As most of you know, last semester was… a mess. I was picking up coping mechanisms left and right and trying to share them with you all because I was so busy and stressed. This semester, with a stable living situation and established friends and routine on campus, I have found much more peace. It\u2019s almost… dare I say, easy?<\/p>\r\n
I really shouldn\u2019t say that; I\u2019ll jinx myself. But I find myself with more spare time these days, and especially during the week immediately after spring break, I felt like I had nothing to do. Then the thought crept in: what if I were to slip, slide, and slump through this second semester? What if it was easy because I wasn’t trying hard enough?<\/p>\r\n
However, I don\u2019t think that’s true. I deserve nice things, like free time. I\u2019m so glad it isn\u2019t all being gobbled up by practicing the viola or working out or too much homework. I like getting a full nine hours of sleep each night. I\u2019ve even started reading more. Next on my list is Milk Fed by Melissa Broder, which has been on my list forever. I’m also slowly increasing the length of the books I’m reading, and this one is solidly average in length compared to the short story and comic book I finished before this one!<\/p>\r\n
Because of the breathing room I have this semester, I\u2019ve taken on more work for the future. This sounds really silly\u2014wasn’t I just saying how much I loved my free time? Well, yes. However, it’s different this time.<\/p>\r\n
First of all, I’m definitely more aware of my limits and how to stay within them than last semester. Furthermore, despite these additions being:<\/p>\r\n
I am confident in my ability to balance everything. So, to clarify, I declared a second major. Now, I’m a Translation and Art History major with two language minors. According to my advisor, I can still graduate on time \ud83d\ude05<\/p>\r\n
I am also going to be an RA next year! I’ll be living in Daum, which I’ve heard great things about, and I am so\u00a0<\/em>excited to meet my kids. I do have to come back to school early, but it’ll be fun to be on the experienced side of On Iowa! week, rather than the fresh-faced first year, overwhelmed and trying to orient herself. Lastly, I applied to be an Honors Writing Fellow. Confession: I love writing. I know. You never saw it coming. This will be a more academic\/advisory position, though, but that doesn’t decrease my excitement at all. I haven’t gotten an official offer yet, as I interviewed on the 30th, but I feel good about everything and am really hopeful!<\/p>\r\n Between these two new jobs, however, I’ll have to leave my other university jobs. I work at the Stanley Museum of Art and as a Student Partner with a faculty member\u2014for both positions, I observe classes and provide feedback to work with the instructors to keep improving them. However, this means that school is classes and work is also classes. I’d like to escape school a little bit more next year.\u00a0<\/span><\/span><\/p>\r\n With all of these changes, I\u2019m more excited for next semester than I was starting college, which is an incredible feeling. I\u2019m can’t wait to have my own room and hopefully my car on campus, to separate my work from school, and meet my students in Daum! College is really where my life is now, and I’m already looking forward to coming back. Summer feels like a dream right now, a break in reality. I\u2019m definitely looking forward to it: sun, work, friends, family, beach days, hikes with my dog. I\u2019m also thinking of starting a personal blog to keep you all in the loop of my non-school adventures! Let me know if you would read that down in the comments!\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Overall, life is looking up. The weather is definitely playing a role; I feel like the \u201cgirl who is going to be ok\u201d meme whenever the sun touches my skin. I also had my first outdoor intramural soccer game this past weekend, and oh my goodness, we are so back. I have a bruise in the shape of a soccer ball shingle on my calf, and my ankles hurt, but I wouldn’t trade it for the world. My high school just started its soccer season, and I miss my teammates so much, but I’m feeling okay, as long as I can be on the field. My new teammates are also very kind and quite talented, and it’s been great to make new friends in the sport I love.\u00a0<\/p>\r\n Overall, life is good. College may be hard, but it\u2019s so, so worth it. I know I sound like an ad for Iowa, and I am, without shame. Some younger friends back home have come to me, thinking of coming here, and all I can say is \u201cDo it.\u201d I love it. It\u2019s amazing. It wasn\u2019t my first choice, but I couldn\u2019t be happier that I ended up here. As most of you know, last semester was… a mess. I was picking up coping mechanisms left and right and trying to share them with you all because I was so busy and stressed. This semester, with a stable living situation and established friends and routine on campus, I have found much more peace. It\u2019s almost… dare I say, easy? I really shouldn\u2019t say that; I\u2019ll jinx myself. But I find myself with more spare …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":169,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/169"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=144"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":153,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/144\/revisions\/153"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/kiah\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
So, yeah. Life is worth living
I\u2019ll see you guys in April,
Kiah<3<\/p>\r\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"