succeeding in calculus like I am use to in other subjects such as history or science really makes me work hard to keep my confidence up. But when I go to my teacher for extra help and he is able to explain what we are learning in ways I better understand. Reaching the point where I can be confident in my ability to solve math problems makes me happier than a little kid getting candy. I am very thankful for everything that has happened throughout my life that has given me the ability to continually increase my confidence in myself and the things I do. I would like to offer a strategy for those who are having a hard time finding confidence - Take whatever aspect of life you are struggling with and take baby steps to work your way up, which allows you to slowly increase your confidence.