Skip to main content

Getting Used to the New Normal


My first blog for the 2020 - 2021 year! I'm going to start off this blog by giving a quick introduction to myself. My name is Zoya and I’m currently finishing up my undergraduate degree in Computer Systems Engineering. I’m super excited to be a part of the CU-WISE team this year and to be bringing you blog posts every month!

2020 has been quite the year so far, from a global pandemic, to everything else that’s been going on around the world, it can be a lot to take in. It’s normal to feel scared, helpless, nervous, sad, and any other emotion during this time. The lockdown started right around the most stressful time for university students - the end of the semester and exam time. Students and professors alike had to quickly get used to this new normal and adapt to virtual learning platforms. I think we can all go our lifetime without hearing the term “zoom session” again.

This whole experience can be very stressful and take a toll on everyone in different ways. I personally felt really stressed and told myself “just a few more weeks until this semester is finished.” But once the school year did finish, I still felt a lot of stress surrounding the current state of the world. I found that painting, daily walks, and bike rides really helped alleviate some of the stress. It can also be really hard to stay connected with friends while abiding by social distancing rules. My friends and I have been staying connected using many different apps such as “HouseParty” which essentially lets you and your friends have a virtual hangout, similar to Skype and FaceTime.
Now that it’s been a few months, most people have been able to adapt to this new way of life. At this point, the most important and helpful thing to do during these unprecedented times is to listen to our public health officials and the WHO to ensure everyone’s safety. With all this extra time at home, this is also a perfect time to work on any projects or start up on hobbies that you usually would not have time for, you know what they say: “When life gives you lemons, make lemonade!”

But, to that same point, if you don’t feel productive and don’t see this as a time to begin your side hustle that is completely fine too, more than fine actually!! Through all of this we need to remember that we are going through a global pandemic and it's okay to not be okay sometimes.

As we begin the second half of the summer semester for some students, and the second leg of summer for everyone else, let's all remember to check in on our friends and family. This is a hard time, but we are going to get through it, together!

Stay safe, stay inspired, and stay passionate!
-Zoya

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Francesca Tsimiklis, Leaving a Legacy

by Fareen Lavji We miss her so much; we could not help but feature her again. She is one of our favourites, it’s Franny! Francesca recently, and successfully, defended her master’s thesis entitled, “Design and Validation of a Force-Sensing Piano Key to Assess Pianist Biomechanics.” Her research began with an interest in musician injury. Although playing the piano is a common activity, the physical demand of playing is often overlooked. One study found that up to 71% of professional musicians and 87% of music students experience a performance-related musculoskeletal disorder at some point in their career. Francesca’s research looked to gain an understanding of why injury rates are so high at the base level of a finger-key interaction. She developed a novel force-sensing piano key. Her integrated sensing equipment inside of a replica piano key developed a method of measuring the position and 3-axis force application on the key. Francesca is also the recipient of the 2019-20 C...
Post a Comment
Read more

How to Build Connections Online

by Anoushka Singhal It can be exhausting sending out cold emails or connections on LinkedIn and never getting a reply. There are many ways you can get noticed, whether it's by recruiters, CEOs, or people whose work you are generally interested in. Social networking has become very important with remote working, and many don't know where to start. Your very first step should be to create a LinkedIn profile. Personalize your LinkedIn LinkedIn is used by many professionals to recruit employees, make connections, or find mentors. It is the 'Facebook' of professionals. LinkedIn can lead to success, and it all depends on how you use it. Personalizing your LinkedIn plays a huge role in your connection requests getting accepted. Online, everyone wants to know who they are connecting with. Add a profile picture, a background image, and any achievements. Add your education, projects, languages you know, groups you are part of, volunteer experience, and basically anythi...
Post a Comment
Read more

The End of an Unconventional Summer and Beginning of an Unconventional Year

W ell this is it, the end of summer 2020.    Summer 2020 will definitely go down in history as one of the most memorable summers for all of us. It was the first summer where we couldn’t meet up with friends, there were no concerts or BluesFest, and summer jobs were extra scarce.    However, it was also a summer consisting of self-reflection and community togetherness. There’s something beautiful about sacrificing your own plans and time for others safety. I personally feel as though I have grown as a person and learned so much this summer, and that’s partially thanks to social distancing. Social distancing required everyone to stay in, self-reflect, and spend time with ourselves, which I found to be very refreshing; As the well-known quote goes, “Love yourself first, because that’s who you’ll be spending the rest of your life with.”   At this point, with only one week of summer left, a lot of professors are reaching out and explaining how Carleton Universit...
Post a Comment
Read more