Surviving Finals

Everyone knows finals week is a killer. We’re so close to being homework-free for a month. All our hard work throughout the semester has lead up to this point so we’re under a lot of stress. Most students are under the assumption they don’t pass their finals, they fail the course. This isn't necessarily true.

Here are a few tips to help stay stress-free:

• Take 15 minutes before you start studying or working on your project to clear your mind of everything and just breathe.

•  Be sure to take 15-30 minute breaks in between studying. You don’t want to work your body and mind to the point you can’t take it anymore. Some people think they have to cram the information in their brains but this can actually backfire.

•  Don’t put off your projects or studying until the night before they’re due. Do it 2-3 days before. You don’t have to complete it all in one night. Doing a little each night will help it not seem like so much.

• Rather than staying up super late the night before trying to memorize last minute details, go to bed at a decent time and wake up earlier in the morning to get it done. I know this doesn't sound fun but it's much better than waking up extremely tired from the night before and not remembering anything you've studied. This way you get refreshed right before the test.

• RELAX. If you’ve studied, you know the information. Don’t second guess yourself.

When finals are over reward yourself in some way. You’ve worked hard the whole semester and you deserve a break. Take time over the break recover so when you go back you feel refreshed and ready to learn. 

5 Things You Need to Know Before Starting College

 “Go to college, get a good paying job, better your future, it’s only four years of your life, college life is one big party, college will be the best days of your life.” These are all things we’re told before starting our college career. No one tells us the frustrations and challenges we’ll face along the way.

1.       There will be nights you don’t sleep. No, not because someone is throwing an awesome party, although there will be some of those too. Because you have deadlines to meet and most professors don’t except late work like you’re used to in high school.

2.       You need to take 15-16 credit hours a semester to graduate in four years. For me, this has been my biggest frustration because my advisor didn’t inform me of this. I thought since I was enrolled full time (12 hours) that I would graduate on time so now I’m graduating a semester later than I planned on.

3.       You will most likely be more broke than ever before. My freshman year I was working around 35 hours a week which was good money. My grades suffered though. My sophomore year I was in a situation that allowed me not to have a job and focus solely on my school work. I made straight A’s. Now I’m having to find a balance between work and school. I work around 25 hours a week which is just enough to pay my bills so I’m living paycheck to paycheck. This brings me to my next point.

4.       FASFA assumes your parents help you with college if you have to file as a dependent. Last year my parents made a good amount of money but they don’t help me financially with school. They have five other children living at home still. Just because they make a certain amount of money doesn’t mean your parents help pay for school. This has been my biggest struggle because this year my loans weren’t enough to cover the cost of tuition for 12 credit hours. I’m only enrolled in 9 so I’ll have to take summer courses to make up for the hours I’m not taking now.

5. Depending on your major you could have at least 25 hours of electives. Electives are a good way to expand on different subjects within your major. When you have so many elective hours you need to take in order to graduate it feels like the university is scamming you of money. Even after I major and then minor in two subjects, I’ll have 12 more hours I need to do something with. It’s a bit ridiculous.  

With all that being said, yes, go to college and better your life. It’s worth the challenges, frustrations and struggles I’ve encountered so far within the academic process of getting a higher education. I think I would much rather struggle for four or five years than the rest of my life trying to find a job that pays more than minimum wage.

Tickets, Tickets, and More Tickets

Let’s take a moment and talk about the one issue most students can agree on, parking. We have to pay $125 to park on campus. That’s $25 more than last year.

My issue with parking is similar to most students. I usually hear the complaint “I couldn’t find anywhere to park.” I can find places to park, they just aren’t marked as an open lot. It’s reserved for faculty and has a specific time when it’s open for anyone, 4 p.m. to be exact.

When I get to campus for my 3:30 p.m. class the faculty parking lot is almost empty. It’s calling my name, daring me to gamble my chances of getting caught so I play along.

After class I walk out to my car and see a big, fat, white and blue ticket for $30 waving at me. It was a 30 minute difference! Cut me some slack.

A couple weeks later I forgot to put my decal back in my car and I didn’t notice until I was already on campus. I live an hour away. I’m not going to miss class to get a sticker for my window.

Knowing I forgot the decal I parked in the farthest lot from campus in the very corner. All I had to do was turn in a paper so I thought I would be okay. Nope. Another ticket was waiting for me.

I went to the Parking and Transportation Office and gave them a piece of my mind. Just because it wasn’t displayed ONE time I have to fork over another $30. They have to look up my UCO account to put the ticket on there so they know I have a decal.

I can understand the ticket for parking in the wrong lot even though it was empty and 30 minutes from becoming an open lot, but I don’t understand the ticket for not having it displayed while I ran inside to drop off an assignment.

I’m already broke trying to go to college so why do they insist on making me pay them MORE money than I already have? Have a little compassion, people.

Never Take Advantage

A little over a week ago my grandma  passed away. She was only 60 so I always assumed I had many more years with her.

I was living with her at the time so I heard her come in the house night before it happened. It was around midnight and I was extremely tired. Instead of going in the living room to say hi I figured I would just talk to her in the morning.

My grandma never saw the morning.

I've learned to never take advantage of an opportunity to tell someone you love them or just make casual conversation.

Keep Social Media Classy

The past few weeks I've seen more parents bashing each other over social media than ever before. Typically it's the younger generation.

Here's my thoughts on it:

1. Trying to make someone else look bad by calling out their mistakes for everyone to see, says a lot more about your character than it does them. This isn't a random person. It's the mother/father of your child who you most likely picked so please, have a little class.

2. When your child is old enough they'll be able to see everything you've said. Speaking from experience, when James would bash my mother in front of me it would only make me want my mom and resent him more, so be careful.

3. Employers look on your Facebook, Twitter, Instagram etc. If they see you spilling dirty secrets, causing drama, acting like a fool and using excessive curse words, do you think they're going to hire you? Probably not.

10 Blogs

Our assignment this week was to find 10 blogs we found interesting for various reasons.

• TMZ
• Hollywood
• Love
• Life
• Advice
• Travel
• Sports
• Onion
• Mommy
• Food

One of my favorite blogs out of the 10 is TMZ. Everyone likes a little drama every once in awhile as long as it doesn't involve them personally. Somehow reading about the craziness in others lives makes people feel as if their own life is full of sunshine and rainbows.

Another blog I enjoy reading but wasn't on the list we chose from is http://emilymaynard.com/. Emily's fiancé was tragically killed in a plane crash in 2004. A few days after the accident she found out she was pregnant with their daughter. If you've watched The Bachelor recently you'll remember her from Brad's season. She later went on to become "The Bachelorette" and millions of viewers across America watched and were confident she would finally get her "happily ever after." The end results weren't quite what everyone was expecting. Since the reality show has wrapped she has started a blog that includes her life lessons, fashion and beauty tips.

About Me

My name is Paij Alexandria Beck. I'm in my fourth year at the University of Central Oklahoma. By credit hours I'm technically a junior but who's counting? I plan to graduate in December of 2014 with a degree in Public Relations. This blog will include my past and present triumphs and trials with relationships, family and friends. I hope my experiences will help others who are in the same situations and they are able to "Turn the Paij" in their lives.