It’s no secret that physical exercise is important to me. When the pandemic first began I started to do exercise at home by watching my new favorite exercise channel, Popsugar Fitness, since I wasn’t able to go back to the New Mexico Tech gym.
Last year was a tough one for all of us as we adjusted to going fully online in our classes. I found myself sitting at my desk doing homework and watching lectures from 9am to 10pm. It became a daily routine and as the semester went on I found it harder and harder to find time to do some exercise and I found myself losing motivation to do even the smallest things. I’ve always made sure to take some time to myself and read a book or go on a walk with my dog and remember that it’s ok to take a break. However, for some reason even taking some time to myself didn’t seem to be enough as my motivation to do homework wasn’t getting any better. It felt like all of my homework was piling up. I stopped doing exercise and I didn’t realize it at the time but exercise gave me the energy I didn’t know I needed.
That being said, it’s a brand-new semester that brings a lot of new interesting classes! This semester I enrolled in a volleyball class with my friends. When they brought up the idea to enroll I wasn’t very enthusiastic about it. I felt like I wouldn’t have time to take that class and my motivation to do much else other than homework was already pretty low. After a lot of convincing I decided to give it a try but the day I tried to enroll I couldn’t find the volleyball class on Banweb. The only two classes I saw under physical education were basketball and yoga. Since I couldn’t find it I decided that I gave it a try and the universe was telling me not to enroll in volleyball. A couple days later my friends told me that the volleyball course was actually under basketball, which was why I couldn’t find it. I thought that was funny because there actually isn’t even a basketball class. When you click on basketball it gives you a time session for volleyball.
To my delight, I found out that you didn’t need to be a pro at volleyball to be in the class. Most of us hadn’t played volleyball since high school so we started out practicing the basics. After a couple sessions we started to play the actual game and it turned out to be tons of fun! I can tell that everyone is enjoying themselves. To my surprise, I found myself slowly coming out of my slump that I got into last semester. I was finding it much easier to find motivation to do my homework and focus more in class. It occurred to me a couple days ago that doing some exercise again has really helped me be in a better mental space! Not only did I regain a lot of my motivation but I also found a new hobby that I really enjoy, which is playing volleyball.
This experience has reminded me how important it is to try new things. I hope I can encourage you to do the same!
~Vanessa
New Mexico Tech Student Life 