Independently living my best life

Hello everyone,

My apologies for keeping up with this blog. When you overfill your plate with working a part-time job in the summer, become the news director of your college newspaper and decide to take 18 credits to get started on your major in the spring of 2023, finding time to blog can become difficult.

This being said, starting my sophomore year of college has been drastically different than my sophomore year of high school. Four years ago, I was overly stressed with physics and geometry and hating every minute of high school, struggling to get through. With all that I'm juggling this semester, you'd think that I would have returned to that state. Surprisingly enough, I'm not. In fact, I feel that I'm in an amazing state of mind. 

I recently moved into my first apartment in August and living off-campus is amazing. No drunk students yelling in the halls on the weekend or having to attend floor meetings that could've simply been sent to our floor's group chat. Getting to fall into bed after coming home from a long day of work and having a full fridge instead of a mini one has been so nice. Since moving into my own place with my best friend as a roommate is that I've adopted habits I never would've fallen into at my own house. 

I've always acknowledged that I should get more physical exercise. However, with limited flexibility due to my back surgery and dislocating my left knee (twice), finding exercises that would work best for me has been a struggle. Combine that with the anxiety of working out in public and hating that gross, sweaty feeling, and your options are even more limited. I came across an app called DailyYoga and decided to give it a try after taking a yoga class as my gym requirement in high school. I loved the way I felt when I took that class and I thought it would be an easy way to get back into a workout routine. I've done yoga for about 50 days straight and I love how I feel (I will discuss this in a later post). One of my friends and I have also dedicated time each Thursday to take a 3-mile powerwalk along our fitness trail that has strength-building equipment that we stop at during our walk. Incorporating some physical fitness into my life lets me step away from my homework to focus on myself and I feel great about myself.

With the work that I have to accomplish (even falling into my weekends most often,) I sadly haven't had the chance to work on any of my novels or poetry collection. The demands of school have prevented that and my ability to sit down with one of my several books on my to-read list. As I eagerly anticipate Christmas break when I can return to my passions, I'm trying to keep my writing skills in check. Besides writing for the paper, I try to write in my prompts journal to keep my creative juices flowing. A couple prompts a night have let me still tap into my creative side while not taking up too much of my time. 

Living on my own means that I not only have to pay my rent, but shop for my own groceries. When I was younger, that would've meant me buying every sugary snack and bag of chips possible. That mindset has taken a total 180. I only eat twice a day, so buying food for only one person limits bigger meals that are made for multiple people (tacos, spaghetti etc.) I've been buying more fruits and vegetables and limiting how much snacks and sweet stuff I've been consuming. I feel good about the food I'm eating and I've noticed that I have more energy throughout the day. Despite my healthy eating habits, I'm still finding time to ingest a large coffee or two each week. Who also would've thought living on my own would make me transition from sugary mochas (which I still occasionally enjoy) to straight black cold brew (that I almost enjoy even more?)

Lastly, I've found that I've been dedicating myself to my work wholeheartedly. While my five classes are sometimes a pain, the painkiller is being able to work as the news director. Certain aspects of the job are more challenging than others (assigning stories and having more pages to edit), but I've pushed myself out of my comfort zone to write news stories instead of my usual variety and entertainment ones. My passion of writing keeps me going and being able to meet new people and spend time with all my coworkers who I cherish greatly keeps me going through each and every week. The inside jokes from late night, fun banter and deep conversations are something I look forward to each production night.

While I wasn't apprehensive to come back to Mankato like I was when I moved last year, I feel that being independent has made me start to realize that I am the main character in my own movie. I've set aside time for myself, work my ass off and still have time to talk with my friends. These healthy habits have been crucial to my well being and now, I can say that I'm living my best life in college. Sometimes that independence we crave does change us for the better.

Signed,

Midwestern Redhead