HaU BLOG Posts
Heyy!!
Over the summer, I delved into reading again and wanted to share some of my favorites or ones I am interested in reading. I am not, by any means, a book connoisseur, just a book enthusiast :)! I am currently reading Open Water by Caleb Azumah Nelson and Yerba Buena: A Novel by Nina LaCour. In brief, Open Water is about a young black couple, a photographer and a dancer, and is situated in London. It essentially goes through their initial interaction, and we witness them navigating external forces that strain their relationship and make establishing themselves as artists difficult. I know the plot may seem overdone, but the way this book is written is genuinely unlike anything. There is lots of imagery and poetic language. I highly encourage you to read it! Yerba Buena: A Novel follows Emile and Sara as they mature and come to terms with some of their past trauma, and it's also a latinx queer love story!! I have barely read the tip of this iceberg and can't wait for it to take me on a new adventure. I was initially excited to read this because of its representation of the queer latinx experience and themes of maturity, forgiveness, love, and so much more!! Side note: The book deals with some heavy topics, so if you read it, as with any book, make sure you read the triggers. Reading is lovely, but I want to acknowledge that some things may resonate with us, and we may have reactions we didn't anticipate. That is valid! Acknowledge when reading something that may become too much and step aside. Books on my list: Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood Norwegian Wood - Haruki Murakami Beautiful World, Where are you?- Sally Rooney Ordinary People - Sally Rooney The Song of Achilles - Madeline Miller If you have any book recommendations, I would be happy to hear them! <3
0 Comments
College can often feel very stressful; with the quarter system everything feels hectic and overwhelming. It's hard for me to remember a time when college didn't feel stressful. As academic chair, my goals is to support y'all in all of your academic endeavors, and provide you with the proper tools needed to succeed and flourish at UCLA. For me, nothing is more important in my academics than being prepared and organized. I wanted to share with y'all my favorite way to plan and organize my academic, work and personal life--Notion! If y'all have been to my academic events before, you've probably heard the word "Notion" come out of my mouth; I give them a lot of free promotion (like seriously they should sponsor me or something :P). In short, Notion is a free online productivity tool that you can use to manage your schooling, your professional development, habits that you want to keep track of, your favorite books/movies...literally everything and anything you can think of! The freedom you have with Notion to create whatever pages you'd like is exciting, but it can also feel nerve wracking if you just started out on the platform. I know that's how I felt when I first opened the website and stared at the blank page facing me. But if you'd like some inspiration on how I personally organize my notion, keep reading! I basically have my notion divided into five different subpages: home, dream life, index, career and academia. I use the home page as a way to organize my personal life, including my monthly and yearly goal planning, recording habits I'd like to keep track of (drinking water, exercising etc), my personal finances, and my daily to-do list. I also like to document things like how many books I've read, what movies or tv shows I've watched recently, just for fun ;) My dream life page is the space where I brainstorm all of my goals and aspirations in life. I answer questions like, what do I need in my life to be fulfilled, physically, emotionally, mentally, and spiritually? This page is all about manifesting what you want out of life. My index page basically serves the purpose of one of those accordion folder things where you put all of your random pieces of paper and sometimes school work (if your professors actually give out paper assignments still). This is where I jot down random notes, write down recipes I'd like to try, and other miscellaneous things. I use my career page as a way to document my professional development and career journey. I haven't used this page too much to be honest, but I plan to use this page to organize my resume and keep track of mentors and other professionals I'd like to network with. Lastly, I have my academia page, which serves as the hub for all things UCLA related. Here I organize my syllabi for each of my classes, record all of the due dates for assignments, and plan what classes I'm going to take next quarter and in the upcoming year. I also manage all of the tasks I need to complete for the various extracurricular activities I'm involved in, like hermanas unidas :) I hope you found my little notion tour helpful! Even if notion's not the productivity tool for you, I encourage you to find some platform that you can use for productivity and organization, whether that's google calendar, a traditional planner, or simply writing down your to-do list on the notes app. Use whatever fits your personal lifestyle and preferences the most. If you'd like to look more into notion, I'd recommend looking at the following videos on YouTube: https://youtu.be/YdCg7eSmYmI and https://youtu.be/9ZeF7njSQ3s. Thanks for reading!
|
AuthorThe following posts will be from your fellow Hermanas. Archives
March 2024
Categories |