Self Reflection #2

Hi everyone,

Here is my #2 self reflection. I hope everyone is staying safe and healthy during this difficult time!

1.) What is something you did for your body?

One thing that I’ve been continuing to do is workouts. At home, I have a pair of dumbbells I use. I have been doing bicep curls, triceps extensions, etc. I try to not focus on only one part of my body (arms), so I’ve been trying the Chloe Ting workouts a lot of people have been recommending. However, I don’t know how to do all the exercises yet without watching the video and doing it along the demonstration. As a result, I still prefer to use the dumbbells.

Furthermore, I’ve been going on walks on my neighborhood and sometimes on park trails. It’s nice because I’m able to take a break from homework and grab some fresh air. When I’m outside, I notice that a lot of people walking as well as maintaining their physical distancing. It’s important to remember to do small things to maintain both our physical and mental health under these new circumstances. During one my walks, I saw two families chatting to each other from across a street. Thankfully, it wasn’t a busy street, so they heard each other well. However, they had to talk very loudly for the other to hear, so I found that a creative way people are maintaining their social connections. Not only did they keep their distance, but they were also connecting with their neighbours.

2.) What is something you did for your mind?

For my mind, I’ve been studying for my AP French exam. With school being closed, it’s harder to communicate with those who can speak the language, and when I talk to my friends, it’s in English. The new change to the exam is that it is all in oral, so it’s been a challenge to practice. However, as I mentioned in my last reflection, I’ve been listening to some French music to help me maintain the language. Furthermore, I’ve done a practice test.

Another thing I’ve been doing for my mind is keeping up with my homework. Right now, as we are approaching May 1^st, it’s a stressful time because seniors have to decide which universities they want to attend. As a result, I don’t need more stress to finish homework weighing on me! Last week, I had to film myself doing two presentations: one for Capstone and one for my Perspectives Globales class. I filmed both of them in one day. As a result, I was very tired from talking non-stop the whole day. Nonetheless, I also have to do two presentations this week; however, they’re both live to my class. Both are about 10 minutes long each. I miss doing regular presentations at my school.

3.) What is something you did for your happiness?

For my happiness, I’ve been continuing to maintain social connections with my peers. As I’ve mentioned, I lead a club at school called Le Social Club. Because we can no longer have physical meetings, we have made a Teams account that we use to communicate our meeting dates. We were initially going to use Teams for our meetings; however, Teams only allows you to have 4 people on screen when video chatting. Thus, we switched over to another app called Messenger. It’s a lot more efficient and better because we can see all of our club member’s faces when we are chatting. Now, we only use Teams to send out notifications about our meetings.

I’ve also been doing art. For example, I’ve been using pastels. One of my friends got me a pastel set that I haven’t used since the year I got it. Consequently, when I opened it, I saw all the old drawings I did. When I use pastels, I always smudge the drawing I do, so it’s a challenge I try to avoid when I’m using pastels. I’ve been drawing flowers and testing out the different shades I have. Moreover, I’ve also been doing some sketching.

4.) What is something you did for someone else?

Something that I’ve done for someone else is being there for some of my friends. Right now, it’s a very stressful time where university acceptances are rolling out last minute. Many of my peers have to make a decision soon to where they want to go for university. By helping them find information on university admission or housing, its the small things I can do to contribute. The UBC website on housing was especially hard for me to navigate, and I’ve been browsing a lot of reddit. 🙂

Furthermore, I’ve been continuing to help around the house a lot more. By doing chores like sweeping the floors or washing the dishes, it helps out my family and takes away another stress.

Thanks for reading,

Alison