Campus Life | Mid-semester motivation

We look forward to spring break all year, but the week goes by so fast. As the week of fun and relaxation has come to an end, it is time to get back into the mindset of school and make sure you achieve the goals you set for yourself this semester.

I went to Cancun, Mexico during spring break, and as fun and relaxing as it was, it was also very tiring. So I took the weekend to myself and made sure that I was prepared for the continuation of classes and studying, but it was not easy, to say the least.

When I woke up for my 10 a.m. class on Monday, I realized that I had absolutely no motivation to go and was so tempted to just go back to sleep. I had to remind myself that I had just taken a week off from thinking about school and doing any work, and that was my reward for working so hard this semester. I knew that by the end of April, when finals will end and summer is just around the corner, all of my efforts would pay off.

I think it is very important to always set realistic goals for yourself so that you know what you started. Re-visiting that list of goals is also crucial so that you are always reminded of them. We just have to power through another two months to be rewarded with an amazing summer. Hopefully, you have something fun planned for the summer, such as a trip or an internship, so that you have something even better to look forward to when the school year ends.

It is important that after a week of either being at home or going somewhere fun, you give yourself some alone time. It’s important to give yourself a chance to take in all of your experiences and think about your feelings. Your body can unwind and de-stress when you are surrounded by the people you love, but for some people, this is very tiring. Make sure you get your sleep back on track because not having a routine can mess up your sleep schedule.

I know that I barely slept during my trip because I wanted to spend as much time with my friends as I could, since I had not seen them in a while due to school and studying. This made sleeping when I got back very important for my body. Another important thing to keep in mind is to stay hydrated! While I was in Mexico, I could only drink bottled water, and it was not always available for me. Thus, I was very dehydrated for most of the trip and definitely felt the consequences of that when I got back with a severe headache. I made sure to drink tons of water and eat a lot of fruit.

Hopefully, you got back from break a day or two before classes started again so that you had some time to go grocery shopping if you live on campus. This way, you are prepared for the next week or two and do not have to worry about it and can keep yourself well-fed. If you did not get a chance, there are tons of delivery services, such as Amazon Whole Foods, Instacart and Hello Fresh, for fresh meals and groceries. If you live on campus, then you have the privilege of having the dining hall available to you!

I hope that you had an amazing and relaxing spring break and are ready to go back to classes and studying! It sounds terrible in a way, but you just have to remind yourself that hard work pays off and that summer is right around the corner.

Shriya writes about some ways to get back into the routine of things after spring break and how to bring the motivation for school back . Talk to them at shy76@pitt.edu.