Five Things to Try in the Coming Year
I am out of the office today, so this is a pre-post.
The start of classes is around 6ish weeks away. As I think about the coming academic year, I want to suggest a short list of five things our students might consider doing this fall.
Make a friend with a completely different background/perspective/worldview/experience. A lot of times – particularly for new students – it can feel more comfortable to be around people who are just like you. People may feel familiar and safe if they have similar backgrounds or life experience. But much of the richness of college comes from expanding your boundaries. So find a friend who has a different worldview, or lived in a different country (or different part of our country), or who has a different faith tradition, etc. Then have deep conversations about your experiences – where they differ, but also what you have in common. You might have more in common than you think.
Find one go-to adult. This is advice I offer every year. Make a connection to one adult – whether faculty or staff – that you could go to if you needed an outside perspective on an issue, an unbiased opinion, a thinking partner, or just some moral support. Here’s an inside-baseball secret: we LOVE when there is a student who wants to connect with us!
Discover Winston-Salem. There are tons of things to do in town – everything from eateries to art galleries to parks and greenspaces to museums. If you aren’t familiar with the city, do some weekend exploring and find new places you hadn’t been before.
Take up a practice of some sort. That could be meditation, or an evening walk, or swimming laps, or gardening in the Campus Garden, or learning guitar, or keeping a gratitude journal, or volunteering once a week – the possibilities are endless. Having a practice of some sort can help your wellbeing, your mood, and can nurture sides of you that might really enjoy being cultivated.
Spend time reflecting. Instead of living life moment to moment and going hurry-scurry from one thing to the next with barely time to think, slow down. Spend some time reflecting. What did you do this week that you enjoyed a lot? What specifically about that experience was enjoyable? How can you add more of that to your life? What was not as fun, and why did you think that was? What did you learn about yourself this week? Every bit of data that you gather about yourself can help you make better, wiser choices going forward – if you spend time thinking about it.
As with all my advice, take what is useful to you and leave what isn’t 🙂