Vlog Round Deux: Retreat Reacts

"Pressure Pushing Down on Me"

Stress is the most fundamental college experience. Nothing else finds itself into every aspect of college life--it is with us during finals week as we cram months worth of notes into papers and exams...it is with us in our social experience as we try to reestablish ourselves in a new setting...it is with us in our professional aspect as we figure out what we want to do with our lives post-college...and it is with us on Saturdays as we worry about Ohio State's woes in the secondary.

 It is impossible to fully eliminate stress from our lives, but the best way that I lessen the amount of stress is to think forward and plan ahead. I feel that I have a really low stress level when it comes to work and school, for the most part, because I am a follower of the "don't bite off more than you can chew" philosophy. I'm really obsessive when it comes to planning things out so I can see the bigger picture. When it comes to stuff I can do, I don't worry because I'm confident that I can get it done and the effort I out in will dictate the result.

School doesn't stress me out too much...things that I can't necessarily control by preparing cause me to feel the pressure. I get really stressed after meeting meeting people and replying my interaction with them in my mind: did I come off as too goofy or too serious or too quiet? In response to this I have a real big problem of retreating and foolishly worrying about something that I can't control that already happened. Through all the self analyzing tests that we took, there was a common theme: I look in the past...a lot. I may worry more about things that happened because I have a tendency of breaking down the past more than focusing on the future. The problem might be simply fix my attention more equally to the future than just the past.

Successive Success

At first thought, success is usually defined by quantifiable and tangible things--the number of cars one drives, the number of degrees from ivy leagues one holds, or the number of Nobel Prizes one has won. When I first thought about what success was to me, I first thought about the accumulation of things and accolades....but this doesn't characterize what success it, rather they are indicators of achieving certain goals.

Going against my (somewhat misguided) intuition, success isn't defined as doing most things better than others—that’s the end result of success, not the core of it. Success is and begins at the individual, at the internal level before public applauds are given.

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it —Maya Angelou

I interjected Maya Angelou's quote here, not only for a progressive-new age blog feel, but also because I couldn't have put it any better myself. As cliché as it sounds, being proud and enjoying what you do and who you are will allow you to do everything better. You'll have the passion confidence and be empowered to do amazing things. Success is internal, all the material rewards that may or may not come are just laudatory from the outside commending you on how you enjoy and handle your aspects.

Right now I get a lot of questions about what I want to do after school and what opportunities do I have in the real world not being a pre med or engineering student. I could do engineering. I could be training to be a doctor.  But would I reach my full potential? Probably not. I love what I'm studying and I love the world perspective I'm gaining. I see a lot of people forcing themselves into studying subjects that they feel will have the biggest payoff, all the while not enjoying what they're doing. I don't have a major where I'm guaranteed a six-figure salary, but I'm doing what I want to do. And I may have not received a car or a Nobel Prize, but I assured that I am successful in who I'm becoming over the past 2+ years here at Ohio State.    

Who am I?