{"id":4937,"date":"2021-10-25T09:49:08","date_gmt":"2021-10-25T13:49:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/?p=4937"},"modified":"2021-10-25T15:55:10","modified_gmt":"2021-10-25T19:55:10","slug":"adjusting-to-life-in-person","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/2021\/10\/25\/adjusting-to-life-in-person\/","title":{"rendered":"Adjusting to Life in Person"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Have you been struggling to adjust to life in-person? Have you been feeling<br \/>\noverwhelmed and trying to figure out how to balance all of the commitments you have? The good news is, you\u2019re not alone. More good news is that today, I\u2019m going to be giving you a few tips on how to make your life a little bit easier while transitioning back into life in-person.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s been nearly two years since the Coronavirus pandemic came into our lives, and we are finally at a point where things are going back to semi-normal. In-person classes, on-campus events, and socializing with other people not from 6 feet apart are some of the perks that URI students get to have this school year compared to last.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>This definitely excites all of us. The freshmen are excited to just be going to college in general. The sophomore\u2019s are excited to experience \u201creal college\u201d compared to what it was during the 2020-21 school year. Juniors are trying to make up for lost time and remember what it was like during their freshman year, and seniors are finally getting the fun senior year that they deserve. However, coming off of nearly two years of online classes, masks, and COVID tests, the in-person school can be a huge adjustment for students.&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>The last time that I truly had an in-person class was my second semester of my senior&nbsp;year of high school, which is notorious for students to feel burnt-out and not put in much effort&nbsp;in the first place. So to say I was underprepared for the start of in-person college classes was an&nbsp;understatement. However, here are some things that have been working for me so far.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip #1: Leave early for your classes<\/h2>\n<p>First of all, I definitely was not prepared for the amount of walking that I\u2019d have to do<br \/>\ngoing to my in-person classes. I knew that URI was a relatively large school, but I never really took into consideration the fact that I couldn\u2019t wake up a minute before my class starts, log on, and lay in bed. <strong><em>Allotting about 15 minutes of time to walk to my classes has definitely helped me a lot when it comes to this problem.<\/em><\/strong> If you\u2019re a commuter, definitely add some more time there in order to account for the \u201cwhat if\u2019s:\u201d traffic, parking, etc. Sometimes, you\u2019ll find that you\u2019ll get to class early, but it\u2019s better to be early rather than late, right \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n<h2>Tip #2: Use Effective Note-Taking Skills and Study Tactics<\/h2>\n<p>I think we all can agree on the fact that taking quizzes and exams online are a completely&nbsp;different experience than taking them in-person. Online exams were mostly open-note, smaller,&nbsp;and overall just easier to handle. In-person exams can be difficult, but using study methods such&nbsp;as Quizlets, Kahoot and different flashcards can help immensely in being prepared. <strong><em>Another&nbsp;piece of advice I have is to make your notes readable and exciting.<\/em><\/strong> I\u2019m the CEO of fancy notes with different colors, fonts, etc. I do this because when things are visually appealing to look at, it makes me want to look at them and study them. When notes have just one color, bullet points, and a bunch of scribbles, it\u2019s easy for them to all just blend together in your head and not be an&nbsp;effective study method.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip 3: To-Do Lists<\/h2>\n<p>To-do lists are the backbone of my everyday life. I, quite literally, would not be able to&nbsp;function without them and I can\u2019t recommend them enough. Every night, sit down and make a&nbsp;to-do list of all your tasks for the next day. Go through your Brightspace, look at your planner,&nbsp;figure out all of your upcoming due dates and such, and prioritize your to-do list based on when&nbsp;things are due. It is SO satisfying to cross off things on your list and slowly watch all of your&nbsp;tasks disappear. <strong><em>You will feel so much better at the end of the day<\/em> <\/strong>knowing that you had a&nbsp;productive day and got things done that needed to be done.<\/p>\n<h2>Tip #4: Buy a Planner<\/h2>\n<p>Going off of the whole to-do list productivity thing, planners are essential to any college&nbsp;student, but especially to us during this weird transition between online and in person. Balancing&nbsp;due dates, extracurriculars, and other commitments can be a huge challenge now that we\u2019re back&nbsp;to \u201creal life,\u201d but using a planner is a very helpful tool to make your life a little bit easier. Every&nbsp;time you find out about a new assignment, new event, or anything, be sure to write it down in&nbsp;your planner. Being able to mentally prepare for all that you have to do in advance is helpful to&nbsp;reduce feelings of being overwhelmed. It also is helpful for forgetful people like me, and&nbsp;minimizes \u201coops\u201d situations where the teacher says to hand in your homework and you think,&nbsp;\u201cWhat homework?\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Overall, adjusting to in-person life has been a challenge, but nothing that we as students&nbsp;can\u2019t overcome. We just need to utilize our time management skills, planners, notes, etc. and&nbsp;keep trying our best. We\u2019re all in the same boat, and <em><strong>we\u2019ll make it through together.<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><em><span style=\"font-weight: 400\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-4949 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/1178\/unnamed-14-225x300.jpg\" alt=\"Headshot of Juliana\" width=\"225\" height=\"300\">Hi! I\u2019m Juliana and I\u2019m a sophomore Communications and Journalism student from Brookfield, CT. I can\u2019t wait to continue my passion for writing as a blog writer for InsideRec! Outside of Campus Recreation, I\u2019m also involved in Greek Life, the Good Five Cent Cigar, and URI 101 mentoring. In my free time, you can find me watching the sunset in Narragansett, sitting on the quad with my friends, or in the line at Dunkin\u2019 Donuts. I\u2019m looking forward to writing more blog-style posts and giving advice from my own experiences!<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Have you been struggling to adjust to life in-person? Have you been feeling overwhelmed and trying to figure out how to balance all of the commitments you have? The good news is, you\u2019re not alone. More good news is that today, I\u2019m going to be giving you a few tips on how to make your [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4096,"featured_media":4949,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4937","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fall-2021"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4096"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4937"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5007,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4937\/revisions\/5007"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4949"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4937"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4937"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/web.uri.edu\/inside-rec\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4937"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}