Given the fact that I’m coming down to my last few days of my fall 2020 semester, I wanted to capture a weekend in my life in order to look back and reflect on it in later times.
Planning for Winter Break in 2020
2020 has been rough. *ahem* That’s an understatement. 2020 has been one hell of a year. With COVID going all across the country, lockdowns, doing work/school from home, not to mention the general uncertainty, it’s a strange time to enter the holiday season. School is currently wrapping up for me. I have 2 more weeks of classes and then a week of exams before I get to fully rest up and recover from the 14 weeks of Fall 2020.
Music and Moods
I am up late on a Monday night because I got locked out of my room, which spurred a wonderful conversation but I truly lost track of time, and so here we are and it’s almost 1 am. Oops. Given the uncertainty of the state of the U.S., I wanted this post to be more chill - exploratory and fun. I honestly had my emotions swing from low to high today and so, I felt like giving that range of emotion vs music.
Fixed Ideas + The Realm of Possibility
Every night, surrounded by twinkle lights, I flip the pages of my journal to a blank one and begin writing. Some days my pen scrawls back and forth across the page, moving slower than my mind can think. Other times my pen is still, eager awaiting my thoughts to formulate an idea, any idea.
What I’ve Learned from The Defining Decade
I’m in the pivotal stretch of life. Actually, arguably all of life is pivotal because everything hits hard in the present moment. Anyway, aside from that tangent, I turned 20 in August. Hooray!! I have now entered my 20s in the middle of a global pandemic and will be graduating college in 2022. If I’m being honest, I’m a little overwhelmed, stressed out, and just nervous for what’s to come. But lucky for me, I came across The Defining Decade after seeing 2 people I follow on Instagram read it.
Cultivating Boundaries
In my first year of college, I used to be really bad at this. Cultivating boundaries. Relaxing when I needed to. Doing work when I was supposed to. Having time to eat and take walks and chat with friends and study. We are all really bad at this. Cultivating boundaries. When was the last time you didn’t feel guilty for sitting on the couch? For watching TV without the looming fear of your work week? When was the last time you didn’t dread Sunday? You didn’t frantically check your email to get ahead? You didn’t wish your weekend was longer?
More Questions from the Web
Hey friends! Given the busyness of the semester (can you believe it’s already the 7th week of the semester!), I didn’t have it in me to write a well thought out post this week. If you have any blog post ideas, feel free to send them my way! My life has been pretty okay. I think I’m still experiencing some ear pain from the first presidential debate, and I’m feeling a little tired today. I spent ~lots~ of time with friends this weekend and though that’s nice, I really need to hunker down for the week.
Growing & Feeling
3rd year and honestly my whole college experience has not been what I wanted. I thought it would be full of adventure and I will feel more secure and certain in my future and friend groups and that’s just not what happened. In fact, COVID hit and made it even more difficult to connect with people and just to be a student, trying to learn and study and grow.
Sunday Day in the Life
I decided to do a Sunday day in the life of college because each day is different, and I honestly never know what it’s gonna be like by the time the end of the day comes. I also figure that when I look back on my college experience, it would be nice to have some days in my life for remembrance’s sake. I’ll probably end up doing a few of these this semester.
Dorm Tour of Third Year
Welcome to my 3rd year dorm tour! The dorm tour that should’ve occurred in August but COVID’s been turning this year upside down. It’s ~finally~ here!! Woooo!!! Maybe I’m the only one excited because when I look back on my college years, I won’t have to use my faulty memory to remember what my room looked like and how I decorated it. So ultimately I write for posterity.
Life Update of September 2020
So, I’m finally back in Charlottesville. I was supposed to write a post updating you all on the fact that UVA pushed back its move in date and that’s why I didn’t have a dorm tour for August. This post isn’t a dorm tour because, well, my dorm isn’t quite ready.
How to Improve Time Management as a College Student
As a college student, I’ve had no choice. I’ve had to figure out this whole time management. In between classes, 3 organizations, this blog, friends, my mental health, and whatever else you can think of, I have to do homework, study, and enjoy my time at UVA. I have a long list of tips to … Continue reading How to Improve Time Management as a College Student
How to get through a bad day
Life in quarantine hasn’t been great.
Lately I’ve been hit with some disappointment about my 3rd year and being at home for so long. My mood has been so low that sometimes I don’t really have the desire or energy to do anything.
Living the Good Life
Lately, I’ve been chewing on the idea that I want to live a good life. Not a great one. Not one with tons of fireworks and dramatic flair. Just a good one. With good people. Good food. A good time all around.
Rivers & Change
Even for the few days August has arrived, she has come with a heat all on her own. She leads many to porches and backyards, eager for a breeze and fighting off the mosquitos that are desperate to take their land back
books & songs in quarantine
I love reading books and I love listening to music. For the most part, I try to stick to reflection, intentional living, and college posts on the blog. But every once in a while, I’ll get super into something and I want to share it. I’ve decided to start a new series: books & songs.
Why avoiding commitment leads to decision fatigue
Most of your choices you never even think about. They’re automatic. You reach for your phone when you first wake up. You head to the kitchen and make coffee (or tea - if you have taste lol).
3 Ways Uncertainty Changes Your Mindset
The uncertainty of this time feels scary and out of control.
*cue thunderstorms in the background*
I’m not trying to be dramatic, but especially since the world’s gone upside down, it’s so hard to make any decisions. I keep checking my email, waiting for something to change. Waiting for news that’s supposed to come.
Life Update in Lockdown – July 2020
It's been a hot minute since I've written a life update. Given that I'm still in quarantine, you have to wonder what the heck I have to update you on. Well, there are plenty of things that have changed. I finished Zoom University online for the spring semester, getting the best grades I've seen since I started at UVA. I have since had about a month to relax and work on my own side projects. As of now, I have started summer online classes, taking Media Ethics, Podcrash, Writing for Television, and Multimedia Production. I'm only taking two classes at once and I am also doing an internship, learning about dialogue and how to navigate difficult conversations with people who are in conflict with one another.
Longing and Yearning
Maybe some people aren’t like this, but I spend a lot of time in the past, some time in the future, and not nearly enough time in the present.
Life these days is shaping up to make me even more like this. Dreaming of classes full of students, off campus trips downtown, and weekends away from Cville. Dreaming backwards.
What I’ve Learned From Journaling
I have been journaling for the past 5 years. It’s been a WILD journey. I wasn’t consistent at first, but I grew to love it, made it a New Year’s Resolution to do it everyday, and now it’s a part of my everyday life. There’s definitely a lot that I have learned from journaling and … Continue reading What I’ve Learned From Journaling
What I’ve Learned From Podcasts
This year I hopped onto one of the hottest trends. I got an iPhone and swiftly fell into the world of podcasts. I’m honestly terrible at finding new music for myself to listen to - I like what I like, why would I want to change? - and so, when I get tired of listening to my music, I really like to listen to someone else speak on a variety of things - Faith, love, life, etc.
Slow Living Habits
In quarantine, we have an opportunity to live differently than before. We have the option to do less or to live at a less hurried pace. Even for those with children and work right now, every day doesn’t have to be a sprint. We can choose the pace at which we live in order to add more peace into our lives.
How to choose between two paths in life
I often feel a sense of dread when people ask me about the future. I’m not some genie or fortune teller, eager to tell stories of the upcoming year with ease and laughter. I am the girl who is more afraid of the unknown than I am afraid of most things.
we cannot be silent
The black men and women being slaughtered at the hands of the people who are supposed to protect them, and the hundreds of years of oppression that have kept black people burdened and shackled to lives born out of systemic injustice.
What I’ve Learned From Podcasts – Edition 2
Often as I walk around Grounds to go to class or head off to the library, my headphones are tuned in to my latest obsession at the moment - podcasts.
Books for an Intentional Life
In quarantine, we have the opportunity to examine the state of our lives before all the upheaval and how we want to move and act when things return to normal.
Reflection on Second Year
College. The time of your life. Where you meet your best friends, where you have your late night adventures. Where you figure the next few years of your life.
Romanticize Your Life
In the dull moments, where life gets repetitive and things are just not exciting, like quarantine right now, it’s easy to wish time away and hope it would all end.
Feelings are okay
Right before my big trip back to Virginia for spring semester began, I was overcome with emotion. I had traveled to school on my own before. I had been apart from my parents for many months.
Destination Addiction
My generation has a new addiction. With shiny smart phones, fancy laptops, and all the other technological dreams we could ever need, our instant gratification problem has lent itself to the destination addiction.
What I’ve Learned in March 2020 Part 2
In this extra time found in the confines of our homes, we enter one of two tendencies - the sense to be uber productive or to veg out and completely cut off the outside world. Some are trying to rebuild their routines so it fits this new reality.
What I’ve Learned From March 2020
This last month has been so strange and it has taught me a lot as our lives turn into the quarantine rhythm. At the beginning of the month, I was so excited about spring break and I had one more week to get through in order to get to rest.
From Grief to Healing
Life is a mess. It is filled to the brim with the beautiful, the boring, and the broken. The things that break us.
Our feet hit the floor one morning without a single clue that when our head returns to the pillow our hearts will be fragile once more. Things breaking, that’s normal. And it’s sad that that is our reality, but it is. It hurts.
Why reflection is necessary right now
In this time of Facetime calls and working from home, we are disrupted from our regular routines. All the plans we had made are erased and swept away as the Coronavirus sweeps across the nation.
Movies, Shows, and Podcasts for Social Distancing
While we are all feeling the effects of COVID-19 or the Coronavirus, we need to take precautions seriously. Since my university shut down classes and extended spring break for a period of time, this is a great time to begin practicing social distancing.
Reaction to School Shutdown
So with my life update, I updated it mentioning how I had to go home given the shutdown of UVA, and the school saying how it decided to move classes online until further notice.
A Strange Spring Break
I started off the weekend in Charlottesville, and my parents had come to visit me. We took a lovely trip to Kroger, where I saw a funny display of a rabbit. I am always really impressed by the people who do these kinds of things.
Life Update of March 2020
It's spring break for UVA students, and I've been spending it by volunteering at middle schools, tutoring kids. It's the middle of the semester - spring 2020. Feelings - it's all going by so quickly.
20 Second Century
Lately, I’ve been seeing a lot across the internet about books that have come out recently. To Hell with the Hustle and the Ruthless Elimination of Hurry and Less is More.
Where do we find love?
Love is everywhere.
It’s in the embrace of friends, it’s in the first moment of holding hands, it’s in mother’s kiss to her son’s cheek. It’s been in the air before Valentine’s day and it won’t stop after.
who do you let in?
A few months ago, I heard this story on Invisibilia. I’ve listened to a lot of podcasts but none like this before. None where the story returned to my mind, days and weeks later.
Hopelessness
Lately I’ve been reading a lot of YA books. I know they are fiction but characters can feel so real - their mannerisms, their figures of speech. My imagination brings them to life.
Reset Guide
Every now and again, you need to reset. You need to start over. When you feel like you’ve been living life doing the same things over and over, when you feel stressed out and overwhelmed, when you feel like your brain is a mess, you need a reset.
Weekend in my life: NDCC 2020 Edition
Hey friends! This blog post is about my past weekend spent in Indiana at the Kelley Business School for a case competition representing UVA.
Deep Questions from the Web
Hey friends! I’ve recently been scrolling through the world wide web as one does, and I found some really interesting questions I wanted to ponder with you all. Instead of answering standard questions for you to learn a little more about me, I figured you all could get to know what I think and believe and learn more about me.
Letter to 2020
I have no idea what you have in store for me. I know that I’m going to Indiana the first weekend of school, but other than that, there’s a blank hole. And where’s uncertainty, in me, there is fear.
My New Year’s Resolutions for 2020
Guess what? It’s my favorite time of the year again. And yes, I am saying that after Christmas has passed.
One Year Blog Anniversary
Friends, this blog post is an exciting one! It’s been an entire year since the beginning of this blog, Studying Life with Gigi. And it has grown to a place I never could have imagined.
Reflection on my second year first semester
Currently I am at home, relaxing after finishing four final exams in Charlottesville. I took an Amtrak for 7 hours and ended up at home, here in New York.
What I’ve Learned From 2019 & 2019 Highlights
This year has been a wild ride. It’s the end of the decade. It’s the 10th year anniversary to 2009, which had some amazing music. Did someone just mention Kelly Clarkson? Just me, okay.
Why do we like sharing our lives online?
These days, everyone is on social media, creating content, posting memes, or taking that dog filter selfie. Creating videos, taking pictures, and posting it to the Internet has become the norm, and not the anomaly.
Who are you?
Who am I? It’s such a loaded question - it’s so unfair to be asked. I know that I am more than the sum of certain characteristics - brown eyes, bookworm, there’s just more to me than these ideas in a composite form. But I don’t know who I am.
Vulnerability Scares Me
Lately, I’ve been thinking about the practice of vulnerability. I feel like all of my posts come from some journaling and reflecting I’ve been doing and this is one of them. I’ve been trying to figure out how to be more open to those I want to know me more.
Favorites: Podcast Edition
This post is a little different from my usual. I just wanted to let you all in on the things I’ve been enjoying so you can enjoy them too! Welcome to my favorites! I won’t be doing this every month, but I definitely will be updating you guys as I go along, some things I’ve been enjoying and why.
Why we all need minimalism
After work a few days ago, I decided to watch a documentary on Netflix. It was about these 2 dudes called the Minimalists and how minimalism had changed their approach to life. Here’s what I discovered:
Why Going Out of State Changed My Life
If you are a high school student looking for colleges, or someone who is thinking about a big move, you’ve stumbled across the right post. I’m in my second year at the University of Virginia, and I am from New York. I went from a big city to a small city, and from the North to the South.
Reflections + Rest
One of my friends asked to interview me for her market research class as her team is developing a plan for a mindfulness center at UVA. We ended up having a conversation about the toxic UVA culture and what it means to find rest.
Day in the life: Weekend Day at UVA
Day in the life: Weekend Day at UVA - Saturday. Doing homework, volunteering, fun activtites.
Meet Me Here
I feel being on the New York subway leads to some profound thinking. Because at the very least, it’s too loud for headphones. And what better way to spend your time as you sit in a steel machine catapulting you to different boroughs daily.
Grief & other things
It's been a hot minute since I've really sat down to write down something substantial. I've looked at my to do list and I honestly either can't do things right now or have just finished them. So, here I am.
The Truth about UVA
Welcome, future freshmen, or should I say first years, that have been scouring the internet, looking to find out what exactly they signed up for. Hello, I’m Gigi, and I will be giving you a report on what being a UVA student really means.
Letter to my Future Self
I actually did this activity for my freshman year and it was so good to look back on and it brought on all the types of memories. It’s also a good way to get out all of the intentions and the little things you want to remember.
Faith isn’t easy.
Faith isn't easy. Despite the perception of burying your head in the sand and believing what you want, this world won't let you. There are mass shootings, millions of immigrants and refugees, the deterioration of the earth due to climate change, political corruption, and more.
Dorm Tour of Sophomore Year
The post you’ve all been waiting for. The dorm! Currently, as a UVA student, I decided to spend my second year at one of the Residential Colleges on Grounds. I live in Hereford, which has its focus on mindfulness, sustainability, and social awareness.
College Bucket List
As a college sophomore, I feel it is fitting for me to write out the things I want to accomplish in the next 3 years. While this could have been done as a first-year (or in my freshmen year), I think learning all the things I could have done helped me create a bucket list that both honors UVA and myself.
Life Update of August 2019
It’s been a hot minute since I’ve done one of these. So, here it is - a life update. I have moved back to Charlottesville. I came on Monday and Wednesday, I fully moved into my dorm. The process was a lot, and I will most likely go more in-depth into it in my dorm tour.
Goals for next semester + Motivational Quotes
In my recent post, 15 things you should do before you go to college, one of the things on my list was having goals for next semester. So, here are my goals for the second-year first semester.
Life is messy, folks
One moment I woke up to use the bathroom at 5 in the morning. The next moment I stood horrified at the figure before me - my cousin had arrived home from her night shift at work. For me, this is the thing.
For you, it may be the way your smile doesn’t quite reach your face after a long vacation with family. Or it’s all the picture-perfect photos on your wall. When your room has been messy for a month. It’s going on a walk and finding out that you have dog poop on your shoe as you enter the house.
Why I Journal + Journaling Prompts
I started journaling in 2015, kind of on a whim. I’m not even sure why I started. I just remember that my aunt took me to the store and I saw this notebook I liked with “Trust in the Lord” on it. Although I went to church with my parents and attended Sunday school, I don’t think I believed in God. But I picked up that notebook, and my journey started.
Self-doubt and Impostor Syndrome
Hey! It’s me, the one who has a face mask right now and is still in school clothes, the one who has decided a blog post should be written. Here I am typing to you across the webverse on my little corner of the Internet. I have been struggling with school lately, and it’s some … Continue reading Self-doubt and Impostor Syndrome
Give Her Grace
During this semester, I was struggling in my French class. I had just received a low grade on one of my exams, and I was feeling stressed. One of my dormmates consoled me and encouraged me. “It’s just one bad grade. You have so many other chances to improve,” she said. In my journal, I’ve … Continue reading Give Her Grace
Things I’ve Learned from the First Semester of College
This is the excerpt for a featured content post.