The Ever Elusive Seesaw

Balance has definitely been one of my most difficult struggles throughout my collegiate career. For some reason, I always seem to work on extremes. Freshman year I was extremely social. Sophomore year I was extremely isolated. Junior year I was extremely disengaged. And this year I have extreme case of Senioritis. Well, kind of. The craziest part is how many things I've tried to get balance. Freshman year was probably the year that I was most balanced, primarily because I was around people who did the same. I would socialize and meet people during the day, spend time with roommates during the evening and then do homework collaboratively at night. I got my work done and got the best grades of my career, while assuming leadership roles, and improving personally. I have used Google calendar, a planner, a wall calendar, post-it notes, writing on my hands, posting notices on my walls, phone/text reminders, and sheer memorization. My remaining organized I am more capable of committing time to different activities. I try to balance my time amongst things that I value most- family & friends, health, academics, self-improvement/spirituality, and fun!

I definitely believe balance is possible. The way we spend our time is a good way to evaluate our values. By doing things that make you happy, I think balance can be achieved. I think a self-assessment would be helpful to re-establishing balance in my life. Proactivity would give me the time that I need to try new things and to spend on areas of my life that have been ignored. One day, balance will be mine!

Exploring the Other: A Cultural Exchange

This is by far one of the coolest blog prompts that we've been given so far. For this cultural exchange assignment, I was paired with Mariam Hussain, a Muslim. So, I took her to a church service at New Birth Christian Ministries and she invited me to Fast-A-Thon.I love new experiences and Fast-A-Thon was definitely one. First thing, I fasted all day. So, I didn't eat or drink anything from when I went to sleep until 5:30pm. That wasn't that bad, but it was still kind of tough, especially since I had a lunch meeting and couldn't eat. The actual event took place at the Performance Hall of the Union on Tuesday and was focused on raising awareness and support for those suffering in the tumult in Syria. The event was hosted by Unicef and the Muslim Student Association. Several students presented spoken word pieces. The keynote speaker gave a thorough presentation on the background and current situation in Syria, which was quite helpful for me. I learned that 36,000 people have died, including women, children, and civilians. The Syrians are greatly lacking in resources to care for the refugees's needs such as medical equipment and food. The regime of Bashar Assad has been brutal evident in the torturing and killing of celebrities, children, and any opposition.

Besides learning about the conflict, I also had the chance to sample Middle Eastern cuisine  courtesy of Lavash Cafe. It was very good but a little spicy! I was able to observe some of the Muslim attendees perform one of their daily prayers. I never knew the men prayed separated from the women. I met some cool folks and learned a lot.