On Tuesday, March 18, Office of Accessibility interns Edin Bardic and Sharon Liu spoke about the various ways to practice self-care and self-advocacy, and why it matters.

Being a college student myself, an event about self-care and self-advocating practices is important. It helps us to understand why utilizing and managing our free time to perform these different activities can help us find comfort while struggling to finish work and make our lives easier.

Many of us have busy schedules due to a demanding class or major or it’s the difficulty of balancing work or school with your social life that can cause us to be stressed out. One thing Edin and Sharon stressed was that everyone is different and has different methods of self-care. Whether you enjoy pushing yourself to your limits or taking a breather and relaxing every once in a while, the most important realization is finding a method that works best for you.

Especially as an intern like Sharon and Edin, you may have a larger workload than you’ve experienced in previous semesters, going onsite to complete work or just having a larger sample of work. One of the more underrated aspects of self-care and self-advocacy is to ask questions in a workplace setting or in a classroom to be the best version of yourself. Any of these situations can be overwhelming. You may be unsure about a task or assignment, and asking for help will give you more confidence to learn.

“Alerting a professor if you’re struggling with an assignment or lecture is common among students. Through self-advocacy, you can be helping out your fellow student,” said Bardic. “Even telling your friends and family when you’re having a rough day, and speaking up in general in your everyday life is an important aspect of self-advocacy and self-care.”

Kelly, a student and intern at CSI spoke about the importance of managing her time well while dedicating herself to multiple responsibilities, which are very overwhelming, especially when only having a short amount of time to get your work done. She finds that it’s important to have a schedule that you can manage to the best of your ability, and if you need a day off from it, you can take a day off by doing something that helps you reset.

“I’m doing an internship right now, a part-time job, I’m also doing school, and I have a personal life, and everything can be a huge mix, so I feel like time management is helping me right now,” said Kelly. “I make a schedule for myself and it helps me maintain self-care by realizing when I need a break from that schedule and I will take a day off.”

Every student who is in college right now can surely benefit from events like this that have open discussion about how to exercise your own self-care, as well as self-advocating. It’s important to realize that your mental health comes first, especially when dealing with a stressful situation like a heavy workload. We can all handle these challenges differently too, which is okay, but keeping to yourself isn’t worth the internalized stress to which you subject yourself and the people closest to you.

By Kyle Cicero