Advising Module 3: Resilience

Coping With Stress & Bouncing Back

• Consider how you handle stress, particularly when it is compounded by exhaustion and health issues. Do you go for a walk? Take a tv break? Read a poem? Call a friend? Hit the treadmill? Take a nap? Why??
• I handle stress in many different ways depending on what it is I'm stressed about. If homework is stressing me then I usually take a break from it by going to workout, watching TV, hanging out with friends; pretty much anything that will get my mind off of it for an hour or so. Then when I return to it later I am able to start fresh and reenergized. I usually can't take naps when I'm stressed about my workload because then I just think about how much stuff I could be, and should be getting done. If relationships or situations are stressing me out I will usually call a friend or go and talk to someone. It helps me to talk about what is causing me stress because then I can get another opinion on how to handle it. If it is a situation that only I can make the decision on, then I go for a walk or write down what I'm thinking to try and sort out my thoughts and clear my mind. 

• When you trip or fall down academically, do you make a plan to recover?  Seek out help?
• If I get a bad grade on an essay or a quiz or exam I usually just try even harder then next time to do better. I take the critiques from the professor and try to not make the same mistakes I did the first time around. I have gone to the writing center which I found helpful for papers and I have gone to study groups to help with studying for exams. Sometimes I try different study techniques to find which works best for me. 

Maintaining the Momentum

• Are the skills you want to develop either here or after SMC (languages, computer skills, etc)?
• I don't plan on doing any additional education after SMC like graduate school so everything I want to learn I hope to do so here. I will always continue to learn things throughout life but I don't have any plans in the future to get additional education. I'm still not sure what I want to major in so things might change.

• Are there countries or cultures you'd like to know more about?
• I want to study abroad while here at SMC and then hopefully continue to travel in my future. I currently want to go to Rome next year. I'm taking Italian now and hope to continue learning it and be able to use what I know in Rome. I want to learn their language as well as their culture and other foreign cultures. I want to experience more than just the American lifestyle, which is all I know now.