Author: Clay Farnes

Last quarter was incredibly difficult for me. I am a chronic procrastinator, and I have been ever since I was young. In high school, it wasn’t such a big deal, because my teachers would understand my circumstances as a neurodivergent individual, allowing me to receive minor accommodations. When high school teachers tell you that “This won’t fly in college,” in some aspects they’re right. Without academic responsibility, college is very stressful. As many procrastinators know, it’s easy to stress about upcoming deadlines but it’s incredibly difficult to do something about it. Even entering the winter quarter, I’m still struggling with procrastination.

My plans for the winter quarter are somewhat conflicting. I still want to maintain time for my hobbies like gaming, painting, and talking to my friends. One thing that has been especially challenging is mustering the self control to put down my sketchbook, close my laptop, or stop typing on my phone. College is a new experience for a lot of people, where we don’t have our parents keeping us accountable. I’m sure that some of my peers have been able to keep themselves on task throughout high school, but a large proportion of students, especially those who have learning disabilities, may not be used to self accountability. I’m certainly not used to it. Socially, it’s been difficult for me to ask for help from people. I don’t feel like I know anyone well enough to ask them to help keep me accountable. 

Some things I’ve done differently from Fall to Winter are changes in eating habits, sleep, and exercise. At the beginning of the year, I was absolutely terrified of eating alone in the dining hall. I’m not sure what about it scared me so much, but the idea of people perceiving me while eating was very uncomfortable. I would often skip meals and eat substitutes like cheese and crackers or instant ramen and a protein bar. Sometimes the irrational anxiety would also creep up elsewhere, like sitting near people when few seats were available in a class. In terms of sleep, the first quarter I wasn’t able to manage my sleeping habits very well. I’d stay up until 2 or 3 AM, scrolling on my phone. On weekends, I’d sleep until 2 or 3 PM, and not leave my room at all. This quarter, I’ve found a few ways to get out of bed before noon. I try to find activities to do on weekends like trips with the Goth Club or weekend practices for Belegarth, a foam fighting sport. Belegarth also helps me be more active. In high school, I participated in color guard and drumline, which kept me active enough. Over the summer and during the Fall Quarter, I had difficulty motivating myself to be active, resulting in more severe symptoms of my chronic pain. In finding an activity that I enjoy, I can actually get motivated to get more active!

This winter, I’m excited to write for any readers of the ZotBlog who may feel like they don’t have it all figured out. I’m with you, and we can work on improving our habits together!

Hey there! I’m Clay (he/him) and I’m a freshman this year in U/U. A little about me is that I’m from Orange County, California, I really love D&D, and I really like visual and performing arts.

Becoming an Anteater has been really exciting for me. I really enjoyed SPOP, it really gave me a chance to get out of my shell. I performed in the SPOP 6 talent show (SPOP 6 gang let’s goooo!) and I got to have a lot of really cool conversations with UCI students both incoming, currently attending, and graduated.

I’m actually writing this segment at the end of Welcome Week. At this point, I’ve moved into my dorm and seen what UCI really has to offer. And let me tell you- It’s a lot. I’ve met so many amazing people and experienced so many new things just in the span of a week. One of my greatest fears is what people think of me, and here I honestly really feel free of the paranoia of what people think of me. I’ve met so many people that have the same interests as me, ranging from my taste in music to my guilty pleasures like watching silly cartoons and cheesy action movies.

That’s not even getting started on the variety of clubs on campus. There’s so many clubs that range from major specific groups focused on student success to general clubs for common interests to identity based clubs that uplift members of the community. At the Anteater Involvement Fair, I walked around for hours in the hot sun just to get a taste of all the organizations created by my fellow Anteaters that existed. I can safely say that the sunburn was annoying but checking everything out was so worth it. Even then, I hardly even scratched the surface of all of the clubs that were not my cup of tea. I was mostly interested in clubs focusing on the arts, humanities, and the creative community at UCI. There were so many other groups that were outside of my interests but would attract many other students, such as pre-law societies, med student clubs, greek life, and more. Even though I don’t have a major, I stopped by some of those booths and was excited to learn about the internships and research that these clubs conducted.

Moving on from clubs, the social aspect of being at college has been overwhelmingly positive for me. Truth be told, I’m a very insecure person and I often overthink interactions with my peers. But with our late night walks in Aldrich Park to just hanging out in our dorm rooms, It’s been such an honor to meet so many funny, intelligent, and genuine people. Even people that don’t share my interests are willing to let me talk about my silly shows and crafting endeavors. In return, I get to hear about what they like, and it makes me so happy to hear about what makes other people happy.

I’ve gone on long enough. Being at UCI has been a great experience so far and I can’t wait to see what else is in store for me. I hope that I can be a resource for anyone who reads the blog, and that I can inspire people to get out of their comfort zone and have the college experience. Inspire may be a strong word to use, but I’m excited to show people what being an Anteater can be!