Academic - Blog Posts

“You will never be happy if you continue to search for what happiness consists of. You will never live if you are looking for the meaning of life.”

-Albert Camus ☕️🌙

(Art: Greg Mort, “Sun, Moon and Stars,” 1999)

me, at 3 am, in the middle of yet another personal crisis: i need to learn 2 instruments, 1 craft and 5 languages. immediately.

You. Can. Be. Happy. Alone.

This blog is mainly about love, but you can be in love with life without having a small group of friends or a significant other. You can be content on your own!

Listen to music in your bedroom at full volume in your headphones and dance until the sun goes down. Feel every jump hit your soul. It’s the best feeling.

Watch comedies along and laugh as loud as you want!!

Read books! Annotate them just for yourself or future you.

Write letters to the void or to your past or your future.

Talk to yourself. (I do it all the time! It’s the best and does not mean your lonely or ‘crazy’)

Just live your life without the fear of being alone. Being introverted does not mean your broken. If you don’t like parties, don’t go! Stay home on your own and know that it isn’t a bad thing. Be the person who can be happy on their own.

Everyone wants different things! Some people like talking in big groups and sharing their thoughts whereas others like to keep to themselves. Neither needs changing.

I used to think scientists were mortal gods; that I should never be clever enough to be one of them. Even now I am astounded every day by the minds that solved some of nature’s most incredible problems. Maybe that’s why I took no interest in science until I was 14.

Or maybe it was because of all I have been told over the years. I was told I was hopeless with maths - my secondary school maths teacher admitted that I was only in the top set because my confidence was already on the floor and would not allow them to move me down.

I was told that if I needed to be medicated for depression and anxiety, I would have no hope in the “real world”.

I was told that given my socioeconomic status (my single-parent family is among the poorest 10% in the U.K. based on income) and postcode, all the predictions pointed to my failing school. I don’t suppose the truancy due to constant bullying helped my case. If I didn’t even have a desk to work at, how could I ever expect pass any of my exams? (Look carefully at the picture and you’ll see carpet. It’s 23:56 on a Sunday and I am reunited with the only study space I have in my family home - the top of the stairs!)

And yet here I am, despite all the odds. I did not fail in school: I was top in my year, twice. I am striving for a first in my chemistry degree at a Russell Group university. I taught myself an A level in maths and got a top grade. I am now so totally in love with my degree and with learning that it hurts.

I did all that from the top of the stairs.

[Sorry for the rambles, and I hope that the wall of text doesn’t look like bragging. It’s just that lately, I’ve been so overwhelmed with how far I have yet to go, and I’ve only just realised how far I’ve come.]

-August 2018- What I’ve read so far this month! Nothing like some French, German and linguistic literature to bulk up my personal statement :)

Hey guys! I’m still collecting answers for my survey until about the end of the week if you’re interested in taking it. It’s for a research class. The topic is the relationship between the availability of mental health services on a college campus and the academic success of its students. If you’re an undergraduate student, please, if you can, take the time to fill out the survey! I’d really appreciate it, and it only takes about 5-10 minutes tops to do. 

Survey link: https://hofstra.co1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_b2A5HXzoakRcJkV

Thank you!!

I don’t think we’re rick rolling each other enough anymore. 1. it CANNOT die out 2. this under saturated market is perfect for unsuspecting victims who’ve been lulled into a false sense of security. be the person you hate. bring back the dastardly link

How to avoid distractions while studying.

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Social Media.

I personally know how hard it is to study when constant social media notifications are popping up so i just turn them off. This is obvious and the easiest way. Keep your phone in another room while you're studying.

Youtube

Here's the thing, YouTube is something we can't avoid, especially when it comes to studying because many times, we want to learn from the videos but end up getting distracted and therefore, i maintain 2 accounts. One, a personal account where I watch all my own channels like vlogs and other content videos and another account only for studying. I don't subscribe to any other channels beside the channels that help me with my studies in this account. I've noticed that I get a lot less distracted because your recommendations would only be study related or the content related!

Write them down

When you're studying and you noticed that you're getting a lot of distractions. Take a paper and write down the distractions with the timings and then continue studying.

Distractions - Time

Phone - 20 min (specify time: 8:20-40)

By this, you can analyse what's distracting you more than the others and you can actually calculate your study hours better and help yourself improve it.

Reduce everything by 5 mins

It's okay to get distracted. Everyone gets distracted and the best way to decrease your distractions is to decrease them by 5 mins for some days and then keep decreasing them gradually. It's the best way to work honestly because it helps you remove the distractions over time as a habit.

Complete your chores before sitting down

You might know that whenever you sit down with a firm motivation to study and then you take your notes, books, materia etc and a voice from the kitchen comes saying"You haven't finished the dishes!" So, now you go to do the dishes and then another chore pops up when you sit to study and another and another. So, here's my advice, either you complete all your chores before you study or you complete them after or you could complete them during breaks. But make sure you're not distracted by them.

Turn daydreaming into a weapon

Personally, this is something i really really struggled with, like whenever I sit down to study, I ended up daydreaming about a certain book or plot. It would definitely not help me study so recently, I started assigning fictional characters to subjects and personally, like, gosh my economics was alittle more interesting when I was "teaching" it to Cardan Greenbriar (tfota). It's kinda childish to have like an imaginary friend or such but it certainly helps with boring subjects. Imagine scenarios or do anything with your imagination as long as you're studying the content. It helps you remember important points even though it may be absurd.

Q and A sessions

From time to time, get in the habit of quizzing yourself, I do it after every topic i complete. I'll ask questions which are not in the book, I'll twist the questions just like in the tests. This means that you have to stay focused if you truly want to answer the questions or even form the questions. You can even do it with a friend/study buddies!

Tennis method

This method is really useful and i kinda made it up. You hold your hands up in the air facing towards each other. Now, after you completed a topic, you "throw" your first point from one hand to another and the other hand should "throw" back the second point and so on until you're completely done with it. If you can't "throw" a point back in less than a minute, you need to revise more. Personally, I love doing this because I'm focused on answering and it's actually kinda fun "throwing" points like balls, even though it may look crazy to any outsiders xD (You can use this for maths for formulae, vocabs etc!)

Hope this helps! :D

I don't know how people have such cute and aesthetic notes while mine look like they've been written by someone from another planet in another language