one Monday at a time

Hello All, Welcome back to one Monday at a time! I am wrapping up the semester this week, and it's been a bit of chaotic with all the final presentations, exams, and papers I've had to write. I'm taking mostly 400 level courses this semester, and the workload has been nothing short of exhausting. I'm hoping to finish out the semester strong, though, and I can't wait to graduate next Saturday! Since I'm at a closing chapter of this stage in my life, I want to talk about planning for the future, and mention some of the actions that I've taken to sort out my next steps for life. I have so much to plan in the next couple months, like where I'm going to live, where I'm going to work, and where I want to go to grad school. Having foresight is such an important part of staying on track and developing plans for the future, as well as ensuring that you don't fall behind. It's a skill that's hard to develop, as it can get clouded by anxiety and los...

Hello all, Welcome back to one Monday at a time! I hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving. The holidays can be a stressful time of year for many, so I feel very lucky that my family is as close as we are. It might be a bit cliché to write about gratitude after Thanksgiving, after all, that is  the point of the holiday. However, I think I've been challenged in the past couple weeks with the concept of gratitude, and I've struggled to remain appreciative for things in my everyday life. It has helped to be cognizant of when I start to drift off into negative wishful thinking, and instead, make a conscious effort to stay in the present.  Counting my blessings is hard though, I tend to get repetitive, always starting with friends and family and expanding to the several items I can see around my room. From there, I start to think about concepts and feelings, like comfort or safety. In this way, it has felt more redundant than revitalizing to count my blessings, and almost a bit dull...

Hello all! Welcome back to one Monday at a time. I took last week off, since we didn't have classes, but this Monday, I am back in the swing of things. The past two weeks have been very eventful in my life. As of writing this, I have 25 days left of my URI undergrad experience. That seems wild to say, but here it is, a whole 5 and 1/2 months early. I feel that my brain is dragging though, maybe this is what they call "senioritis", or a complete and utter unwillingness to do anything that has to do with school. I'm being productive in my everyday life, going to the gym, cooking, and even decorating for Christmas a bit early! I just have an extreme aversion to homework right now, and I'm trying to stay focused, but it's so hard when I'm soooo close to the end. It's like I'm carrying barrels of water up a mountain, and I can see the peak, and so I start to move faster, and care a little less about the water I'm holding, and soon enough I'm spi...

Hello all, I feel like this week has gone on so long, but passed by so quick at the same time. Senioritis is starting to creep in, and I feel like I've done nothing, even though all I've done is work. I've been getting back into the gym, which has been difficult for me to carve out time to do, but the release of endorphins has made me a lot more productive and way less stressed. I was thinking about what I would write about this week, and I was going to write about anxiety, but I feel like writing a post about anxiety immediately  after writing about mindfulness wouldn't be a good look for my therapist. So, instead of that, I've decided to talk about Transition. Google defines Transition as the process or a period of changing from one state or condition to another, but I feel like it's a bit more than that. Sometimes your condition stays the same, but as humans, we find ways to surmount these obstacles all the time. We are constantly in a state of transition, ev...

Hello all,  Welcome back to one Monday at a time! I'm currently writing this in my Personal Branding course (don't tell Professor Daly), after I realized that I forgot to care about this blog for the week. They say it takes time to build a habit, so I'm hoping that I only have a couple more weeks until I build it into my schedule. On that topic, I wanted to talk about mindfulness and how I've tried to focus on being more conscious of my presence this week.  I think I'm at the point in the semester where everything is too chaotic to even breathe. I've been trying to stay on top of assignments, but I've noticed my other priorities slipping... like going to the gym, eating three meals a day, or focusing on choosing joy. One of my professors had gifted me a journal and some trinkets this past Thursday, and encouraged me to pursue mindfulness. I didn't exactly know how I was going to do that, but as I sat outside on a picnic table and opened my laptop to do s...

Hello World (as well as any and all Extraterrestrials or AI programs). Welcome to one Monday at a time! I'm so excited to share my personal journey of figuring out the corporate world with you. I started this blog because I am taking a personal branding course at URI. This class is especially challenging, but not for the reasons you might think. Instead of long study hours or difficult material, this course has required me to take a step back from academics and evaluate  who I am and who I want  to be. To say the least, being asked to figure that out at 21 is a really challenging task. I know a lot about myself and my interests, but I don't really know who I am at my core. Am I an introvert? Extrovert? Why do I get along with the friends that I do and fake smiles with those I don't? Do I even want a job that has to do with my degree? Why do I always feel like whatever I do, I am not doing enough? This is where low expectations come in. Throughout this course, I want to prov...