{"id":66,"date":"2018-12-11T09:49:19","date_gmt":"2018-12-11T14:49:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/?p=66"},"modified":"2018-12-11T09:49:19","modified_gmt":"2018-12-11T14:49:19","slug":"how-to-cope-with-off-days","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/2018\/12\/how-to-cope-with-off-days\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Cope with Off Days"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-66 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-full'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/2018\/12\/how-to-cope-with-off-days\/acs_0067\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"599\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0067.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-68\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0067.jpg 800w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0067-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0067-768x575.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-68'>\n\t\t\t\tFirst snow of the year\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon portrait'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/2018\/12\/how-to-cope-with-off-days\/acs_0066\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"600\" height=\"800\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0066.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-67\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0066.jpg 600w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0066-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 600px) 100vw, 600px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-67'>\n\t\t\t\tMy first snowman ever!\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon landscape'>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/2018\/12\/how-to-cope-with-off-days\/acs_0076\/'><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"800\" height=\"601\" src=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0076.jpg\" class=\"attachment-full size-full\" alt=\"\" aria-describedby=\"gallery-1-69\" srcset=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0076.jpg 800w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0076-300x225.jpg 300w, https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/files\/2018\/11\/ACS_0076-768x577.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 800px) 100vw, 800px\" \/><\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<figcaption class='wp-caption-text gallery-caption' id='gallery-1-69'>\n\t\t\t\tGoing the games in below freezing weather\n\t\t\t\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p style=\"text-align: center\">_______________________________________<\/p>\n<p>Hi everyone,<\/p>\n<p>The cold has arrived. If you were not aware, I thrive in warm weather. It is what I am used to. I&#8217;ve lived in hot places all my life: Colombia, Brazil, and California. Therefore, winter for me is 40 degrees at most. I have never lived in weather below 40. I&#8217;ve never lived in the snow. I&#8217;ve only seen the snow two times in my life. Once when I was eight and again last year. It is so cold out. The sun is hardly out. All I want to do is stay inside and sleep. I&#8217;m seriously this close to Googling how to perform witch rituals and spells that make the sun and the warmth come back faster. This weather is really getting to me.<\/p>\n<p>As if the cold was not bad enough, finals seasons are approaching and the work load is humongous. I have 5 essays due the week after Thanksgiving break and two of those have to be 5 &#8211; 7 pages and unmotivated, little Mari has started none of it.<\/p>\n<p>Furthermore, this gloomy weather has made me keep my &#8220;sad, acoustic music&#8221; playlist on replay and thus my &#8220;off days&#8221; have become more frequent. (My sad playlist features a whole lot of Bon Iver and Novo Amor.) Seasonal Depression is a thing, y&#8217;all. But mental health is crucial, so here is how I have been attempting to keep my happiness levels up:<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li><strong>Surrounding myself with people:\u00a0<\/strong>I get all up in my thoughts when I&#8217;m alone. I also get really lonely when my roommate isn&#8217;t home for long periods of time. After all, I was raised in very tight-knit household, therefore I am used to being surrounded by loving people for long periods of time. Therefore, in order to not feel lonely I try to surround myself with people I enjoy being around. Sometimes I do need alone time as well, so know how to manage that.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Listen to happy music:<\/strong>\u00a0I have been blasting throwbacks whenever I feel that winter sadness creeping up on me. High School Musical, Camp Rock, Hannah Montana, etc&#8230; Those have all been on repeat in my dorm room.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Call your loved ones<\/strong><strong>:\u00a0<\/strong>Something I really miss is speaking my native language: Spanish. I have yet to find native Spanish speakers. Therefore, I try to call my family every now and then to feel at home and feel the comfort of the Spanish language naturally rolling off my tongue.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Eat comfort food:\u00a0<\/strong>I can&#8217;t tell you how many soft serve ice cream cones and Oreos I have eaten in college. They make me happy, okay? Mental health first, right?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Work out:<\/strong>\u00a0I have been running in the treadmill lately and I have been feeling that runner&#8217;s high that people talk about. It&#8217;s real, you do get happy from running. It&#8217;s so weird.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Schedule your work:<\/strong>\u00a0I make to-do list&#8217;s to keep track of my work. It just gets me even more stressed if I don&#8217;t have homework done. Furthermore, checking off tasks and assignments from that to-do list makes you feel accomplished and motivated.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Go out:\u00a0<\/strong>It&#8217;s extremely cold outside, but I love nature and I love feeling the air on my skin. Therefore, I try to still go out even though I look like a marshmallow wearing 500 layers. I try to avoid staying inside for long periods of time.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Practice\u00a0positivity:<\/strong>\u00a0Just be positive, it works. Waking up and putting a smile on your face psychologically makes you feel happy.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Don&#8217;t let the cold, gloomy weather get you down! Don&#8217;t let midterms and long papers get you down! We can get through this! Spring is just 4 &#8211; 6 months away, depending on when it decides to come back. Hopefully it will be back by March, but I heard that sometimes it stays cold all the way until April. Yikes. But positivity! Hopefully, the flowers will starting blooming by March. *fingers crossed*<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>_______________________________________ Hi everyone, The cold has arrived. If you were not aware, I thrive in warm weather. It is what I am used to. I&#8217;ve lived in hot places all my life: Colombia, Brazil, and California. Therefore, winter for me is 40 degrees at most. I have never lived in weather below 40. I&#8217;ve never &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/2018\/12\/how-to-cope-with-off-days\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">How to Cope with Off Days<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":103,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-66","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/103"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=66"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/66\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=66"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=66"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.admissions.uiowa.edu\/mariana\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=66"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}