Self Control
“Self-Control is the chief element in self-respect, and self-respect is the chief element in courage.” Thucydides’ quote clearly shows how is self-control is important in our daily activities. Especially college students experience a lot of frustrations and conflicts throughout the academic year. The competitive environment, exams, and even poor time management can also cause stress to students. These can have physical and emotional effects on one which can lead to distrust, anger, or depression which can lead to health problems such as headaches and high blood pressure. Although stress is an inevitable part of life but it all comes down to how you manage and deal with your anxiety and emotions.
Spring break is the perfect time for college students to learn ways to cope with stress through self- control. What spring break might be for one person who loves to travel and sit on the beach might be different for another who just want to work and stay indoors. Therefore, various effective coping skills can still remove the source of your stress. During spring break, learn to simply relax. Traveling can be a great recreation into your life. Especially if you strategically plan your trip and give yourself time, it will eliminate your anxiety. Schedule regular recreation, plan vacations, and learn personal relaxation techniques can help you relieve stress. Second, working out and eating healthy during spring break can help you reduce your stress before you go back to school. Studies say that working out can release endorphins which can improve your sleeping pattern and relieve stress.
Overall, self-control can help you reduce stress, anger, and other forms of anxiety during spring break. Things will eventually fall into place; just have self-respect and life becomes a lot less stressful. Managing anxiety will help you clear your mind and you’ll have the courage to accomplish the semester successfully.
Jensen Denoyes
Preparation
“Before anything else, preparation is the key to success.” This quote couldn’t be any truer from the Alexander Graham Bell. Fall semester is a very important time for college students where they continue their journey to the real world. But in order for a student to have a successful academic year, he or she must understand the importance of preparation. Preparation is necessary for students in order for them to accomplish anything. This was a major factor for me in my journey as both as a college student and as a college professor.
As a freshmen commuting to Bridgewater State University from Brockton, I honestly had a challenge in getting to class on time at the beginning. Therefore, I had to strategize and figure out how I can get more organized. The first step I did was to figure out how long it would take to get to class from my house. This allowed me to get little extra time before class started. Fortunately, I was blessed to have reliable ways of transportation such as the commuter rail and my own vehicle. I was never a big fan of 8 am classes because there was chance that I would sleep in. But setting the alarm clock on my phone allowed me to be in class on time. Being present was very important for my education. Woody Allen once said “Showing up is 80 percent of life.” True, but what about the remaining 20%? The remaining 20% was being responsible for the items and material needed for the course, completing assignments, and preparing for exams. As a college student, I learned that preparation is important not only in academics but also in all aspects of life. The more prepared you are, the better chances you have for success.
Even as a speech communication professor, I explain to my students that they need to prepare for their speeches. Preparing well and practicing the speech several times will help build their confidence level. Preparation eliminates stress and anxiety while delivering speeches. Research has shown that most speakers who prepare their speeches get less anxiety because the preparation helps them gain a sense of control and confidence.
Overall, college had taught me that preparation can help you accomplish your future goals. My students have also shown that preparation can help you become an effective speaker. Take this opportunity during the fall semester to understand the importance of preparation so you can have a successful academic year. Good luck with the semester and study hard.
By
Jensen L Denoyes
Self Awareness
It’s summer time. The spring semester is finally over. What is the first thing that comes to mind as a college student? Beaches, traveling, NBA finals, Fourth of July, or even work? During the summer break, this is the great opportunity to get to know yourself a bit more. We can imagine how busy you were during the school year with working and studying. Now summer is perfect time to enhance your Self-Awareness. By understanding your strengths and weaknesses, this will enable you to balance your life for the upcoming fall semester. It is very important to be at peace with yourself and your abilities because it can have a major impact to your surroundings.
Self-awareness allows you to make the right decisions in regards to relationships, careers, and finances. Therefore, take the opportunity to write a journal whether you are at the park or the beach over the summer. According to studies, those who write journals do a better job balancing their lives. The journal will allow one to explore and structure his or her personal growth. While writing, evaluate qualities or traits that influence your decisions. Your beliefs, values, experiences, and knowledge all play a major role in your decision making. That’s what makes each and every one of us unique. Consistently writing a journal entry will also allow you to discover your strengths. Writing will not only recognize your strengths, but also more importantly, your weaknesses. During the summer, this is the great opportunity seek from those who can help us with our weaknesses. Whether its friend, family, peer tutor, or community leader, it’s good to have people that you can depend on who can give you constructive feedback. Don’t be afraid to ask them what’s your strengths and weaknesses.
Once fall semester comes, you’ll be able to sustain your goals and continue on with having a positive outlook on life. Being practical, thoughtful and in need of love are the many aspects that define who you are. With self-awareness, it can advance you to graduate with a well-established degree.
Jensen Denoyes
Perseverance
“Great works are performed not by strength, but by perseverance.” This quote couldn’t be anymore true from Samuel Johnson. Perseverance allows one to try in spite of difficulty. It prevents a person from giving up while aiming to reach his or her goals. Everyone has a different limit to which they can be pushed themselves. However trying to overcome these challenges, it requires some level of perseverance.
Two weeks ago, I traveled down to Georgia for a Reebok Spartan Competition Race. My brother, who lives Georgia, and I’ve been training for weeks for a Spartan Super is 8 + miles with 28 obstacles. Some of these training required strength, cardio, and flexibility. True the distance might not seem long, but the biggest challenge were the obstacles. Some of them were fun and easy. While others were intense and even dangerous. The competition was in the outdoors up on a hill in a forest. Honestly, the night before the race I was totally nervous and had a tough time sleeping. But I promised myself that I would fly back home with a medal. One of the first obstacles that we faced was going under bob wires in mud. This was a challenge because if you crawl too long the bob wires, the mud can slow you down. But if you roll around too many times, you can easily get dizzy. So I had to alternate crawling and rolling. Despite have mud on my face, we still managed to finish that obstacle.
There were many other obstacles we had to face such as hopping over walls, carrying buckets of pebbles, lifting up stones, dunking my head into a murky mud pit to go under a wall and etc. Most importantly, just going up and down the hill was very exhausting. There was a point that I was thinking about giving up…until there was one obstacle changed of everything. This obstacle required for one to climb on a 100 ft. rope cargo net. My brother and I both agreed that this one was intense. However, I saw a man who was attempting to climb the rope and he was an amputee. Despite not having his right leg, the guy was trying his best to make it to the top. Luckily, he had a lot of people who helped him including my brother. When he made it to the top, everyone cheered with joy. The guy was so happy that tears came out his eyes. Another great thing about Spartan is the team work. Physical training can’t prep you up a cargo net if heights scare you. But your buddies can. But this athlete with one leg could’ve had so many excuses to not do the race with his condition. Hadn’t he done the race and made to the top of the net, I wouldn’t had found that inspiration to later finish the race and fly back home with a medal. Instead, he overcame the obstacle just by understanding the importance of perseverance.
Perseverance is what allows one to continue striving to achieve their goals. In this case, the person had to overcome an obstacle. Just as he has not given up, you should also not give up. Never give up. Ignore the difficulties which arise and keep fighting. With God, All is possible.
Sense of Purpose: Holiday Lights
The Red represents the precious blood of Christ who died for us. The Blue represents the beauty of the holiday snow at night given to us by Mother Nature. The green represents growth. Just like a plant, we experience various stages of growth throughout the year. Some seasons will allow us to flourish and blossom just to “spring” into a new beginning. While other seasons will make us wither and experience coldness to the point where we want to “fall” to the ground. But just like the photosynthesis of green plants, it still remains a growing process. The Gold represents the gold the Wise Men gave to Jesus, just like the gifts that we love to give and receive during the Holidays. The white/yellow light represents the cleansing power of Blood of the Lamb.
When these lights bulbs unify, they can create beautiful decorations due to their positive energy; both literally and figuratively. Due to each colored light bulb having a purpose, they all contribute something more to the Holiday season. These lights bring something back to life. Every Holiday seasons, these lights still have another chance to contribute; another chance to give to life. Another chance to start a new beginning. Be a Holiday light my friend. Jensen Denoyes
Patience
Staying Focus
I have a DREAM…To Stay Fit
It very important to stay fit especially when you are fighting for a cause. You have to be in good health. Just imagine… if Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. experienced fatigue only less than two minutes of his march. When you stay fit and exercise, you have a clearer mind. Therefore, you can come up with better plans and better objectives. You have the energy to go out and get it done. Staying fit gives you strength to fight and do what’s right. To work hard for what you believe in.
Today take the stand to stay active, stay fit. Just like Martin Luther King, strive for confidence, happiness and lots of love. These are the reason to stay fit because not only do you improve but people around you will improve for themselves to help you fight for a cause.
Jensen Denoyes
Noah’s Arc Reactor
Long, boring, and tedious. These are the words the may come to from our heads when we’re in the middle building something; houses, relationships, careers, businesses, family, finance, trust, friendships, education and etc. No one said building or creating something would be simple. However, it also becomes critical when people say this common term…”I GIVE UP.” It is hard when people quit in middle of something potentially great. There are many inventions in history that haven’t seen the day of light due to inventors giving up during of trials. If there’s one person that taught me the importance perseverance while building something is…Noah.
Noah was man who God had warned about “The Flood”. God instructed him to build the Ark and save a remnant of life. The Lord felt Noah was “righteous in his generation” Who was Noah? Noah was definitely not a young powerful man who was professional in building ships like the Titanic. He was just an old amateur. Matter of fact, many historians claim Noah had drinking issues. While building the Ark, he could have easily given up. Imagine him saying “yo my dude, why am I building this thing? I’m still gonna die anyway. Besides, I’m old and drunk.” Instead, Noah was obedient to God while building the Ark. Instead of listening to his critics, he just followed the directions God gave to him. The biggest tool that Noah had to build the Ark was his Faith. Sometimes, when I think of Noah, I usually think of…Iron Man?
Although he’s fictional character, but Iron Man’s story is almost similar to Noah’s Ark. . Rich businessman Tony Stark (aka Iron Man) finds himself kidnapped by a terrorist group. After being tortured by them, Tony Stark was forced to build weapons for the terrorist to use on innocent lives. However, instead listening to the terrorist group, he decided to build an armor suit while in severe pain. Unlike the original book, the movie showed Tony building himself device called Arc (ironically) Reactor just to keep himself from a heart injury. At the end, he manage to escape the terrorist group and did positive things with his invention. However, this guy could’ve easily made weapons for the terrorist or taken his own life. Instead, he took a different direction that led him to great adventures. How?
Faith. Both the Noah story and Iron Man origin shows that Faith is something man can’t see. Faith is something makes you move from your comfort zone. Faith is something gives you that clear picture of what you want to build and the destination you want to go. It’s not a dream either. God knew Noah and his people deserve the best in life. Even the terrorists with guns weren’t able take away the faith Tony Stark had.
Then why do we as people give up when were in the middle of building something astonishing? Taking breaks and fresh air is needed to help us get back in the game. That is perfectly normal, but don’t quit. Your faith is the tool that you’ll need to build your future.
The Heroic Age
Attacked (9/11, 2001), Crashed, (Wall Street Crash , 2008), and even Massacred (Tuscon Shooting, 2011). Throughout the years, America gone through some tough times. Now we’re in new decade where we are facing many uncertainties. However, we’re also in a new era where heroes are born and reborn. I call this era, “The Heroic Age.”
On January 12, 2011, a month before Abraham Lincoln’s birthday, President Barack Obama gave a powerful speech at the Tuscon Memorial Service days after the shooting. Many Americans were angry, mourned, afraid, and willing to blame others. Most importantly, many felt hopeless that there was no point of carrying on. Obama, however, chose to move into a more optimistic approach towards the situation by saying “Hopes of a Nation are here Tonight.” Therefore, President Obama took the opportunity to acknowledge those who’ve shown courage and bravery.
First, he showed admiration to Daniel Hernandez, the intern who helped save the life of U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords. Obama says directly to Hernandez, “You may deny it but we’ve decided that you are a ‘Hero’ because you ran through the chaos to minister to your boss and tendered to her wounds and help keep her alive.” In addition, Obama acknowledges the doctors, nurses, and the men who stopped the gunman. He later defines heroism as not only to be found in the battlefield were special training is required. Instead he says, “Heroism is here in the hearts of so many of our fellow citizens.”
This speech reminds America that we are living in a new era. An era where many Americans have been defeated by now learning to get back on our feet. A time period where the darkest moments allowing us to shine. And also an age where individuals now have sense of hope for a promising future by going back to school, volunteering, being an honorable business owner, and of course, being a great human being. Unlike last decade, people were hoping for things to get “back to normal.” Now America is finally learning to overcome and still truimph. If we were able to beat The Great Depression, win World War II, Walking on the Moon, and ending the Cold War, imagine what we will say about the recession in twenty years from now.
We all have a hero in us that can be discovered despite our backgrounds, incomes, or appearance. In our society, we get confused that heroes have to wear a cape or build an armor in a cave. A hero doesn’t have to be a celebrity . A hero can also be one who has impacted your life in a positive way like a parent. A parent loves his or her child more than they love themselves. They would literally protect their child. These qualities define the true meaning of a hero.
In conclusion, despite the downfall we’ve faced throughout the years, America still has Heroes that haven’t been discovered yet. This is the time for us to show our “fireworks” during this Heroic Age.