Breaking Free!

Wissahickon Valley Park | Photo Credit:TripAdvisor

As we start to move into the month of April and the weather begins to warm up, so does the pace of exams, finals and practicals. As a student, it can be hard to get outside and enjoy the nicer days when there seems to be endless work to do. However, as stressful as school can be, one of the best ways to deal with it is to get active and exercise. Graduate school makes it a little tougher than college to do that since you’re sitting in class most days from 8-5 and then spending the night studying.  A weekly exercise routine is still possible and important for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. While some students find relief by hitting the gym before or after a long day of learning, it is understandable that others find the gym tedious or monotonous. Many of us have heard the spiel about the benefits of exercising regularly, both for a student’s mental and physical health. Luckily, the Philadelphia area (and Salus University) offer many different options to help students stay active throughout the year in ways that don’t involve a treadmill or weightlifting. And of course, many options that fall within the tight budget we have as students.

The flowers and trees are beginning to bloom again, making many of the areas parks a perfect place to walk off the studying blues. My personal favorite is the Wissahickon Valley Park in Chestnut Hill. The Wissahickon Creek flows throughout the park surrounding the 50 miles of hiking trails. The trails are offer gorgeous views as you make your way up the mountain. There is also a path for those who prefer to bike or prefer a flatter trail. Alverthorpe Park is only a 5 minute drive from the school, making it a good option when you need a break from the library or just can’t practice in the lab anymore. A quick search on google will reveal more parks and hiking trails in the area, giving someone lots of options when choosing where they would like to go depending on how far they are willing to travel.  

Students and Faculty attend a class in the Hafter Student Community Center 

For those who prefer to stay inside away from the bugs and heat, the Hafter Student Community Center on campus offers intramural sports and exercise classes to beat the monotony of working out. Intramural sports rotate throughout the year; basketball in the fall and volleyball in the spring. There is currently no school sponsored intramural sport during the summer. Even when scheduled games are not happening, you can often find a pick-up game in the Hafter gym of either volleyball or basketball. Workout classes are also offered five days a week, depending on the instructor’s schedule, and the classes vary each day. Pilates, yoga and cycling are just a few of the classes offered and attendance is included in tuition for students. If you want to get a break from campus and venture out, there are also several studios and gyms in the area that you can find on Groupon which make it affordable to branch out and try a new place within a couple miles of Salus University. Martial arts, rock climbing and kick boxing are just a few of the different activities offered in the surrounding area.

If you’re willing to splurge and treat yourself (and have access to transportation), there are a few more fun things I’d recommend trying for a study break. Last summer my friends and I ventured over to New Jersey where we went tubing along the Delaware River. Tickets and rentals came to about $50 for the day on a weekend, but this also included a lunch along the river. While tubing down the river, some of us ventured off the tubes and swam around while others just floated along. We enjoyed a day of sunshine and laughs as all 15 of us tried to stay together along the entire journey. Make sure to secure all your belongings along the ride so you don’t lose anything! It was an awesome way to get away from school and do something active together. Last winter we also took a break one afternoon and ventured to a trampoline park. For less than $20 we got a workout like no other (surrounded by a bunch of little kids and teenagers but we still had fun). While these activities require a little more time and money, they were awesome ways to get active and we enjoyed every minute of it!

Tubing along the Delaware River 

No matter what outlet you’re looking for to get physical, the Philadelphia area has it to offer. Each student has access to the gym on campus, but there are several ways to get creative if you can’t see yourself using it. One of my biggest pieces of advice for surviving graduate school is working small breaks into your routine to give your mind and body a break. I’ve found that it not only makes me feel better, but I’m able to focus and absorb more material while I’m studying. It also makes paying attention in class a little bit easier because I don’t feel so restless all the time. These daily habits not only help you get through the stress of school while here at Salus University, but help to set you up with a healthy routine for the rest of your life. 

-Kelsey is a second-year optometry student at Salus University

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Planning for the Weekend

Salus University Learning Resource Center

When you think of what a typical week at Salus University will look like, it may not be too different than what you’re experiencing in undergrad. There’ll be classes most days, labs that go a long with most of these classes and then you have time in clinic where you go from observing, to performing some of the skills you learn in lab, to finally performing full comprehensive exams. That’s the part of your schedule that usually doesn’t change a whole lot. Most days I bounce from class, to the library, to the café, to lab, back to the library before I crawl into my bed hopefully by midnight. It’s a long grueling week, but the time you have in the clinic and lab really help break up the monotony of lectures – so take advantage of them! The biggest difference in your schedule from undergrad/real world working life/whatever you have been doing until now is your free time on the weekends.

In undergrad I never had to organize or even think of what I would be doing on the weekends. It was always some combination of time lounging around my fraternity house during the day mixed with a little studying at the library. Nights were always reserved to unwinding with friends or going out on the town (which was in middle of nowhere Pennsylvania so it wasn’t much). However, when you start graduate school your weekends are a lot more valued because it’s the only time you have full days of uninterrupted free time. You don’t have to worry about trying to read an article before your next class or how much time you have to eat lunch before you need to rush off to The Eye Institute. That’s why I learned pretty quickly that planning out how you’re going to utilize your weekends is vital to maintaining self-care, catching up on the tasks you never got to during the week, and preparing yourself for the busy week ahead.

Salus students at Hafter

My biggest tip or advice for Friday nights might sound a little lame, but I’m telling you it’ll be worth it if you listen. Whether your last class on Friday gets done at noon, 3 PM, or 5 PM try to get in two or three hours of solid studying before you let your brain enter “weekend mode”. Chances are you have a test, quiz, or practical the following week, so why not get a jump start? That way, when you have time to relax later that night or that weekend, you can do it soundly with no guilt weighing on your mind. After some studying, I try to leave the rest of Friday night to unwind and give my mind a break. Whether that involves grabbing dinner with friends, catching a movie, or having game night I try to do something social. In the Salus optometry program we’re split into sections so our labs and clinic schedules differ among classmates. Friday nights are the perfect time to catch up with friends and hear about the interesting things they saw in clinic that week or you do what I do and try to talk about anything but school (leave that in the confines of Salus). Sometimes we have Saturday clinic that goes until the late afternoon, but if you’re lucky enough to have Saturday off try to start your morning with something productive that will jump start your day and get you in a positive mindset. For my friends and I that usually involves playing volleyball at the Hafter Student Community Center, or I’ll try and do some cooking to prep for the following week (because who has time to cook), or catch up on the mountains of laundry I have been avoiding. After that, hit the books! If you can commit a few hours of hard work during the day, with productive breaks in between, you’ll feel a lot better when you’re binge watching your favorite show you’ve missed later that night.

Kitchen Bar | Photo Credit: Kitchenbar.net

I’m sure you have all heard of the "Sunday scaries" and I’ll let you know they don’t end in graduate school. But hopefully you’ve been so productive all weekend that Sunday can be more relaxed and you can chase away those Sunday blues with brunch at Kitchen Bar, right down the road from school. Sundays are the day I save for getting all my lectures printed, quizzes studied for, and clinic outfits picked out for the week. I try not to stress myself out too much (unless I have an exam the next day) but get all of those tasks done that will make my week go smoother. And Sunday mornings are always perfect for the dreaded chore that is grocery shopping. If you commit to forcing yourself to get things done during the day you won’t have a worry in the world when you’re relaxing later on.

Weekends are always welcomed as a relief to the stresses of the week, and in graduate school they’re relished even more. By all means everyone’s weekend is going to look different and not everyone has quite the plan like I do, but I truly believe that if you think ahead to what your weekend goals are, it’ll make the next school week free of headaches. You may not think of it if you’re used to being on a meal plan, but trust me cooking takes far too long and is the last thing you want to do after being at school for eight hours. Thankfully weekends offer the hours you need to take care of yourself and your school work so you can continue to be the best student possible and get the most out of every day at Salus University. 

- Chad is a second year optometry student at Salus University

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