Managing All That Stress

Readers,

Fall Break was a delicious slice of peace that was essential for breaking up the otherwise insane amount of midterms, meetings, and events that constitute life at the College my senior year. After meetings finished last Thursday night I drove home for two days of good food, hanging out with my family, and kicking it with my two enormous newfoundlands – I even managed to watch a movie or two and re-read about 250 pages of Harry Potter book 7 in anticipation of the movie release in a month.

For the past two days I’ve been in Newport News to stay with one of my fraternity brothers. Adventures included a visit to an apple farm, a pumpkin patch adventure and two carved pumpkins, some tennis, a trip to a museum, LOTS of sleep, and tasty food.

Nick Triska '13 and myself after carving our W&M pumpkin during Fall Break at the Units

It was a wonderful break – but now it’s back to the hustle and grind on campus. Next week is homecoming week and midterms are still in full swing so my academic to-do list for the next two weeks looks a little bit like:

• Geology Quiz
• Complete Full Thesis Outline
• Complete Honors Colloquium Presentation
• Study for Japanese Society Midterm
• Submit Proposal for Georgetown University Linguistics Landscape Symposium
• Write 2 Essays for my self-designed Independent Study in Language and Law
• Complete Geology Problem Set
• Study for Geology Lab Exam
• Work on my Honors Thesis
• Write Japanese Society Essay
• Finish Applications for at least 5 overseas graduate programs

Outside of the classroom things are gearing up for the College’s Haiti trip I’m leading, the senior class gift I’m co-chairing, new tour guides are beginning to interview, plans are being laid for Charter Day 2011, HOMECOMING IS HAPPENING ALL NEXT WEEK so my fraternity and our partner sorority are gearing up, Omicron Delta Kappa is hosting its honorary induction ceremony and luncheon, aspects of the College’s strategic planning process are meeting, the Fund for William and Mary Board of Directors and Volunteers are having receptions, the President’s Aides are having their usual dinner meeting with President Reveley to discuss College policy, and much more!

Needless to say – things are just heating up on campus as the weather begins to cool and the leaves are changing color. But despite the stress and long to-do lists, there are always ways to find some downtime (blogging included) to blow off some steam. Over the next two weeks, I have an equally impressive relaxation to-do list uploaded onto my Google Calendar that I could not be more excited about:

• Lots of sorority clues involving meeting awesome new people and (usually) tons of great food and fun
• The Green and Gold Affair philanthropy dance for campus organizations!
• Paintball with the W&M Paintball Club on Saturday
• A trip to Busch Gardens with a fraternity brother to visit the infamous Howl-O-Scream on Sunday
• A trip up to DC on the 20th to see Lissie perform at the 9:30 Club
• A trip to ODU on the 21st to see the 30H!3 and Ke$ha Concert with some friends
• Catching up with tons of amazing alumni friends next weekend for homecoming (W&M has one of the best attended [and awesome] homecomings in the country)
• My family visiting to enjoy the College’s homecoming festivities including the parade and football game against the Delaware Blue Hens next Saturday
• The College’s annual homecoming pep rally and homecoming concert
• A trip up to DC on the 25th for just the night to see my Mom receive an award from American University

At William and Mary, we specialize in working hard and playing hard. Even though your list of things you need to get accomplished might look impossibly daunting at times, always make sure that you construct an equally impressive list that allows you to kick back and completely relax in order to cope with it all. At the end of the day I’ve found out that it will all get done – it’s just a matter of keeping your eyes on the prize. I’ve also come to realize that this is my senior year, and I plan to make the most out of it that I possibly can.

Here’s to a fulfilling, stressful, amazing, cooler, alumni-packed, travel-ridden, productive next 14 days!

Go Tribe,

Brian