Sure, the recommended amount of sleep for college students is 8 hours per night, but if we’re honest with ourselves that’s a fantasy. Now that summer (and the beautiful sleep schedule that it brought with it) is coming to a close, this is your guide to surviving on less than 6 hours of sleep a night. I was lucky to have a summer job that ended early enough that I could go home for a couple weeks. In theory, I should be spending this time hanging out with my family and friends from home, but the truth is I spend most of my time home sleeping. I thought I would…
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Eat Your Way Through Pilsen (Gentrification Free)
Over the last few months I finally got to experience summer in Chicago without snow and dreary weather! And it was incredible! Since I’ve been working in Pilsen, a neighborhood on Chicago’s southwest side, I fell in love with it so here is my guide to the best of Pilsen. From food to culture, Pilsen is one of the greatest neighborhoods Chicago has to offer. I’ve been working near the 18th street pink line stop, so most of these recommendations are within walking distance of it. Gentrification in Pilsen Over the last decade, Pilsen has experienced rising rents and increased development as neighborhoods like West Loop on its north side…
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7 Books to Read Before Summer Ends
With a commute like mine, I’ve been reading about a book a week. From poetry to nonfiction to an office survival guide, I’ve gotten my hands on tons of books this summer. There are only a few weeks left before an endless barrage of Foucault, Rousseau, and Marx take hold of my free time so these are my must reads. It’s hard to find time to read for fun during the school year. After a long day of required readings and countless hours in the library, sometimes all I can do is watch another episode of a sitcom as I get ready for bed (I just cried over finishing Friends). When…
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Summer in the City: Chicago
Summer has finally arrived, and it will be my first working in Chicago. So, free from school and only working 50 hours a week, I am making it my mission to experience the city (hopefully without spending my whole stipend). This is my comprehensive list of things to do this summer in Chicago. I reached out to everyone from colleagues at work to my sorority to make sure I don’t miss anything central to a Chicago summer. Then I organized it by price-level to make it easy for you to find the things in your price range. As always, let me know on Facebook or Instagram what I missed! “U-Passes…
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Healthy Self Criticism
This year, I’ve spent a bunch of time and effort trying different ways to maximize my awesomeness: everything from starting to time track to running a half marathon. These projects came out of the initial set of goals I created for this school year. With only 5 weeks until the end of this school year (the deadline for my goals), I have been thinking about the way I evaluate my progress. This is how I evaluate myself holistically to make sure that I am motivated for the next steps, but also proud of the progress I have made. With all the running and weight lifting, I stopped stepping on the scale for…
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Mapping My College Friendship Network
I’ve seen a lot of articles discussing sociologist Janice McCabe’s novel Connecting in College: How Friendship Networks Matter for Academic and Social Success. McCabe divides people into three types of networks, so I decided to chart my own network. This is what I learned about my friendship network and how I structure my relationships. McCabe’s Conclusions McCabe asked 67 students at a midwest university to name their friends, and then connected them to create networks for every individual. She found that there were three basic types of networks. Tight-knitters–Individuals with one cohesive friendships. She found that this was most common with African-American and Latino students. She also found that it was very difficult…
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Beginner’s Guide to Calligraphy and Hand Lettering
Since I started Bullet Journaling, I’ve seen hand lettering and calligraphy everywhere on Instagram and Pinterest. My handwriting isn’t a work of art by any stretch of the imagination, so I figured I’d leave that part of Bullet Journaling to the professionals. However, for Christmas my mom got me a calligraphy set for me to experiment with, and this week with midterms finally over, I had a chance to give it a try! Experimenting with Hand Lettering I first tried hand lettering in my first bullet journal back in August. I played with different styles, without any prior planning. It turned out pretty well for a first try, especially using…
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Leuchtturm 1917 Notebook Review
Over the last 6 (!) months of bullet journaling, I’ve heard the whole “you just need a notebook and a pen” story a thousand times. It still seemed like everybody was using the same notebook, the Leuchtturm 1917 in A5. Even the Official Bullet Journal notebook is made by Leuchtturm, so I figured there must be some reason for it. After using it for a whole month, here is how it changed my Bullet Journaling experience. Before the Leuchtturm 1917 I started bullet journaling using a lined Class Act Stationary notebook my friend Becca got for me. I used it through my fall quarter, and it served me well. However, it…
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Time Tracking in my Bullet Journal
As we move into midterm season at my school, there isn’t a ton of time to waste, but somehow I’ve found the day getting away from me. Since this seems to be a running theme for me every quarter, I’ve been looking for ways to improve my time management skills. Inspired by Kara from Boho Berry, I started including a Time Log in my Daily Spreads. I’d been hearing about time tracking as a way to increase productivity for years. There are all these apps both for your phone and computer that can track your online time. I tried using Toggl for my computer last year, but I didn’t use…
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Rosana Reviews: Positive Podcasts
On my quest to be healthy, I’ve found myself exercising (mostly running) for too many hours without a good playlist. Streaming playlists hasn’t been working to fill the gap in my workouts, and the music on my phone isn’t cutting it. So instead I’ve stumbled into the world of podcasts! The first season of Serial kept me going through many runs my senior year of high school, but this time I didn’t want a story. I found that what worked best for my workouts were longer podcasts, generally between 40 and 75 minutes, because then I didn’t have to worry about finding another episode. The best part of podcasts is that…
