In high school I had a chemistry teacher whose motto was: “Don’t sweat the small stuff, and everything is small stuff. Except for your health and your family.” I was kind of taken aback by this. What do you mean everything is small stuff? I’ve got four finals to study for, ACT prep, community service, how am I supposed to not sweat? When I asked him what he meant exactly, he told me to keep a broad perspective on life. It’s not like I shouldn’t try to do well in school and my extra curriculars, but I shouldn’t let those things consume my life and bog me down with stress. There’s so much more to life than we sometimes realize when we’re burdened by huge responsibilities like tests and projects. Admittedly, I still feel like my teacher’s motto is an oversimplification, but it has nevertheless stuck with me since. Going into college, I knew that things would only get more difficult, and as things got more difficult it would become even more important to manage my self care. Of course stress is an inevitability, but I’ve managed to keep it at a minimum by consciously allocating time to de-stress.
One of my old hobbies that I’ve always loved is video games. Ever since even before elementary school there was something about video games that captivated me. It’s a unique medium of entertainment where you’re required to actively engage in it, unlike with television or movies. Of course since coming to UCI I’ve had far less time to spend playing games, but every once in a while I’ll allow myself time to indulge. It serves as a really good way for me to keep in touch with my friends back home as well. Even though we’re hundreds of miles apart, it gives us an extremely easy way to interact and socialize with each other. Here at school as well, I’ve found that there are many people who are interested in games, whether casually or more competitively. I mean at the student center there’s an entire room dedicated to video games. That’s pretty incredible if you ask me.
Of course, playing video games isn’t the most physically exhausting activity, so I also make an effort to get some exercise which I think for a lot of people (although not all) helps to relieve stress. Sometimes I’ll just leave early for class and go the long way around. UCI has in my opinion a legitimately beautiful campus. Oftentimes I find that after a particularly rough day, a walk through Aldritch Park can be rather cathartic. Even if I do have three midterms and an essay and two hundred math sets due tomorrow, at least I can enjoy the nice socal weather and the scenery. Just kidding I don’t know if there’s anything you could do to comfort yourself in the face of that. But it’s definitely important to give yourself some personal time to do what makes you happy.