As the school year comes to a close, the Student Movement staff members share important lessons they've learned this year.
Biggest life lesson: it never hurts to try.
By Gio Lee, Social Media Editor
I’ve never had to be more independent than this year. Like a typical younger sister, I’ve depended on my sister a lot when it came to making friends and future advice. She was one of my biggest support systems. It was convenient that we were able to go to the same school together; she would attend school and/or church events with me due to how shy and uncomfortable I was going alone. Everything went well for my first two years of college. But life gets in the way—not only did my sister graduate and leave Andrews, all of my closest friends transferred to different schools. I realized that I had become so dependent on my friends and sister that I never ventured off to try different things for myself. I never felt confident enough to go to events by myself, or ask people if they wanted to hang out with me. So before the fall semester began this year, I made it my goal to be more confident and not be scared to try new things. I would go to church by myself not knowing who I would sit with, become a small group leader, go on a mission trip, be a club officer, and more. And you know what? I regret nothing. Actually, I’ve been able to make even more friends than I anticipated and started to enjoy going to events instead of thinking of it as a chore. Who knew life was filled with so much? This brings me to my next point: instead of staying stuck in that fear, face it! Life is filled with even harder challenges, so try starting with the little stuff first. Maybe you’ll start to enjoy life a little more :)
Connectors
By Scott Moncrieff, Faculty Advisor
I was monolingual until I turned twenty-one, at which time I found it highly advantageous to study Spanish, in pursuit of a romantic relationship which has led to forty decades of marriage. So believe me when I say I value language study. I also took a reading French intensive course during one summer of my PhD studies, in order to satisfy a requirement for reading proficiency in two foreign languages. For years, I’ve wanted to dive into another language. Korean? It would be great, but it seems too hard. Portuguese? It would be fun, and I know plenty of friendly Brazilians to practice with—but should I let my weak French die? So, this year I decided (not saying this was smart, but . . .) to study French and Portuguese, which are first cousins of Spanish. What has come to my attention is the importance of all the little connecting words, articles and prepositions. It’s fun to learn the content words, like estudar/étudier, exercitar/s’exercer, tocar piano/jouer de piano (to study, to exercise, and to play piano, in Portuguese and French). Not so much fun to learn no, do, os (Portuguese) or sur le, de la, les (French). But you can’t put together a sentence without those connectors, so I have to learn to embrace them, je dois apprendre à les embrasser. To learn in any field there are the fun big things that make you feel accomplished when you learn them, but there are also all the little connectors that help us order the “big” things and make sense out of them. Como amantes do aprendizado, precisamos amar ambos.
A “Work in Progress”
By Kayla-Hope Bruno, Photography Director
This past school year I learned that it is okay to be a “work in progress.” Life is an imperfect journey and a learning process where you will not have everything figured out. The journey will be filled with peaks, valleys, and gray areas where things do not make any sense. Going through these past semesters, I have experienced extreme highs, extreme lows, and moments where I did not understand what I was feeling. In the high moments, I was excited that I was making progress in deciding my future steps. In the low moments, I was overwhelmed by the negativity in our world and in my own personal life. In the gray areas, I was experiencing constant indecisiveness on life decisions that needed to be made. Honestly, I could experience all these intense moments within a week, which was draining. Even though I know that I will most likely face days, weeks, months, or years where life may be defined by a myriad of emotions, choices, and decisions, I will remember that these moments are all part of the bigger picture, which is my life’s journey. Having a relationship with God and having the support of my family and friends is a constant reminder that this journey as a “work in progress” will always be worth it. As this school year comes to an end, graduation day is fast approaching, and my future is filled with unknowns. I am choosing to accept God’s peace and joy; I am surrounding myself with the love of family and friends and I am also remembering that life is not perfect, and it is okay to be a “work in progress.”
Soulmates
By Alannah Tjhatra, Editor-in-Chief
I should look for a soulmate. And when I find one, that person should be the most important person in my life, because romantic love is the pinnacle of human existence, and my partner should be my top priority. Everything else, while still important, is secondary. This is the lesson I absorbed from rom-coms, books, social media posts, dating apps, and shared stories in our heteroromantic world. I’ve since learned that it’s wrong.
Lately, I’ve been trying to be more intentional about giving my friends and family the same quality of love that I would give to a romantic partner. I’m not saying that we should treat our friends and family the exact same way as we would treat a partner; I’m suggesting that we should romanticize our non-romantic relationships more often. Grand gestures should not just be reserved for our romantic partners, they should be given freely and enthusiastically to all of our loved ones. We should take our friends on dates. We should buy flowers for our parents—not just on Mother’s or Father’s Day—but also on random Tuesday evenings. We should actively show our friends how much we love them—giving them the utmost care, thoughtfulness, and attention—because they are an important part of our lives. I suppose I always knew it, but now, I’ve started to be more proactive about believing and acting on it: the title of “soulmate” doesn’t have to be reserved for a romantic partner. Friends can be soulmates, too.
They Weren’t Lying: Sleep is Actually Pretty Important
By Shania Watts, Website Editor
I’ve always been a night owl. Throughout my time at Andrews, I’ve always been known as that one student who never slept and was subsequently chronically tired (at my worst, I pulled three all-nighters in a row. By day three, I was literally hallucinating and experiencing tremors in my hands). Yes, I had a ton of things on my plate, but I never felt productive or motivated to apply myself completely. I simply just didn’t have the energy. Though this lifestyle of minimal sleep and constant grind worked, I quickly realized that it wasn’t sustainable. Over this past winter break, I decided it was time to completely cancel this ridiculous schedule. So I returned to Andrews, committed to going to bed early, and waking up early. Boy, was it an adjustment! However, I truly feel that it was the best adjustment I’ve ever made. It took me nearly my entire academic career to finally realize that I’m actually more productive in the mornings. Not only could I get all my homework done and still feel refreshed, but I had time for other tasks, such as tackling the 20+ hours weekly practice requirement for music majors! Instead of forcing myself to stay up late and finish assignments poorly, I now decide to go to bed and complete the assignments in the morning. And guess what? They always turn out ten times better. Now, I can’t say I’ve perfectly maintained this new routine. I’ve definitely had a handful of days where I went to bed way later than I should have. Nonetheless, the overall impact on my life has been amazing since making this change, and I highly recommend it to all the freshmen I’ve met that aren’t getting any sleep. It’s okay to prioritize sleep, ya’ll!
Self Care: More than Scented Candles
By Lily Burke, Copy Editor
What have I learned? Academically, actually a lot! That’s always a good feeling at the end of a semester. But beyond now knowing the intricacies of the Americans with Disabilities Act, being validly freaked out about surveillance capitalism, having gone through the steps of a community development project, appreciating some highlights of 20th century literature, and delving into contemporary perspectives on the role of archaeology, I’ve learned about life. There’s two important tips I want to share. One tip is, “don’t put it down, put it away.” As someone who is easily sidetracked down rabbit holes and into new projects, leaving the materials I was using to complete the previous thought in my wake, sometimes my spaces get overwhelmingly messy! I’ve learned that instead of putting down whatever clothing item, piece of technology, animal, vegetable, miracle, whatever I’m holding, I should put it away in its place. This tip has worked miracles to help keep my spaces more clean and my mind less stressed. The second tip I’ve learned is that it’s okay to make things easier for yourself. I tend to hold high and funky standards for my work, though these standards, upon closer inspection, are often arbitrary at best, and damaging at worst. I’ve learned that it’s okay to question my methods and goals, and come up with a way to make things easier. For instance, maybe I don’t need to write a life changing, Masters-degree-application-worthy essay for every class assignment. Maybe I can just complete the requirements, get my grade, and be okay.
The Student Movement is the official student newspaper of Andrews University. Opinions expressed in the Student Movement are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the opinions of the editors, Andrews University or the Seventh-day Adventist church.