Create a cozy, comfortable “safe place”
Kimberly Caruba, beat blogger
As the holiday season approaches and students begin to count down the days until they travel home once more, it seems more difficult to find things to smile about. It is a little bit ironic since the holiday season is supposed to bring joy, fun, and good times to all. But in the eyes of college students the end of the semester means trudging through snow, bone-chilling weather, and a suffocating workload. When things begin to mount against you, the best advice I can give is to simply make yourself a “safe place.”
My safe place is a location that I can go to that provides me with comfort and reinvigorates me so that I can get the tasks before me completed. For me, my dorm room, specifically my bed, is my safe place. Every morning I make my bed, not because it looks nice or because it “feels better,” but because my bed is my safe place. It relaxes me to come home and see my bed warm, comfortable, and waiting for me. It’s comforting to know that when I come home every day, I can snuggle up under my covers, grab my laptop, and get to work with comfort and support (squishy as it might be) all around me.
When designating your safe place, don’t think that it has to be your bed. A safe place can be in a private location or in the middle of the Quad (not recommended when it is so cold, but that’s your prerogative). The point of a safe place is to have a destination where you can go to get work done and have a happiness boost. This location can be a certain table at the library, a building on campus, or having a cup of coffee at your favorite table at the student center. In the end, your safe place is somewhere that will make you smile.
Throughout the years, the transition from fall to winter has always been a hard one for me. It seems as though every November and December is a stressful period in my life. It doesn’t help that the sun seems to shine less often and that the amount of daylight becomes so scarce (causing even more stress as time seems to decrease). The one thing that has always been able to get me through is designating a safe place for myself. I hope that finding that special location will be as helpful to you as it has been for me.
k
