Advice

Stress in college is a little over exaggerated. This is probably due to the dramatic girls and guys that make it seem harder than it actually is. I know that growing up I always heard horror stories about all the work and the big papers kids had to write. Sure that is tough, but if you schedule things out everything should go just fine. First you need to make sure that you don’t procrastinate. Always have things done at least 1-2 days before they are due. Secondly, make yourself a schedule or use a planner. Write all your homework assignments and tests in their respective date boxes. Make sure that you have them completed. Then, after you have finished it or turned it in you will find great satisfaction in crossing it off of your calendar. Also, leave time for you to do what you want. If you don’t have free time you will never make it four years at college. You have to have time to yourself. This acts as a stress reliever. So remember, don’t procrastinate, use a planner/calendar, and make sure that you have down time. This advice is important because I know that it worked for me. I earned excellent grades my first year of college.

Stress Relievers

Lifting and Running help me to relieve my stress. I can just go into the weight room and focus all my stress into pushing up weight on a bench press or some other exercise. It really works for me. However, I have to be able to focus to lift, or else I get nothing accomplished. Running is also a big stress reliever for me. I just put on my running clothes and head out to run whenever I am stressed. I just run as hard as I can until I cant do it anymore. This helps me clear my mind and relieve my stress. Sometimes I will go for a one mile run, but other times I will go for 3-5 miles. It just depends on how motivated I am.  I also think about my career whenever I am stressed. It helps me to be able to see myself doing what I want to do. It motivates me to get over my stress and move on. I will look up things on the Internet pertaining to my possible career(s). This generally takes a while, and with the combination of time and looking at my dream job I usually become less stressed.

Stress Comic

Here is my comic I made about stress

Below is the link.
 http://www.pixton.com/create/comic/q769tk5f

Stress and Songs

To tell you the truth, I really don’t listen to that much music when I am stressed. I find that it is just better for me to be in a place where it is quiet. However, if I did have to pick a song that lifted my spirits it would probably be God Bless the USA. I know what your thinking, “This guy is weird.” Well I’m just telling the truth. I like to listen to patriotic music whenever I am stressed. This helps me feel better because the song is so inspirational. It shows that our country is the best, and I’m not afraid to say that. It also gives me a sense of patriotism whenever I listen to it. I get this feeling that is hard to explain. I feel determined, almost like I can do anything. It makes me think of all those who serve so that we can sit here and do what we want. We say we’re so stressed, but actually it is nothing compared to what our military personnel go through. So, this song really helps ease my stress by giving me a sense of pride, patriotism, and determination. My favorite part of the song is the beginning, “If tomorrow all the things were gone I’d worked for all my life…”

 Below is a link to a youtube video that I found.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q65KZIqay4E 

Year in Review

My year at IUP Punxsy flew by. At the beginning of the year I never thought that it would go by so fast. It is amazing how time flies when you have an enjoyable experience. I have made many new acquaintances throughout my year here. Since I am from Punxsutawney I really didn’t have trouble adjusting. I hope that next year, and the years to follow, I will be able to maintain relationships with those who I have met here. I find it so incredible how you can go to a place and absolutely know nobody, but within a week you know everyone. This small college experience was cool because the professors were personable. They made every effort to help me, and the other students if we needed it. That is pretty amazing considering it doesn’t happen at very many colleges. My best, most vivid memories from this year are those of the time spent in military science class. The instructors were always energetic, and they have become people who I look up to. I will always remember the time that we went over to main campus to shoot target practice. It was my first time ever shooting at an indoor range. Let me just say, it was awesome! Also, I will never forget the psychology paper that we had to write. During the first semester all I heard were people complaining about writing the paper. This really worried me because paper had to be around twenty pages. However, our paper turned out just fine. I guess I could say that I have enjoyed this year here at Punxsy, and that I am ready to move over to main campus. I would also like to thank Dr. Ruffner, who was my advisor, for all the advice that she has given me throughout this year.

Freedom

            Gerda was able to be freed from German hands before they were able to kill her. However, her family did not meet the same fate. They were murdered sometime throughout the war. She lost her best friends Ilse and Suse during the march, which took over two months. While being freed Liesel, her last remaining friend, dies. As Gerda looked at her, she said that, “A solitary tear ran down her cheek” (Klein 215). It was liberation day and she had made it. This was what she and her friends had dreamed of for years. Unfortunately, Gerdas’ happiness was shadowed by the fact that she was now alone. She had no family and friends.

            She did meet a soldier on V-E Day. His name was Kurt Klein. He was also a Jew, but had managed to escape before the war started. Gerda and Kurt fell in love and eventually got married. While she was still imprisoned she dreamed of having a baby. She had, “The thought of a baby, warm, new, clean as freedom itself” (Klein 155). This is something that kept her going. It kept her from giving up even when the work or journey seemed impossible. She managed to survive hunger, disease, physical beatings, and the pure hatred of the Nazis. I thought that this book was excellent. All Gerda longed for was to have a family, her family. In the end even though hers was killed she was able to start a new one with Kurt. This book far surpassed my expectations. It is filled with vivid details of her life during the many years she was imprisoned. I get a sense of determination from reading this book. Gerda persevered under daunting odds. This gives me inspiration to complete my dreams.

Gerdas' Determination

            Gerda is going through things that most of us today can’t even imagine what they would be like. Her biggest problem is dealing with the fact that her family is split. She has guilt because she promised her father that she would stay with her mother at all costs. Whenever she gets a letter from him he asks why she had left her mother. Unfortunately, Gerda never gets to tell her father the answer because the Germans kill him. Gerda is also writing to her brother Arthur. She notices that her brothers’ writing is not the same, and that it looks as though he is in pain when writing (133). When she receives a letter from him she gets a sense of reassurance (134). However, this was the last letter she ever got from Arthur. She said that he, “Sensed it would be,” his last message, and that maybe he, “Paid for writing it with life itself” (Klein 134).         

            She and many of the other girls are then moved to another camp. This camp is much worse than the camp they were just at. The woman in charge carries a whip, and uses it to motivate the girls to work (145). While Gerda is cleaning parts of a loom a worker tries to bribe her to have sex with him. When she refuses he says that she will be sorry (148). And it turns out to be that she is. She is put to work unloading flax in the daytime and at night she unloads coal from the trains. This constant work causes her to become physically and mentally exhausted. She even thinks of committing suicide by jumping in front of a train. Finally they are moved to another camp where she is with her friends from the previous camp. Gerda just learns to buckle down when things get tough. She always remembers the promise that she gave to her father, and strives to keep it even when times get rough. I know that most people couldn’t work day and night for four days straight. It takes a dedicated individual that wants to live to keep on going, and that is exactly what Gerda is.

Challenges

“Oh God,” I prayed, as Mrs. Berger came out of her room with a pile of mail” (Klein 121). This is Gerda praying during mail call at the work camp that she has been sent to. She sent a letter to her father in hope of finding out where he was, and where her mother was. When it is time for mail call she hopes that she has received a letter, but at the same time she hopes that she doesn’t. This is because she doesn’t want to hear bad news from her father.

            Since my last post the Weissmann’s have went through many more challenges and difficulties. They have been forced to leave their homes and have been separated. Also a SS Officer came to the door of their house and said that he needed to see Gerdas’ father. He had hidden in the closet and Gerda refused to tell the officer anything. He pulled his pistol and threatened to shoot her. She still would not give him an answer. By doing this Gerda showed that she was extremely brave, and that she was willing to sacrifice her own life for someone she loved.    

            They were ordered to the train station, and the men were ordered to board a train heading for a labor camp. Then her mother and she are separated, and Gerda is sent to a labor camp. As she is driving away in a truck she hears her mothers voice saying, “Be strong…Be strong” (Klein 92). These are the last words that Gerda ever heard from her mother. I can only imagine what it would be like to be separated from my family and then find out that my parents were killed. Gerda has continued to show strength and will not let them kill her. As I read this I felt bad for those who have gone through such tragedies. I think that for those who survived it is a terrible thing to have to live without their families, and many of them without knowing where they’re buried.

Stress Journal

Hi everyone! I’m back again to talk about stress. This time I will be talking about stress journals. A stress journal is something that is supposed to help you evaluate your stress. It shows a stressful event, a reaction, and a coping response. This journal is designed with the idea that you will be able when you are stressed and how well you cope with it. With recording my stress for approximately a week I found that I don’t really have as much stress as I thought. I think our minds allow us to blow things out of proportion. Even though we feel stressed I find that my stress came from primarily one thing. College Classes! At this point in the semester I am under a lot of stress. I have two novels to read, a group paper coming due for Psychology, work due for College Writing, and an Art project. This is probably the heaviest load thus far in my “college career.” I think that keeping this stress journal maybe has stressed me out a little more than I already was. It just reminded me of the things that I wanted to put out of my head. Obviously But, I guess I have to suck it up and continue pushing through. Below is the chart that I filled out with directions from webmd.com. If you would like to see the article you can follow this link http://www.webmd.com/a-to-z-guides/stress-journal-topic-overview .

Time	Stressful Event	Reaction (behavior,thoughts)	Coping response
Fri 1928 (02/24/12)	Late for movies	Told my friend to drive fast and run a stop sign	Not Sure
Sat 1200	Drive home from Clarion on snow covered roads	Feared wrecking my car.	Drove slow and put on light music
Sun 1845	Still hadn’t done my Ethics homework due Mon.	Weight on my chest, constantly in back of mind	Made myself sit down and do it.
Mon 1410	Read part of my book for Psych project	I need to read this fast, I hope it is interesting	I am going to make myself read a little bit each night
Tues 1215	I have a lot of papers and books to write and read	Constantly on my mind	Not Sure
Wednesday 1900	Have to go to meeting which will cause me to lose time for studying	Constantly on my mind, can’t get to sleep. It is past midnight and still awake.	Just have to do a lot more work on the weekend.
Thurs 0530	Somehow forgot to write blog.	I think, “Can I get this done in time?”	Write it at 5:30 am.

Book Blog on Adversity

So as you know I am reading All But My Life by Gerda Weissmann Klein. She, her parents and her brother live in a nice house in a town called Bielitz. In the book they are currently facing a lot of adversity. First, the Germans invaded Poland. Then Gerdas’ brother Arthur is required by the Germans to report to the train station. Everyone has heard rumors about what happens to the people that are shipped away, and they are not good. As he prepares to leave everyone is crying. They know that they might not see him again, but his mother acts as if she will (p. 21). Gerdas’ dad owns a factory with another man. They are not allowed to go near it because they are Jews. The sign on the fence says, “Dogs and Jews not Allowed to Enter” (Klein 26). In late 1939 the Klein’s received a note saying that they had to report to an armory in December. They were only allowed to bring twenty pounds of clothing. Once everyone found out about this, all non-Jews were coming to the house to buy up all their possessions. They sold for a few measly Marks. Everything they treasured was gone so fast, and they had nothing to show for it (30). Then, their rations got cut and they were forced to move into the basement of their home where their hired help lived (33). The Jews were not given things such as sugar and eggs, and their coal rations were cut. They lived in a dark damp basement with only candles and an oil lamp to light it because the Germans intentionally cut their electric lines. They eventually receive good news from Arthur who they were told may have been killed in a massacre (40). This news is a relief for them, and one less adversity that they must face. They no longer have to worry about the life of their child. Eventually they are banned from going outside into their garden. This really hurts Gerdas’ father because she says that he needs to get outside on nice summer days to clear his mind.  I feel that if I were a member of the Klein family I would have forced my parents to move. I feel angry because the property that is rightfully theirs has been taken away. They have gotten no restitution for it, and are being slowly starved. I can’t imagine what is would have been like to live every day of your life in fear knowing that the Gestapo could come and take you anytime.

Stress Survey

This article on stress from the New York Times shows the results of a survey conducted on 200,000 freshmen college students. The survey found that the number of students that rated themselves ““below average” in emotional health rose.” (Lewin 1) Also, the number of students that said they were good with their mental health state went down to 52 percent from 64 percent in 1985. Counselors at colleges say that they think this is because the increasing number of loans students must take out, the fact that many more parents are unemployed, and because they have been predicted to not do as well as their parents. They also find that women are the ones who are more likely to go to counselors for stress. This is because men are taught to hold in their emotions and because they usually find ways to relieve stress. These ways include exercising or maybe even doing something dumb.

            I think that most people that I have seen, including myself, have dealt with stress well. There are always people who don’t keep up with their work, or keep organized. These are the people that you will see running around with a scared look on their face because they have forgot an assignment was due today, or that a big paper is due tomorrow. I find that I get stressed whenever I have multiple tests in one day, or when I have two or three papers due in a week. But for me there is always some stress because I can never forget about the large projects that are coming due. These always hang on me like a weight. I know that when I get stressed because of things in college I get mad. This is because sometimes it doesn’t make sense to me why some professors assign such stupid assignments. If you would like to read more about the stress survey conducted on freshmen students go to http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/27/education/27colleges.html?_r=1 .

My Book

I am choosing to read All But My Life. This book was written by Gerda Weissmann Klein. Unfortunately she was in Poland during WWII, and I am assuming she was a Jew because she was put in a concentration camp. She married one of the men, a soldier, that liberated her camp, and they presently live in Arizona. I chose this book because I have an interest in military history, and in WWII. I figure that this will give me more insight into what the people placed into German concentration camps went through. Although I have read several books about Holocaust survivors I learn a little something new with each book. Each survivor has a story, and generally they are heart wrenching because they tell of how their families were killed before their eyes. It also tells how they were tortured and nearly starved to death. I also chose this book because it seemed to be one of the few that I would be interested in out of the ones available to read. I also hope to be able to expand my vocabulary and intelligence by reading this book. It seems that with each new book I learn a new word or phase that I sometimes “pull out” when I think it is appropriate.