Hobbies and Exams

I like many people, am experiencing the dreaded examination period at its fullest.

Due to the fact that this virus has pushed all of our tests online, the tests themselves will be significantly harder as they have now been adjusted to the open-book format. Open-book essentially means that you will be expected to critique more as well as just generally using your own analyses to a greater extent due to the fact that you have all of the information laid out in front of you. For this reason, such tests tend to be more difficult for me. I have been studying like a demon, lately and I will continue to do so until the exam period is over. This has unfortunately meant that I have had to put many of my hobbies aside in order to study. This is understandable and important to do but sad nonetheless.

One of these hobbies has been writing. I don’t know if you, the reader, have noticed (unless of course you are new here, in which case- welcome!) but I have not been as active on this platform as I should be. It has just gotten to that stage in which even writing a single post once a week has been challenging time-wise. I haven’t even been able to watch any of the new season of The Politician on Netflix because of my cray schedule. Now that is just plain old sad.

Considering this, however, I find writing to be really good for my mental health. No matter how much I have to study, I also have to take care of said mental health. It is for this reason that I will be writing here more frequently. Writing on my blogs is really important to me and I should make it more of a priority in my life. If I can stay active on YouTube through all of this, surely I can stay active on The Bluebird Circle as well.

Do comment your thoughts on this, I am open to hearing any advice on the matter.

Take care of yourselves.

-Birdie

Loneliness and Quarantine

I think we all miss somebody, be it friend or family.

I know personally that I miss my friends in particular. All of this brings me back to that time between high school and university when I just felt extremely lonely (I wrote a past post about that so feel free to check that out). I don’t feel lonely on nearly the same scale as I did then but yesterday it all started to hit me. I just wanted to discuss this today.

I think that I miss the small things like getting iced coffee with my friends or hanging out with them in our respective dorm rooms. I suppose that some of the loneliness comes from a lack of normalcy in life, a change in routine and custom. I have been trying to think of ways to combat this feeling and I have come up with a few solutions. The first thing may seem obvious but video call your friends, I mean actually video call them. It’s the next best thing to actually seeing them in person. Playing some of the songs that you guys commonly enjoy and that remind you of nights out or times spent hanging out could help to establish the mindset that you are still enjoying those activities and could help to bring back memories of better times. Lastly, I would recommend creating a new routine and sticking to it. This will bring back a sense of normalcy and routine to your everyday life and may help you cope with the effects of quarantine.

These have been a couple of my tips to combat loneliness during quarantine. I have a bunch of other tips so be sure to comment if you’d like me to write a sequel to this post!

Good luck.

-Birdie

Moving Back

So my study space at home got pulled out from under me.

This had its benefits, however, and it meant that I was able to move back to my student residency so that I had a calm space to study in. The plan is to go back home on weekends while staying here during the week. Being back here has been an experience.

I no longer have this massive outdoors space within which to walk and picnic. I have countered this seemingly negative situation by doing indoor exercises to keep me fit. I found this workout challenge on Pinterest (yes, I still use Pinterest, sue me) and I must say, it has been working for me so far. I also make my own small indoor picnics by putting a blanket on my floor and enjoying my space. Since I’ve been making my own food as well, I am able to eat my meals whenever I wish. This has been a major plus.

I have been working on self-improvement. I have found myself feeling rather depressed lately (depression is something I tend to struggle with a lot) and so I decided to make changes to my diet and general lifestyle. I think that actually taking the time to workout every morning has also improved my mental state. Being back here has forced me to be healthy because I don’t have as great an access to the nearest store. I count this as a pro because health is something that I need to work on and this is a great opportunity to get going on that front.

Being back at my student residency has been very calming. It is a less chaotic environment than home is. I am actually able to study well in this environment and I fee as though my marks will reflect this. I am so happy to have my study space back and to be able to act out all my weird quirks that help me to study. My work life is thriving here. Here’s to hoping that this continues.

Stay home, folks.

–Birdie

Home vs. Residency

I have been living at home for the past few months but last week I was able to go back to my res for a couple of day (res=student commune for you non-locals).

I must say, living at res certainly beats living at home. It is calmer there, I am able to prepare my own food at whatever time I like and I have my own workspace. The only thing I would miss from being home is the massive garden within which I can take study breaks. The only issue is that I am not allowed to move back into res on account of my parent’s rules. Yes, I am 19 and yes, I still listen to my parents. We all have our cross to bear. The situation only grows more dire as soon the one appropriate study space within which I can get some privacy is going to be taken away from me. This is because we live at a school and the students are coming back next week Monday. Since I am not allowed to go back to my res, I shall have to study in a noisier, more chaotic environment. If there is any update to me finding a new study space, I will be sure to tell you.

I guess I just feel stuck in a chaotic environment. Things are always changing here. Not to mention that as soon as lockdown regulations allow us, we will be moving into a new place to live. There is just something about this entire situation that doesn’t sit well with me, I guess. I stated in a previous blog that I am going to practice gratitude while staying at home and I will/do, it just gets a little hard when everything is swept out from under you. I just have to endure this life until lockdown ends but I can assure you that it’s a struggle. I realise, once again, that this is a “first-world problem” but does it being this do anything to make me feel better about it? That’s a solid no. Nevertheless, I shall persist and try to make the best out of the situation at hand. Let’s just hope that this works out for me.

Keep staying alive.

-Birdie

The Perks of Online Learning

We are going to be stuck in this cycle of online learning for a while, so we might as well find the good in it.

Online learning has its challenges and we hear about these challenges every day through social media. There are major challenges such as access to resources or lack thereof and concentration issues. I feel as though there are some perks to online schooling, however, and so I wish to share with you the perks that I have discovered during the past two weeks of online learning.

The first is that I can increase the playback speed of my online pre-recorded video lectures. I have this one English lecturer who “um”s and “ah”s her way through lectures at a painfully slow rate. In this case I like to slightly increase the speed of my lectures, not so much that she sounds like a chipmunk but just fast enough that the lecture is less painful. I can’t do this in physical lectures so it is a blessing to have figured this out. The second perk is that I can make my own schedule. Sure, some lectures are live and so I have to attend them in the allocated time slots but some are pre-recorded and pre-uploaded so I can access the content at any time I wish. This is especially useful when I have class clashes. I can do the one class in the allocated time slot and the other class beforehand. I also don’t have to travel to classes on different sides of campus because I can access them all just sitting at my desk. I also don’t have to walk to school (although I do miss those walks tbh), cutting my travel time down to zero. I can eat during class which is a blessing during classes that take place around lunch and breakfast time. I can have a full meal just sitting at my desk in front of my classes. The final perk I have noticed is that I can do things like playing my ukulele or baking in between classes as a break. I wouldn’t have been able to do this while on campus so it makes a nice change.

These are the perks that I have noticed during my short time being at online university. I am not otherwise able to enact these perks on my physical campus so it makes for a nice change of scenery/pace. Feel free to comment any perks of your own in the comment section!

Stay groovy.

-Birdie

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An Intervention for University/College Websites

So, here’s the tea.

There are few inanimate objects that really make me want to kill a bitch. I lie, there are many objects that do this, however, the ones that I will be addressing today are: University/College websites. They suck ass and I don’t mean one of them, I mean ALL of them.

Their issue is not with interface or general aesthetic, they are usually really nice to look at. I am sure that they are simple to navigate for a student who has already been enrolled in the institute before but I am speaking from the perspective of a newcomer. Their issue is the sheer lack of available information as well as their confusing and often contradictory instructions.

Let’s start with the lack of information. As someone who isn’t going into STEM, I have learnt NOTHING. They’ll give you the dictionary definition of your faculty but then you’re on your own, kiddo! The information that I did manage to acquire came from contacting the lecturers themselves and even they took a while to reply (because they are respected individuals with a profession that requires attention even outside of set work hours). When choosing electives not only was I extremely lost but so were my peers! For the life of me I could not find any definitive tips or rules regarding registration. Even now, I can’t even find the list of prescribed textbooks, smh…

When registering I was told to contact a specific individual who then told me to contact a certain department who THEN told me to contact the individual whom I had contacted in the first place. When receiving my timetable for the year I deadass couldn’t read it. I’m not dismissing the possibility that I could just be extremely dumb, however, I like to think that I did the best I could seeing that I was a future freshman armed with no instructions whatsoever. For those wondering if I ever figured out the timetable, I didn’t. A sophomore friend created a friendlier, more organised timetable for me. I’m not a dude but I for sure felt both grateful and emasculated at the same time. Why is a website giving me emotional turmoil, do I seem like a Tumblr chick to you? On second thought, maybe don’t answer that…

Even when applying for college, every website just seemed so complicated. My theory is that they weed out the weak ones by purposefully making their sites a living hell. There was a stage where I had an outstanding contract which I didn’t even know that I had to send the college a physical copy of until months later when one of my fellow peers where discussing their application process and their sibling was already attending the institution! I read things through. As Gina Linetti as I am, when it comes to college applications I go FULL Amy Santiago on those hos. Until very recently I’ve just been floating in a deep abyss of anxiety and confusion and all because of a college website.

What bothers me most about this is that this ain’t an unsolvable problem. If a uni IT guy ever comes across this: WEBSITES SHOULDN’T MAKE YOU STRESSED! None of this is a jab at the universities themselves, I for one totally dig my college, but if you teach web design you should at least have a user-friendly website, ya feel? Work from the perspective of a high school senior…you know, the people you want to attract in the first place. If you feel me, feel free to comment on this post because tbh I feel personally attacked by university websites.

Think of the children!

-Birdie

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