My Self-Reflection #2

Hello everyone! I hope you are all well and safe! This is my second self-reflection 🙂

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

So, being at home, I found myself starting to forget to drink water and stay hydrated. And might I add that this is pretty ironic, because I am currently doing an inquiry project in my Biology 12 class, and during my last round of research I looked at the importance of athletes staying hydrated and what it’s actually providing for our bodies! But I think a big reason why I am forgetting to drink water is because I’ve changed my whole routine. “Pre”-Pandemic, I had a whole system in place and lots of my days pretty much looked the exact same; get up, get ready for school, go to school, come home, homework, soccer, homework, dinner, bed etc. But now, presently, my routine has changed drastically. With online schooling, I find myself spending way more time in my room sitting at my desk, and I forget to hydrate and even eat for that matter. I think I started to notice the effects this was having on my body too, because I just wasn’t feeling quite right some days. As a result, I’m starting to carry a water bottle with me around the house. Every morning, I’m trying to head downstairs first thing to fill a cup or water bottle with water, and I even add a slice of lemon to give it some flavour too. At this time, I take my daily vitamins and make myself some breakfast before I start my online classes. 

This leads me to my second thing I’ve done for my body. Like I just mentioned, as I found myself forgetting to drink water and stay hydrated, I was also finding myself not eating enough, or just having small snacks throughout the day rather than proper healthy meals. Again, due to this new routine and way of doing things, I’m forgetting to continue doing the important things that keep me healthy. Now, I’m starting to make sure I eat three healthy meals every day. Lately, for lunch, my sisters and I have really been into avocado toast, and we make it almost everyday. Last weekend, I also went to the local Langley Farmers Market with my mom and bought TONS of fruit and vegetables. In fact, we walked home carrying all these groceries which was a killer arm workout, so I guess I was doing that for my body too! We bought all this produce and we have been using it to make tons of different meals like spaghetti squash, earth bread, zucchini sticks, and roasted veggies. By eating healthy, nutrient-rich foods like these, I am continuing to look out for my body!    

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

There have been two main activities I’ve done for my mind these past two weeks. Funny enough, one of these activities was in preparation for my Capstone Presentation. I created a painting of Joshua Tree National Park which acted as a symbol for my entire Capstone. I actually used one of the pictures I had taken while visiting JTNP myself, and used it to create my painting. While painting, I was very relaxed, and for a time, my mind was solely focussed on the art and nothing else. My favourite part was making the sky, because I attempted to try and make it ombre and transition from dark to light. In all, painting this picture for my Capstone was a great way to exercise my creativity and become relaxed doing something so calming. 

The next thing I did for my mind was sew. I’ve sewed before in the past using a sewing machine, but I had never hand sewed until now. My sister and I each sewed our own little spring/Easter gnome. For some strange reason, my mom and my sister are obsessed with gnomes and it has kind of become a little inside joke in my family because my mom has a gnome for each season like Christmas, Valentines, Easter etc. In fact, my mom bought materials to make her own gnomes with my sister too. Now that we are stuck at home, I decided to get involved and join my sister in making one of these gnomes. We made Easter gnomes since Easter had just passed, and I must say it was an evening well spent. I was doing something hands-on and interactive, and by the end of the night, I had created a final product I was proud of. Besides accidentally burning my finger with my hot glue gun, my mind was very relaxed through this activity! (lol)

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

So, I came to realize pretty quickly that I needed to find things that would make me happy while staying at home. I couldn’t go to Starbucks, and I couldn’t hang out with friends/family. SO, I decided to bring all these things to my home!  

First off, for any of you Tik Tokers out there, you’ve probably heard or seen of the “whipped coffee” (AKA Dalgona coffee). Well, stuck at home, I randomly decided to make this famous drink and see if it was all it was hyped up to be. After making this drink for the first time, I quickly discovered why everyone was making it; it was so good! This drink definitely did something for my happiness, and it tasted almost exactly like a drink I might buy at Starbucks! This was a real treat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. For anyone else who likes coffee, I strongly recommend trying it! 

Due to the pandemic, I am not able to visit friends or family. As a result, I’ve started playing online games with my cousin and my nonna. My cousin and I discovered this online version of Catan and we’ve really enjoyed playing it together. We will Facetime while playing and it’s practically like we are playing the actual board game together in person. This has made me super happy because I’ve truly missed being able to go visit my cousin and hang out with her. We also discovered online card games where we’ve played crazy 8’s. I recently also started using House Party a lot more too, because you can video chat with people and play games. I will video chat with my cousin and my nonna and we will play the drawing/sketching game. It’s super fun and makes me happy to get to spend time with family even though we can’t visit each other.   

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

I’ve found during this pandemic that there are always ways to help those around you and lend a helping hand to someone who might be facing difficulties during these challenging times. One of the ways I’ve done this is by helping my friends in my classes. A friend of mine in my chemistry class tends to have some questions about the homework we get assigned. We will Facetime and talk about the questions and I will explain them to her if I can. My friend really appreciates these calls and she says they really help her gain a better understanding of the course concepts we are learning. I’ve found this to be a great way to replace the work I was doing at school prior to the pandemic. At school, I offered help to students as a science peer tutor, and by helping my friends, I feel like I am still fulfilling this role! 

At home I am continuing to help both my sisters with any help they need with their school work as well. I know this new online learning environment isn’t for everyone, because we all have different ways of learning and processing information. To help my sisters out, I will re-teach them lessons and go over questions with them so that they gain a better understanding. For example, my sister Matia is in Science 10 right now, and she is learning all about DNA. She was really confused by an assignment where she was asked to draw a piece of DNA and label it. Using my own knowledge from Science 10, I was able to successfully help her and teach her how to do this. 

Not only have I been helping my sisters, but I’ve also been helping my parents with their work as well, specifically my mom. My mom also works in the school district at a school, so she has been learning how to navigate all these new online platforms of communication too. I’ve been guiding her and teaching her how to use these programs, like how to join a Teams staff meeting, start a Teams meeting with her students, and also create online learning resources. I’ve sort of become the “go-to” tech support person in my family, but I actually enjoy it, and I don’t mind it at all. I know I am helping my mom out and relieving some of her stress. She isn’t very tech-savvy, but she’s definitely improving as she goes, and she’s starting to get the hang of things. 

Thank you for reading my second reflection! 

I hope you are all continuing to find ways to help your body, mind, happiness, and others and well!

Stay safe! 

-Madison Ciulla