Week 11 College: Finding Balance: Exams, Friends, and fun moments
“Sometimes the most productive thing you can do is relax.” – Mark Black
By: Hong Bing Tang November 11th, 2024
11/04/2024 to 11/10/2024
Introduction:
Hey everyone! I hope you all had a great week. This last week has been filled with low motivation but also some fun activities sprinkled in. After Thursday, I regained some more motivation and had fun. Let’s get into my week!
School:
I had two exams this week. Luckily they were both in my easier classes so my stress levels were not super high. As a result, I really had no urge to study for both of these exams since I felt very comfortable with the content in the class. I did do some studying in the previous week for those classes with Eli on Friday however this week I was feeling super unmotivated so I took my chances, which sometimes is not the greatest mindset to have, and decided that for the mental state, which was feeling pretty exhausted, it would not be any benefit to study and stress myself over the content that I already was confident on. I feel like having this mindset for me is really healthy since I sometimes do overwork myself and being able to recognize that sometimes “not doing more” is actually the best option. Well I know for sure that it somewhat worked since I got a A in one of the exams and the other I am still waiting to hear back from. So overall, I am glad that I decided to not study.
Football game:
The start of November means MACtion football! This means that our football games instead of being held on Saturdays transition towards Tuesday and Wednesday night games. The atmosphere at these games are slightly different since they are play at night time. Unfortunately for this game I was selling 50/50 raffle tickets so I was not able to watch the game nearly as much. Additionally it was raining all day and was projected to rain during the game. So as a result, the number of people at the game was pretty small. Luckily, though while Miciah and I were at the game selling raffle tickets, the weather was pretty nice. It was a little bit windy but the temperature was around 50 degrees and it was not raining at all. When Miciah and I started selling we got off the a pretty good start but unfortunately after the 1st quarter we felt that we had sold tickets to almost everyone since there was so little people. Fortunately we regrouped with everyone and it seemed everyone had a similar feeling. So after halftime we all headed back and finished our shift. Overall, it was not a bad experience for 50/50 or football game experience.
Friday:
Of course, to start off Friday morning we had a morning workout followed by a lift. It went great. The more exciting part was that after all of this, basically our whole guy’s team headed to the dorms to have a Café breakfast. However, on our way to the dorms, Aiden and Nick decided to have a sword fight with the plastic lawn sticks that are all around the sidewalks. After making sure no one got majorly hurt by getting wacked or tripping we arrived at the Café, and we were able to get in. It was my first time going back to the café since last year and the food was pretty good. However, going back to the café reminded me of the atmosphere that I missed, which was being able to socialize with the team after practice or during meals. Although I do miss that experience, I think it is still way better to cook my own food due to the low quality of food that normally is served in the dining hall.
Since this week was not a race week, it felt like I had a lot more time on my hands. Additionally, with two exams this week I had very minimal homework. This allowed me to be able to relax on Friday and Saturday. So, on Friday I was able to do a lot of activities. During the afternoon, I was able to catch up with Katie. We both are very busy people, so we hadn’t been able to really stay in touch with each other, so it was nice to be able to see how things are going with school, RA stuff, and socially. Additionally, I was also able to see Hunter, another RA in Thorpe Hall who I hadn’t seen in a while.
Steve, Carson and I decided to head to the final women’s volleyball match against Kent State. Our team was ranked 2nd in the MAC while Kent State was near the bottom of the MAC. This made the match super short and electric to watch since our team was very dominant and made some nasty plays. Overall, it was the best I had seen the team play and hopefully we can win a couple more games and be first in the MAC so that we host the tournament. After this Carson and I headed to the guy’s house to have a movie night. We watched a movie called “Borat” which was about a Kazakhstan new reporter touring the US for a documentary for Kazakhstan and his experience about it. It was a very funny movie but was also very out of pocket and foul at some points.
Saturday:
Saturday was filled with a ton of events as well. After morning practice most of our team headed to Shepherd to watch and volunteer at the Michigan High school meet of champions. This race is always something that our team helps with, and it is always fun to watch and interact with high schoolers because a short while before I was in the same position that they were in. Additionally, it was awesome since I got to talk to Blake, Max, and Ray all the people that I had run with in high school and see them race. This year I helped with the swag tent where we gave cool merch away to high schoolers. I also helped collect the timing chips after the runners finished their race. Although it was quite an environment since we were at the finish line, it was bittersweet. Many racers were happy while others were crying or throwing up. Many were just lying on the ground. Being in that space reminded me how much of a reward our sport is. It’s full of ups and downs but in the end it’s something that most of us still come back to since we enjoy it.
Since this weekend is normally one of our bigger weekends for getting recruits. Our team decided to play ultimate frisbee in the IAC turf bay. The two English girls drafted us and there were around 8 of us per team. We had a pretty good team and fought hard against the other team but in the end lost to them by 1 point. Even though we lost I still had a blast but was quite exhausted due to sprinting around along with the long day.
To conclude my day, I decided to have a little Movie night with Jessie. We watched “Suits” which is a show about lawyer’s where they do a bunch of illegal stuff and as a result in order to cover their tracks, they do even more illegal activities. It is filled with a lot of drama and thrill making it an addictive show to watch. I had watched the show before, but Jessie was watching it for the first time. However, even though I had watched the series before I really did not remember it much, so it was fun to be able to rewatch it and seem some easter eggs that I had not noticed originally.
Conclusion:
To wrap up the week, despite the ups and downs, I’m feeling pretty good about how things turned out. It was a week of balancing school, fun activities, and some much-needed relaxation. I’ve learned that sometimes taking a step back and not overworking myself can be the best decision for my mental health. From football games and volunteering to hanging out with friends and watching movies, I managed to squeeze in some quality downtime while still staying on top of what needed to get done. Looking ahead, I’m excited to keep the momentum going and make the most of this quieter period before things pick up again.
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