This week I attended the IT’S NOT FAIR panel and research fair on Monday, February 27 at 11 a.m. To be completely honest I attended this event to get credit for a class, this blog is giving me credit for writing two blogs… I showed up expecting to stay only for a little bit, just enough time to get pictures and the gist of what was going on, then when the panel starting speaking I was intrigued and stayed for much longer than expected.
The panel spoke to a lot of things that I was able to relate to, which honestly I was very surprised by. The young man on the far right in the picture, spoke of how we came to Central as a transfer student and lived off campus. He said that friends were not readily available to him and he was not very happy. He began doing things that gave him a little extra spark, for him it was skiing. He said he had always loved skiing but he began doing dangerous things that before he never would have. after hearing about an accident a friend of his had while skiing because of his depression. He realized that he was also depressed and sought help.
Though I cannot relate to the skiing part of his story, since I don’t do that, I can relate to more of his story than I thought. I am also a transfer student that lives off campus and that makes it hard to make friends outside of the circle you may already have. Luckily, those friends that I do have are amazing and never let me feel lonely or sad, but I can see how that can easily happen to a person especially on a college campus.
The panel spoke about how mental health in real life is much different than what is portrayed on the movies. That many people struggle with mental health and you may never know. It can be you roommate, your best friend, or the person sitting next to you in class. Many people feel sad and alone and they do not even realize that they are having real depressive feelings. For most people depression is gradual, it is not just something you wake up in the morning with and if you know someone that is struggling with sadness or maybe you yourself is, you should talk about it because that can really help.
The panel spoke of mental health conditions other than just depression, they spoke a lot about PTSD in student veterans, because two of the panelists were veterans who suffer from PTSD. I can also relate to this issue because I have some very close friends who are over seas and after they
serve are planning on attending college. I did not even think that they might suffer from PTSD in the future and that might effect them when it comes to be a normal student. But now if God forbid it does happen, I can at least direct them in how to get help.
All in all, I was very pleased with the panel as well as the resource fair, I learned so much and was actually interested about what was being talked about which like I said before I was not expecting at all. Through this fair and panel I learned that there are so many resources on campus for students to utilize. Including, counseling services, both group as well as individual, and you already pay for it in the quarterly fee, so you might as well use it. There are also different groups on campus that can help including Mindful Monday’s, where you
practice mindfulness that can help improve your mood, sleep, concentration, listening skill, as well as teach you ways to encounter your life with awareness, acceptance, and compassion.
Never be ashamed in talking to someone about how you are feeling, know you are never alone, and it is easy to get help if you want it.
Nearly 1-in-5 Americans have a diagnosable mental health condition. Don’t be afraid to talk about it!
Netflix, as most are already aware, is a website that has a ton of movies and shows that for a cost of just about 10 dollars a month (so worth it might I add) is at your disposal whenever you please.
have the same obsession with Netflix that I do. All my friends do, I know that. There’s even the Netflix and chill phenomenon. Netflix is such a part of our lives and we don’t even know it. Well I do, but that because all of my time recently has been taken up by it. But even before I started Vampire Diaries I watched it all the time, not as obsessively, but it was still a consistent thing.
and well it is not exactly what I had pictured when I imagined having my first apartment. It is definitely a love-hate rate relationship. Love, I don’t have to tell my parents where I’m going every time I leave. Hate, I don’t have my parents there to do things for me. I know this makes me sound like a spoiled brat that never did anything, and relied on their parents to do everything for them, which is not what my childhood looked like. I always did chores, and unlike some people I know, I know ho
w to do my laundry and wash my own dishes. But its the little things I miss most about living with my parents, like having a handyman at the call of a “DAD!” and having someone who makes most meals for you, and pays for most things for you as well. So here I am living in my own apartment trying to do this thing called “adulting” which I know I am not doing correctly because calling your parents pretty much once a day to ask different questions about how to do things does not make me feel like an adult.
om all the time but, maybe even my dad more. Like the time I saw a mouse in my apartment. I don’t think I have ever freaked out as much I did in that moment. My first call was obviously to my dad who if I was at home is in charge of getting rid of live animals that were not our dog or our cat. And was he helpful at all? No. He just laughed at me and told me to hit it with a broom or go to the store and get traps. Um, dad, that means I have to go through the living room where I have it trapped and then it might attack me. So pretty much having a mouse in my apartment was the most traumatic thing I have ever had to go through.
