Leaving my first year of college, everything felt good. I knew I was at the right college, I knew Cabrini was right for me. I knew I finished my spring semester strong and my finals went well. I had a healthy group of friends and definitely made the best of my first year. But mentally, something was off. I mentally had to leave campus, regroup myself and come back better. Summer 2019 was very healing for my mental health.
I didn’t even know I needed the break that I did. I thought leaving campus to go home was going to be terrible for me. I loved being here and I didn’t feel I was ready to be back home for three and a half months. This made the first month of summer vacation difficult. I was just starting to get into the habit of working every day since that was my only way to get out of the house.
I got bored with watching Netflix, so something in me changed. I decided I wanted to start reading again. It takes a lot of discipline to pick up a book a
fter so long but I forced myself to read one chapter. That one chapter caused me to average one book every week. I was just flying through pages. The books I read were educational, so I felt good when I knew I was learning something. I wasn’t wasting time watching Netflix anymore. Instead, I was improving my mind, which I am a big advocate for.
The more I read, the better I felt. I knew I was helping my mental health by teaching myself about the mind. When I learn new information, I feel confident. I know it is an odd correlation, but I feel successful. I have always struggled with confidence, and now I knew I was swimming in it, in a good way. It was a strong change in mentality, especially for going back to school in a month.
I was still struggling with a routine, especially an eating one. At school, Cavs Corner has set times to eat, so I was used to following that. When I was home, it was game on. I would always be snacking because I would always be bored. I started to structure this a bit by eating three real meals a day. I would still snack here and there but I felt I had more control this way.
On top of eating better, I started drinking more water. I got a new water bottle and tried to make it my goal to drink a certain amount of them each day. I immediately saw the difference. I used to never drink water and now, I was drinking more than enough. I had more energy throughout the day and physically felt better. I didn’t feel as sluggish as usual.
Even though I only made a few, small changes, it made the difference. By the time I got back to school, I was feeling so much better about myself. I didn’t even know I was so down until I took my summer break. I thought I had everything together, but in reality, I did not at all. It took my whole summer to realize this, but now I am self-aware. I can now feel when I am not myself because of the break I took. Sometimes, the most growth happens when we don’t even notice.
