#commuter student

[chongoblog]

I realized I missed Mad Rat Monday AND Iggy Friday this week. Dang, the new job be so distracting

[the---hermit]

I have not kept it a secret that this semester commuting has been really rough on me. By the time I get home in the middle of the afternoon even if I only had to sit in a hour and a half lecture I feel like an overcooked noodle. And the mornings aren't any easier, my anxiety has been spiking a lot lately, and that messes me up completly, and it's particularly hard on my stomach. Let's just say it's a very demanding period of my life both physically and emotionally and I have been doing my best to get through it with ups and downs, but most importantly by trying to properly take care of myself. I decided to compile a list of small things that have been helping me, both for future reference as well as for people who might be dealing with similar issues.

Prep everything I can the night before. I don't leave the house until more or less mid morning since my class is on lunch time more or less (and this will come up again), so I do have time to do stuff in the morning, but if I have already put everything I need in my backpack, picked an outfit for the day and checked that I have my bus ticket the night before I can have a much calmer morning. Having a calm morning is fundamental for me on any day, so especially when I have a stressful and energy demanding day ahead I want to make sure I don't have to rush, and here is my second point.

Try to have a morning as calm as possible before I have to leave. I am a morning person so I wake up quite early which means I have plenty of time to take it easy. And this means drink my tea as I read my book, prep the last few things I need, like my waterbottle, eat (on which I'll have a later point). Overall my morning before leaving needs to be slow and mostly made of things for myself so again my precious reading time, listening tocmusic as I get ready to get in a better mood and so on.

Taking my meds regularly. It's the logical thing to do, if I am in a period in which my anxiety is worse than usual the number one goal is to be consistent with meds, they are there to help me even if sometimes I forget that.

Finding ways to enjoy food when anxiety fucks up my stomach. What happens is that as soon as I have an anxiety spike for some reason I get very nauseous, which is terribly by itself and it gets worse when it makes me struggle to enjoy my food. But I found a couple of ways to work around that in the past few weeks. Eating when I am away from home is much worse so what I do is embrace the little hobbit in me and have more meals when I am at home, and just bring some snacks on the road if I need them. That means I have two breakfasts before I have to leave the house, the last being a bit more filling. And then when I get home no matter how tired I am or what time it is I cook something for myself, something simple, but I take the time to make something good that fills me up and makes me happy. Because having a full stomach does improve your mood belove me. When I am on the road I bring some lighter snacks that can help me if I feel like I need to have something but that will also work well if I have a spike in anxiety and correlated nausea. I usually eat some homemade bread while I walk from the bus stop to my uni, and then snack on some nuts while I wait for the lecture. And I always have an emergency sweet treat in my backpack because that is something that I actually do on a regular basis. This thing has been working very well, I have had less problems with my stomach acting up, and I am definitely getting all the nutrients I need during the day, just at times that are a bit different from my normal routine.

Bring tea with me. It's something I never did before but it's becoming the one thing I won't give up. I either make a green tea or an herbal tea that I drink before the lecture, and it's been so good for me both physically and mentally. It's been super cold so the warm treat is really needed, but most importantly it's been very comforting and calming, so shutout to my dad for suggesting that.

Having little things to look out for during the commute. This mostly consists of me listing to podcasts, and re:dracula has been of great company in my commutes last year so it's nice it's become a bit of a tradition. It's just good for me not to associate commuting with negative things, so now I just percieve it as poscast time which makes it much much better. This also includes texing friends when I feel like I can look at the screen of my phone without getting car sick (again when anxiety messes me up I can get random car sickness), that's good to keep my mind off things and make the commute feel lighter.

Total relax when I get home. Which sometimes means lying in bed with a cup of tea and nothing more. If I have enough brain power I might read a comic, or play stupid midless games on my tablet for a bit. Honestly just things that need as little energy and brainpower as possible because by that time I do not have much energy or brainpower left, and it's okay. I normally use up a lot of energy when going out and it this period of time all tasks require I use even more energy. I can't do much about it other than accept it and do my best to tke care of myself.

[non-un-topo]

All it takes is a wee little nightmare to make you too scared to step foot outside for fear of Bad Things happening, like it’s an omen lol

[links-studies]

I honestly don’t know why I don’t come to study here more often?

[yellow-yarrow]

thinking about Steban's long commute to campus, of course he's not attending classes

[nando161mando]

Communist commuters

[bumblingest-bee]

i have this mock trial professor who scares the hell out of me. every conversation with him feels like you're being cross-examined (not a joke it's genuinely frightening). but today i was having an awful time bc i had to leave in the middle of another class to get to mock trial early and in the process i made another professor really, really mad at me. and if there's one thing i hate it's making professors mad at me. but this man. he offered to walk with me and go apologize to the other professor himself because he made me leave the class in the first place. he was so so fucking kind to me i legitimately cried

[twodragonsinatrenchcoat]

The pain of looking into college really is the fact that that shit costs money.

[gxlden-angels]

Controversial take but I'm much more comforted by the idea of a deity that makes mistakes and admits it than one that insists they're perfect and punishes anyone who says otherwise by sending them to be tortured

[giyuulatte]

this is lowkey embarrassing and sad but ive literally forgotten how to talk to and be friends with people

[dontcallmecarrie]

me in undergrad during and after Finals Week, my beloathed nemesis: questionable life choices feat. semiregular cram sessions at the library, dubious sleep schedules, the occasional migraine, and post-exam jitters that got dozens of chapters written

me now: do you really want to run on less than six hours of sleep tomorrow? lol no

[freckleslikestars]

My MFA costs £14,438

My scholarship takes that down to £11,550.40

The UK student loans company offers a maximum of £12,471 to cover both the tuition fees and cost of living.

My university only allow me to have up to 15 hours of employment a week.

I earn minimum wage.

Tell me again how the UK are progressive with allowing working class people to get a higher education, because right now I don’t see it.

[lovinggreeniehours]

GIRL 🥹🥹🥹🥹 WHAT,, im a fish now,,,,,?? 🥹🥹 not clickbait? 🥹🥹🥹

[benechillax]

man i think i’m 5 seconds away from a mental breakdown

[tardis--dreams]

This work week will suck so bad I'm dreading it so much

[pinoytiktok]

(support the original tiktok: @/goldwin.reyes!)