I would say over the last few weeks I have learned why it is important to take the time for yourself. In my opinion, this is the most challenging part about college as well as living on campus. Taking the time for myself in ways such as self-care and saying “no” took me a very long time to do.
I learned that no one will advocate for you besides yourself. Therefore, coming into college it was pretty tricky to re-learn how to advocate for myself in a professional way. This has been an up-and-down experience as I think the most challenging part for me has been being able to say “no” to people. I have always been the type of person to try to help anyone despite what I had going on. Yet this was a lesson to me in college, I have many times been asked to do someone else’s work or to just send them the assignment as a whole. The way I learned to say no was to simply say “You can find it on Google”. Knowing that you don’t owe anyone anything is an important way to put yourself first.
I learned to take care of myself as a whole over the last few weeks though. Making time for yourself, self-care, and ensuring you’re eating and showering enough have been insanely important to me. Taking this time to relearn how to help myself before focusing on everyone has been my strongest asset. When putting it into a bigger picture, you cannot help everyone around you and be there for them if you are also not taking the best care of yourself. In order to be able to give your time and help others you have to make sure you pause and care for yourself so that you can continue being there for them. Realizing that I am in college for myself and I am living my life has helped me realize that I need to care for myself. Instead of putting everyone before myself, I have been making myself a priority so I can continue to reach for my dreams. Making myself happy has become my favorite way that I can help not only myself because living my life means that I am doing my best.
Some ways I have learned to take care of myself have included doing face
masks/self-care. This has been my way of giving myself just a few minutes to just focus and care for myself. Another way has been to pause and listen to music/podcasts or watch T.V. or Movies, this has given me time to watch and or listen to things that distract me and bring my mood up. Another way I take care of myself is by forcing myself to do something for myself every day. Some days this just consists of taking a walk, other days this can be painting my nails. However, I have found that putting myself first has been the way I have made myself stronger.