Category Archives: lifestyle

Adult Responsibilities, health, lifestyle, Nature, student life

Hit Reset and Climb Out of Your Rut

By Nathan Kim

Rut: a habit or pattern of behavior that has become dull and unproductive but is hard to change

As we are reaching the midway point of the semester, it’s easy to become unmotivated and exhausted from the ever-increasing pile of work. I know that for me, I’m finding it harder to get up each day and consistently keep up with balancing my school life, social life, and personal life. It’s a constant battle to not feel burnt out and keep on working hard each day, but I’ve tried to combat this by utilizing some methods to regain that drive again and get out of this rut. Here are three ways you, too, can escape that feeling of being stuck and unable to move forward.

Photo by Arek Adeoye on Unsplash
  1. Take a walk outside and observe your surroundings

You’ve probably heard of the concept of mindfulness, but for me the purpose of taking a walk is to clear your mind. It’s best to do this without thinking too much about where you’re walking or how long you’re going to walk. Walking in nature and listening to the ambient sounds of your environment is a surefire way to heal your body and your mind. This helps you to clear your head and take a step back from the burdens of life while appreciating your life as it is in that moment. As you walk around, you should simply observe what’s happening around you and let your thoughts pass by without dwelling on them too much. After your walk, you will be able to return to your work feeling refreshed and hopefully less stressed.

  1. Clean your physical and digital clutter

We all have things in our lives that need some cleaning. It can be rather therapeutic to set things back into their places and to tidy up your life a bit. At first, it might seem overwhelming to take on such a large task, but approaching messy situations in a step-by-step fashion is the best antidote to a chaotic life. For physical clutter, it starts by putting one item back in place. For digital clutter, cleaning your cluttered email inbox might be a good start. Cleaning gives you another opportunity to not have to think about other appointments in the future and engage in some introspection on how you’re feeling about your life in general. It’s important to have an organized environment because that is the location where you will be doing the majority of your work at.

Photo by Glenn Carstens-Peters on Unsplash
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Advice, college, lifestyle, student life, USC

Looking For More Ways to Get Involved on Campus? Join Student Clubs!

By Alyssa Delarosa

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

During my final semester here at USC (and as an undergraduate) I did a considerable amount of reflection on my time at USC. In that reflection, I’ve come to the conclusion that carrying over my student club and organization involvement from my time at community college to USC resulted in a time of new growth, relationships, learning, and experience. Even amidst a virtual learning experience, I was able to keep pursuing my goals and forge new connections through involvement and leadership.

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A community college is a two-year college where students complete their general education and lower division courses. Students have many options available to them as to where they can obtain an associates degree (two-year lower division degree), professional certificate, or other certification. Or, they can choose to transfer from their community college to a university – which was what I did in 2020. This was during the onset of Covid-19, which greatly impacted my educational experience.

Before the pandemic, I was determined to be involved as much as possible on my community college campus. I joined and led several clubs and student organizations, as well as joining a newly founded faculty committee on civic engagement. In this club, I was able to develop an internship program for student advocates. When the pandemic hit, it was during my last semester at my community college. I remember how faculty were unsure of the future of student clubs and organizations on campus continuing due to the pandemic, yet I was able to continue my involvement in these clubs remotely. I was even able to adjust my proposal for the student advocate internship program to a remote format accordingly. Though I have long been graduated from my community college, I continue to mentor students and work with faculty through this program.

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Family, friends, Identity, lifestyle, music, student life, USC

The Start to an Adventure

By Michael Neufeld

Edited by Natalie Grace Sipula

[3.5 minute read]

On Sunday, August 13, 2017,  a great new adventure for me began. It was exciting, it was scary, and I couldn’t wait. I was about to begin my freshman year of college. My family and I drove down from Fresno, California the night before my move-in and stayed in a hotel. I was part of the Trojan Marching Band, and with the early move-in schedule, the time we would spend setting up my dorm, and the long four-to-five hour drive down, we were not willing to get up at 3:00 in the morning to finish packing and travel. My younger brother, Daniel, would have especially disliked that.

When we got to campus, my family helped me set up my room. Soon after, they went off to attend the first marching band parent meeting. We met up later, and after a meal, we said our goodbyes. It seemed my family was only there for a few minutes before it was time for them to leave.

Photo by rnaol on Unsplash

I spent the next week at band camp, getting up early each morning to walk to Cromwell Field to learn how to march. I noticed that marching in the University of Southern California band was much different than in my high school band; in high school we shuffled our straight-legged feet across the grass, whereas here we have to pick our feet up off the ground and plant them in steps in front of us at USC. Along with other physical, performance-related differences, I also noticed that this band had way more spirit than any high school band I had seen. Here, we played for the football team; if we weren’t spirited, how could the crowd be?

Along with my marching band experiences, I had so many new things to do, think about, and see as a freshman majoring in Jazz Studies. Traversing across campus from class to class felt a little bit intimidating at first. It was challenging to find all of my classes the first couple of days in territory with which I was unfamiliar. Additionally, there were so many people surrounding me; bikes, skateboards, and DPS cars flew around me as I traveled to and from buildings.

Photo by BP Miller on Unsplash

On this bizarre campus, I found so much to like. I enjoyed eating with my friends at the Parkside Dining Hall. I loved my music classes, and marching band rehearsals always gave me a rush of energy. I picked up a new pastime of zooming around the uncrowded campus late at night with my trusty scooter, something I wasn’t able to do much of in Fresno.

Along with these new, fun experiences, there were some not-so-positive “adventures” that I had to deal with as well. I dealt with some people that for the first time in my life I did not enjoy being around. My roommates and I occasionally rubbed shoulders, something bound to happen when you live with seven other people in a Parkside “suite-style” dorm. I got lost on the Metro once and had to run over a mile from one station to a concert hall.

Photo by Davide Cantelli on Unsplash
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