🍂 Festive Fall Project Weekend (October 27-29, 2023)

🍁 October was the most mentally-tasking month of the entire semester for me. I never had time for a break because of how on the go I was. For context, I live about two hours north of CSUF and am in a long distance relationship with my boyfriend back home. Additionally, I have been undergoing chronic health problems that have caused me to have to go home for appointments at inconvenient times during the semester. To put it simply, I had to go home three out of the four weekends of October and that made me very burnt out from driving through LA to get home. My bag was constantly packed. I was constantly on the move and getting very tired of it.

This also meant that I didn't really get to enjoy my weekends when I wasn't in class or work. I was always stressed about where I was travelling next. This bothered me because I love the fall and winter holidays at the end of the year. I love getting in the festive spirit and that was ripped away from me this year because of reasons beyond my control. This weekend, I fought these reasons. I was determined to have a festive fall weekend filled with seasonal holiday drinks, a pumpkin patch and the adoption of a baby pumpkin for Halloween.

This weekend, I had to go home for a dentist appointment but I also had to write a news article for one of my classes on a holiday feature idea. To help my holiday blues, I choose to write about my hometown pumpkin patch that was a staple of my childhood, Underwood Family Farms. This place always got me in the mood for Halloween. So I took my big DSLR and headed home to find my childhood pumpkin patch. I wanted to adopt a baby pumpkin named Steve. On the way, I got a grande iced white chocolate mocha with pumpkin cream cold foam and cinnamon powder from Starbucks. I need to have my first and only fall drink of the season to really feel the holiday cheer. As I drove home through LA, I listened to old autumn jazz classics and started to fight the chaotic month's fatigue on my heart. I needed to take care of myself in the first day off I had in a month.

This was a week where I learned another piece of advice for transfers and that is not to overextend yourself during challenging parts of the semester. I was swamped with projects in October and was running around LA with my head chopped off trying to make family gatherings. Family is important to me but I needed to say no to some of them to make sure I got the rest I needed during the taxing month. When I got to CSUF, I thought I needed to take every opportunity I was given to be successful in my last two years at the university.

In reality, there are way too many opportunities to do them all and you need to decide which ones are worth it when you transfer or else you risk the possibility of burnout. 🎃