Welcome to the end of August, everyone. Back to school season approaches, whether we’re ready (or, if you’re like me and are somewhat dreading this ‘summer detox’ phase), you’re not. If I’m getting tired of icebreaker activities, I assert my dominance by squaring my shoulders and whispering in a high pitched octave: YOU AREN’T READY FOR ME. And then I manage to forget my name and make up a new favorite color in the span of three minutes.
These facades won’t last past the first week of school, but delusion can stroke anxiety’s ego every so often. Today’s post will be one such exception and might serve as a breather after my numerous spotlight feature posts on youth changemakers, who I will continue interviewing when the new school year eases off to a somewhat stable start. High school goes by faster than I’d thought, though most people could draw similar conclusions from time spent tethered to an idea or construct.
“Let’s learn to be the love of your own life,” I said to myself in June. Let’s learn to escape the voids we call our comfort zones. Let’s learn how to throw our phones across our room (after ensuring there’s a pillow for it to flop against) and reconnect with the grand art of being present. What I thought I would discover over these past months of perceived relaxation was a sense of security about myself. Okay, I’ll be honest just this one time: I strove to define myself within specific parameters that I believed would make me successful or at least more goal-oriented. Striving to curate my personality, however, didn’t do me much good.
What does it mean, to curate a personality? I believe it goes beyond traditional aesthetics or embracing a certain trend; trends can cultivate bonds among diverse communities and encourage compromise over certain divisive issues. Jumping onto a bandwagon does not need to have a negative connotation because humanity needs a few doses of collective fun, or at least respite from the constant pressure to make up their mind.
Choosing to remain undecided or in the middle of a polarized discussion is more difficult than, say, "picking a side." To curate a personality, one must become an expert at making hyper speed decisions that begin to seep into our everyday lives. These habits become lifestyle practices, leading an unfortunate majority of us to lead lives we don't find fulfiling or promising. Prominent influencers claim we all have the same 24-hours in a day, but time and resources are privileges for many.
So, what's the takeaway from all this? For all the students out there in this void: make this new school about YOU and your inner goals. Strive for self-efficacy and intrinsic motivation instead of people-pleasing for college. The journey to a Curated Personality loops around in countless frustrating circles.
My favorite way to escape my house or de stress or just hangout with my thoughts— is to visit a cafe. There’s a subtle beauty, a curated art in allowing the day’s wears to coalesce over a steaming mug, drained of thoughts and ajar speech. Grab a spontaneous pastry by yourself or with friends, no occasion needed. The best kind of impromptu self-care trip is one where you don’t have every logistic planned out or time blocked. We have enough time to orient our lives around schedules when academia overwhelms us. What if we create for ourselves for once?
Listen to some relaxing Spotify playlists and binge watch some good TV shows without guilt because life is too short and we only live once…if we curated our personalities to match an aesthetic, buying stationery and protein powder and packaged deals, would our values be the same? Would we truly be better off is the question, and many people have different answers to those questions.
Here are some of my recommendations for stress relieving apps and sites that are fun to explore so I can claim my (miniscule, almost nonexistent)niche of readers received something of substance from my ramble:
Finch is a free mental health app where you can set goals for yourself from going on a daily walk, journaling, or even getting enough sleep -- and you will stay motivated because you'll be raising your own digi-pet. If you want to make mental health more fun and personalize your mental health journey, get Finch!
While I don't use this app, I heard about it from a friend and it honestly sounds like such a lifesaver during stressful school situations. Not to mention it has the best name ever. SpiralUp is another mental health app certified by neuroscientists that helps you process emotions and release stress in minutes in any situation with promptes & exercises.
And obviously, I couldn't end a student-app-survival guide post without mentioning Notion. I cannot operate without a functioning calendar to organize what I'm supposed to be doing, so Notion is a godsend. The only drawback is always feeling jealous when other students and influencers have incredible Notion templates while you're still figuring out how to change text color. (Sigh).
If you stumbled across this corner of my world and found this post entertaining to the smallest degree, my work here is done. Lesson of the day: not every minute has to be spent hoarding lessons and crafting personality from evening hangouts, copy-pasting anecdotes into a “THIS IS MY LIFE” document. One day when the document overloads, wouldn’t you have wanted to spend some of that time living memories instead of editing them?
Here's to our best school year yet.
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