A Well Balanced Summer

For part of the summer, I stayed on campus to take two classes during the first summer session because I wanted to get some credits out of the way. I found both my classes to be more relaxing than the classes I took during the regular semester because it was only two classes and so I had a lot of time to do classwork and have the free time to do other things as well. The classes I took were Psychology of Adulthood (in person) and Intro to Criminal Justice (online). Not only did I want to get credits out of the way, but I also wanted to be productive. My psych class only lasted three weeks, so I was able to fly back home to Singapore at the end of it. During those three weeks, I stayed on campus in Bayside; it was the first time I stayed in a single, which was great. I worked as an International Ambassador throughout my sophomore year, so I thought it would be a good idea for me to continue working at the Intercultural Center while I was still on campus. 

I finally went back home and since it was a long flight, I felt tired afterwards. While I was home, I spent most of my time relaxing and catching up with family and friends. I had not seen them in a long time so it was great that I was able to talk about school as well as the other things I was involved in. In addition to spending time with family and friends, I was also able to get some “me time.” I did some shopping, took long walks in the park, and went back into my reading habit. I did not have a lot of time during the semester to read, so I was finally able to get more free time to read. 

During the second last weekend before I had to go back to school, my family and I decided to go on a mini vacation somewhere three hours from where we live. We thought it would be a great time to spend more quality time with each other and do some fun activities as a family. While we were on this mini vacation, we went on a night safari, went on a boat ride, and even went trekking through the jungle; the jungle trekking part made me feel so exhausted that I felt like I needed to take a nap afterwards. 

I continued spending the rest of my time with my family, and on the weekend before I had to leave, we decided to have a nice seafood dinner at a restaurant. We ate great food and we had a lot of good laughs that it made me sad that I had to leave, but I knew that I would remember that moment for as long as I can. It was eventually time for me to get back to school and focus on my classes. I am in my junior year, so I figured that I needed to be focused on doing well in my classes, but also finding the time to take care of myself. I decided to join a few clubs on campus so I can be more involved. 

For my junior year, I want to be able to balance out my schoolwork and finding the time to do the things I love to do such as writing and reading. I feel like I want to be more involved on campus, considering I newly joined WQRI and Science Alliance. By joining these new clubs, I feel like I would be able to make good social connections and meet new people from all walks of life. I know it is going to be a great year full of personal growth and development.

Ashwini Puralasamy '21