(This post is dedicated to my sister-in-law Anne, who passed from this life on 10/22/2011 at 57 years old.)

As I write this I am sitting in a plane heading home from California, the day after attending the funeral of my sister-in-law Anne.  She was diagnosed with cancer in July and, three months later, on October 22^nd she passed from this life at the young age of 57.  Oh, how quickly someone can be taken away from a loving family and friends.  It makes you sit back and think a little bit more about your life and how you are living it.

It was a very moving funeral service with five different people eulogizing her life, each one as eloquent as the previous, honoring a wife, mother, baby sister, and close friend.  This was the first funeral I attended since the death of my father over a year ago.  It hit me hard and I welled up with tears on numerous occasions.  My brother Joe was stoic throughout the ceremony and his eulogy, but his tears were shed before this day, within the past few weeks, when he knew it was just a matter of time before his loving wife would be by his side no more.  A rather strange and cruel twist of fate turned out to be the fact that Anne’s youngest brother Bill passed away two days earlier from the same illness.  So, within a few days, family members attended two funerals only to be left with mere memories of their loved ones.

I can honestly say that I didn’t truly know my sister-in law.  We lived 3000 miles away from each other and saw each other’s families about once a year.  When she spent time with our family it was so much fun.  She had a quick wit and a hearty, contagious laugh.  One regret I do have is not making a real effort to get to know her better.  When they visited I typically concentrated on spending time with my oldest brother, a man I admire and for which I have the utmost respect.  Hearing the many accolades from family and friends at the funeral opened my eyes to the kind, selfless, and caring person Anne truly was.

I was fortunate to have spoken on the phone to Anne approximately two weeks before she passed.  I told her I was praying for her and she said that she felt truly blessed and rather overwhelmed by the heartfelt outpouring of love showered upon her in those declining months and weeks.  Those sentiments were echoed yesterday at the most moving ceremony honoring an individual that I have ever had the opportunity to witness.  Shortly before her death, as my brother recanted in his eulogy, Anne awoke in her bed one night and uttered to Joe “I am happy”.  I think that gave my brother some solace in a rather turbulent and tragic time of his life.

My brother and niece will be fine. They are strong, as are Anne’s three children from her first marriage.  Her brother, the last remaining sibling, will forever hold onto the loving memories of his baby sister.  At the post-funeral reception at my brother’s house I spoke to a woman who had five daughters who attended the school where Anne had worked.  She described Anne with a rather glowing tribute.

“She was an angel who walked among us.”

I just wish I got to know that Anne, the one that the people who came in contact with her on a regular basis, knew and loved.  Don’t make the mistake I did.  Get to know the angels in your life because, you never know, they may be taken from you much too soon.

Rest in peace Anne. We will all miss your wit, your hearty laugh, your caring nature, and your beautiful smile.

Yesterday my wife and I took our eldest daughter to the airport to study abroad for a semester in Ireland.  She is now a junior in college and it was almost exactly two years ago that I wrote this post about leaving her off at college for the first time and the separation anxiety we felt.  I must admit, that was a much tougher experience for me than this one.  Granted, this time we cannot just drive two hours up to see her at college if she is sick or needs us to be there for some reason or another.

There was the time in her freshman year that she had a case of head lice.  I’m sure you have probably heard about this in grade school but it is also prevalent in college.  My wife was able to head up there as soon as she found out about it.  In two hours she was able to pick up the medication needed to shampoo my daughter’s hair and headed over to the dorm. After the application my daughter felt so much better and my wife was able to come home in the afternoon.  She went back up the following week for another application and that took care of the problem.  Being close enough to get to the college easily should be a consideration for any parent.

Then there was the time we thought she might have had the H1N1 Virus, also when she was a freshman.  I remember a lot of parents were concerned about this virus during Accepted Students Day before she even started her classes. Many questions were asked to the college President and Dean of Student Affairs about how the college planned on dealing with this potential epidemic. My daughter knew that if a student came down with this virus they would have to be quarantined and separated from the rest of the students.

What this ultimately meant to her was that this could adversely affect her getting up to speed in her classes.  If there is anything my daughter gets concerned about it is falling behind in her class studies, especially the first semester of her freshman year!  She was in tears on the phone with us so my wife headed up to the college that morning, took her to the clinic on campus, and we found out that she did not have the virus.  This was a load off of our daughter’s mind as well as ours.

A little scare at the baggage check-in counter

Yesterday, as we were at the airport to see her off we were checking her in at the gate.  The US Air employee, Fred, asked her a few questions before checking her bag.

“Do you have a return ticket?”

My daughter replied “Not yet“.

Then Fred looked at her and said “I can’t let you go then.” We thought he was joking.

My daughter asked “Seriously?”

He said “You need to have a return ticket before you can fly to another country.  The State Department came out with a statement in the last few days indicating this was the case.”

So my daughter asked “Can I log onto my computer and order the ticket now?”

He said “Sure.”

He left to help another customer and told us he would be back once the ticket was ordered. Due to the fact that Logan Airport in Boston has free wireless internet, my daughter was able to log in, order a return ticket from Dublin

to Boston for late December, and acquire the record locator number which was what the US Air employee needed.  Within 15 minutes her bag was checked in and we were off for a quick bite for lunch before she entered security.

After having a quick lunch, my wife, youngest daughter, and I waited in the hallway of the airport and watched silently as my eldest waited in a fairly short security line and eventually passed through the scanner.  After she put on her shoes, belt, and gathered up her backpack and carry-on, she waved back to us and smiled before she headed off on an adventure of a lifetime.  When she turned her back and headed off into that terminal all by herself, we knew that another chapter in our daughter’s life, and ours, was just beginning.

I then looked into my wife’s eyes and she looked into mine.  They were moist with tears, as were mine.  Here was our eldest leaving for four months for another country, not two hours away, but a 6 hour flight away. I must admit, it was easier than leaving her off for college for the first time two years ago, but it was still very, very tough…

Lianna unCorked, the blog

If you’d like to keep abreast of Lianna’s study abroad adventure in Cork, Ireland, you can do so by visiting her blog called Lianna unCorked. She will be posting pictures and posts from her experiences in Ireland. She welcomes any and all comments!

Please subscribe to my blog using the RSS link or email updates and follow me on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this post please click on one of the icons below and share the love.

Sanding test? What’s that? Never heard of the sanding test? And what does it have to do with relationships? Well, now that I’ve got your attention, let me elaborate. I love to work with wood. I’m not an expert woodworker but I really love it. The big benefit to me is that I sit at a desk for my full-time job looking at a computer screen. I like my job and it pays well and I work with mostly really good people. But, when I’m not at my job, I like to balance it with other activities like working in the yard, working out at the gym, and woodworking.

I was recently working on a Lazy Susan for a close friend and the wood I was using was cherry. When you make a table top or a Lazy Susan or any item made out of wood, it typically involves joining two or more pieces of wood together at their edges with glue and clamps. So, even with wood in a rough state, you are trying to match the grains so that when the pieces are glued together there is a flow to it. You are also trying your best to align the grains to maximize strength as well. After the glue-up is done the next step is to move onto the sanding of the wood.

When you sand wood you start with the coarsest grit and then get progressively finer. As you are sanding the wood, as I was doing the other day, the grains can change with each minute layer being sanded away. Almost like a living thing, over time, the complexion of the wood changes. Small knots may appear that you didn’t see until you began sanding. By the time you get to the finest grit you now have a really good idea of how the grains of your tabletop will finally look. And it may look completely different than when you started.

As I was in the zone the other day sanding away at the wood, I started thinking about wood and how it can relate to unhealthy or healthy relationships with friends and family. As time goes by in a relationship, we know the people we can depend on and we know the ones we can’t depend on. The true grains of those acquaintances come through over time just as the true look of the tabletop is exposed as you sand more and more small layers off. It is only then when you will conclude whether or not that acquaintance stands the test of time as far as reliability and integrity is concerned.

I hope you find that the relationships with your friends and family have remained stable over the test of time. Think about the sanding test and hopefully the people closest to you pass with flying colors!

Please subscribe to my blog using the RSS link or email updates and follow me on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this post please click on one of the icons below and share the love.

Doesn’t this place look inviting? Are these pictures from an ocean-edge resort, Newport castle, or oceanfront wedding reception center? Nope on all three counts. It’s a college. Yes, a college!
It’s called the College of the Atlantic and if you are looking for a unique experience for your four years at college you may want to take the college tour and who knows, it may become your first choice college.

We arrived a little early on a cloudy afternoon in late April and decided to drive around the campus just to get the lay of the land before our tour. From viewing the college website we had a good idea of what the college looked like but until you get there you don’t really have a feel for the place. The College of the Atlantic is situated on Mount Desert Island in Maine just outside of the town of Bar Harbor. The college is so close that students can easily walk there by road or by a sandbar during low tide. How cool is that?

At just before 2:00 we arrived at the Admissions building only to be met by our private tour guide, Renee, who presented each of us with an packet of material about the college. There was also a personalized note to my daughter in the packet on college stationery welcoming her to the college. What a refreshing change from the mass of prospective students stuffed into a small room for an information session that you find at the popular colleges. We sat for a bit in the Admissions building getting to know each other before we were off on our tour.

Even though the weather was overcast, the surroundings were spectacular. We were brought into a number of the buildings where we witnessed small classes in session. The student to instructor ratio is 11:1 which tells you right off the bat that the relationships between student and instructor tend to be close-knit and personal. Our tour guide stated that everyone knows everyone which is due to the fact that the current student body amounts to only 350 students.

The college advertises only one major called Human Ecology but, at the same time, students can design their own major based on the diverse course offering. A course list is shown on their website and some of the courses offered are Marine Biology, Agroecology, Documentary Video Studio, Agriculture and Biotechnology, etc. We were taken through a working greenhouse and anyone who is interested in botany could take classes that were associated with how to start a garden and run a greenhouse. If you are interested in pottery there is a ceramics and pottery studio on campus. If you are interested in zoology or even taxidermy there is a lab which will allow you to learn this art on animals that have died of natural or accidental causes. There is also a lab with live reptiles.

One rather novel aspect of the college is that there is a large outside pellet stove which heats the newer dorms which boast radiant floor heating for those cold winter Maine days and nights. During the winter there is a social event called Fireside Fridays where students meet on Friday nights in a beautiful student center with a fireplace and cafe overlooking the Atlantic Ocean. The school owns two boats, one of which is called the Indigo which allows students to learn about piloting a boat on the Atlantic. The college is right around the corner from Bar Harbor and Acadia National Park which is a spectacular venue for hikers, bikers, and sightseers.

As you can imagine, this college is not for everyone and should be experienced before a prospective student can fully appreciate what it has to offer. Before you decide that the College of the Atlantic is not for you, take a college tour. It may be too different for you but, then again, it may end up being your first choice college. The admission process was described to us as self-selecting by an Admissions Counselor who admitted that prospective students are unique and make a choice by deciding to attend the college. You just might find that this type of college education and environment may be one in which you will grow and flourish in your first four years away from home.

Please subscribe to my blog using the RSS link or email updates and follow me on Twitter.
If you enjoyed this post please click on one of the icons below and share the love.

OK, I’m a parent of a college student so I do have some experience with going through the college process and have taken many a college tour.  I’ve also been through the process multiple times as a student myself.  I only say this to let you, the future college student know, that there are some things that you simply don’t know.  When I was your age I probably also thought I knew everything and didn’t want to take advice from an adult.  But experience is the best teacher and maybe in this post I can impart a little bit of what I have learned along the way.

1) Keep an open mind

My eldest child didn’t even want to go on the college tour at what ended up being her first choice college.  She was, at the time, close-minded about the college because the amount of students at the school was comparable to the size of her high school.  It was also in a rural area and at the time she thought she wanted to attend a college in the city.  But, we as parents thought it would be good to check out this school due to its great reputation and fairly close proximity to our home (within 2 hours).  To make a long story short, after the tour, this college became her first choice and luckily she was accepted there and is now in her sophomore year and loving every minute of it.  Even if you don’t think that a college could be a good fit for you, give it a chance.  Open your mind to the possibility of going there.  Then, if after the information session and the tour you’re still turned off, at least you gave it a chance.

2) Visit the college’s website ahead of time

Much like a business, one of the best marketing tools for any college is their website.  A prospective student can learn so much from just perusing the college website prior to the visit.  You oftentimes can take a virtual tour and view pictures and stories about current featured students.  Some colleges even have live webcams, such as my daughter’s college website.  I sometimes look in on my daughter’s dining hall via one of the webcams just to see if I could get a glimpse of my daughter getting her nightly meal.  She thinks I’m creepy for doing this but when you miss your child you will explore every avenue to catch a glimpse of her.  If you want to do your homework prior to your visit to the college, the amount of information you can find on the college website is tremendous.  Take advantage of this opportunity.

3) Organize the literature you collect

Organizational skills are very important. Believe me, if you are visiting multiple colleges within a few days, all of the information you hear will mesh together.  It will be difficult for you as a prospective student to keep all of the information separate.  Either pick up a notebook for each school or pick up one of those foldable notebooks with the pockets to place the different literature packets you will pick up at each admissions center.  You can also take notes during the information session and tour and keep those notes together with the literature.  If you do end up applying to the college, you will be able to refer to your notes and the literature which you can use in your essay as part of the application package.

4) Get the name of your admissions counselor

Each college has a number of admissions counselors.  Each counselor is assigned a certain geographic area.  Each counselor will go to high schools in their area and talk about the college.  They will also be the ones who will read your application and your essays.  It will behoove you to get the name of that admissions counselor especially if you are really interested in attending or at least applying to that college.  After the college tour you may even be able to meet and introduce yourself to the counselor in your geographic area.  You should try to get that person’s email address so that you could send along any specific questions that you may have.  In fact, the person giving the presentation at the information session may just be the admissions counselor assigned to your geographic area.  After the presentation, go up and introduce yourself.  It might turn out to be the smartest thing you could ever do.

5) Ask questions

Since you have already perused the college website prior to your visit, there may be lingering questions you just haven’t had answered.  Now is your chance to speak up and get your questions answered.  Chances are there are others in the audience who want the answers to the same questions.  The tour is always led by

a current student and this is another great chance to ask an actual college student questions about student life.  And the tour guides are always willing to give out their email addresses at the end of the tour. Don’t be shy about asking questions.  This could be your home for four years and, if you aren’t willing to speak up, you just might miss out on some very pertinent information.

Searching for the right place for you, as a student, to go to college is a daunting task.  There are so many choices out there and it is up to you to take some initiative and improve your organizational skills, if you are hoping to make the right choice of where to apply. Remember, don’t leave it all up to Mom and Dad. This is your future here and taking part in a successful college tour is a great step in the right direction.

If you have ever had to coordinate a college tour trip, it is important that you plan ahead. I’ve had the pleasure (yes, I actually enjoy it) of doing this on a number of occasions with my eldest child, who is now attending her first choice college, and now we are embarking on the same journey with my youngest daughter. After doing this a few times you certainly learn a lot about the process. This post will hopefully help out any of you who are planning on heading out to visit your son or daughter’s future 4 year home-away-from-home.

1) Start with a Detailed Road Map

If your main mode of transportation on your tour of the colleges is by way of an automobile, it will certainly help to plan ahead. I’ve found that being a member of the American Automobile Association (AAA) is extremely helpful when it comes to planning for a road trip. They offer TripTiks which are detailed maps which are marked with the proper routes from origin to destination. Also, bringing along a GPS unit such as a Garmin or a Tom-Tom will always help out if you want to head out to a local restaurant but I’m not a big fan of using a GPS unit as a sole mode of getting to your destination. I much prefer having a hardcopy map especially if you are going to a city college where the tall buildings can affect reception. Believe me, I’ve been there…

2) Get a Handle on the Lingo

When you attend an information session at a college which typically comes before the tour (but it doesn’t have to), you will soon find that there are certain terms or phrases that you may not understand if you are a newbie to the process. Here are some terms that will certainly be helpful to know before your first college tour trip.

Need-blind
This is a term associated with financial aid. So if you are one of those parents who wants and, more importantly, NEEDS financial aid (like me!) to fund your child’s college education, you should understand this term. What need-blind really means is that the acceptance of your child to the college is NOT dependent upon your child needing financial aid to attend that college.
So, the only factors that will affect whether your child is accepted to the college are your child’s qualifications. And to be honest, this is as it should be. If a college is not need-blind then at the college information session they will tell you straight out that if the admissions process came down to a decision between your child and another child then the college will accept the child whose parents don’t need the financial aid and can foot the bill for tuition. I know that it sounds unfair but it is a stark reality when it comes to applying to a college that is not need-blind.

Acceptance Rate
This one is pretty easy. It is simply the percentage of the number of applicants to the number of applicants that are accepted into the college. So, if there are 5000 applicants for a given freshman class and 500 are accepted then the acceptance rate is 10%. Simple enough.

Yield
This term is not as obvious as the acceptance rate but it has become one of the metrics that colleges really care about. Yield is the percentage of number of applicants accepted into the college who actually enroll into the college. Since this has become such an important metric to college admissions, it behooves the applicant, if they know a certain college is their first choice, to go ahead and tell this to the college admissions officer assigned to their territory. This will pretty much tell the college that if you accept me I will enroll. Don’t underestimate the fact that colleges really want their accepted students to attend their college. If they know you will enroll, if accepted, ahead of time it may end up being a factor to accept your child into the college.

Early Decision
This is a term that applies to the application process. Let’s say that your son or daughter has their heart set on going to a certain college. If this is the case, it may make sense for your child to apply early decision which means that the decision-making process will take place earlier than the standard admissions process. The application is filed earlier and the decision is made earlier. What are the advantages to this process? Well, it lets a senior know early on in the process if they are accepted or not into their first choice college. The acceptance rates are also typically higher than the standard acceptance rates. Also, if the child knows that they are attending a particular college they don’t have to waste any more money or time applying to any more colleges. A drawback could be that if your child is accepted and agrees to enroll then this is a binding contract and they must attend that college.

There are many more terms related to getting into college that you will be hear at a college information session or during the college tour. Get your hands on a college admissions book such as the one I bought called Admission Matters: What Students and Parents Need to Know About Getting into College. It will certainly help you prepare for the lingo used on the college scene and for anything else associated with the admissions process.

3) Get Deals on Lodging

Before the trip, visit each college’s website that you will be touring. Typically there is a page on the website associated with nearby lodging and they usually offer a discount if you are visiting the college. Take advantage of this discount.

4) Buy Notebooks

If you are visiting more than one college on your trip you should definitely bring with you a notebook for each college you will be touring. At every information session I have been to there is a myriad of literature related to the college and this will give you a place to store all pertinent information. Also you should definitely take copious notes for each college you visit and keep those notes within each notebook. Believe me, if you are visiting multiple colleges in one trip, you won’t be able to keep it all straight unless you keep the notes separate. The notebooks will also give you a place that you can go and freshen up on the college when your child gets closer to application time.

5) Ask about Financial Aid

It is a very peculiar thing but what I have found at college information sessions is that parents typically don’t want to ask questions about financial aid. I tend to think it is because these parents don’t want to lead on that they need financial aid to send their child to college. So out of pride they don’t ask about it. God forbid that someone cannot afford to pay $50K+ to send their child to college!

One thing to know is that when it comes to financial aid, not all colleges are created equal. It’s simply a fact of life that there are some colleges that tend to give more financial aid than others. Here is an article entitled 51 Colleges with the Best Student Aid. The college my eldest daughter attends is on this list and I can tell you that out of all of the colleges that accepted my daughter, and there were many, the college that she is attending went above and beyond what the other schools were offering in a financial aid package. And I’m not talking about loans. The money my daughter received from the college came in the form of grants that do not have to be paid back. That’s what I’m talking about!

So before you take that college tour you should do your homework. Getting the most out of this experience will help to positively kick off your child’s college search. Who knows, maybe your child will be as fortunate as mine to be able to attend her first choice college. And you just might find that this transitional time for both you and your child can be exciting, eye-opening, and educational, all at the same time. Enjoy the experience!

I have two daughters, one is a sophomore in high school and the other is a sophomore in college. Needless to say, they both work hard and live the student life. My youngest daughter sent me the image seen below. I would like to cite the source but I don’t have one. If anyone does please send it along in the comments or use my Contact Me page and I will update the source. By the way, her favorite image is the “internet” face just to the left of 12:00 if you were looking at this image like a clock.

I thought that this cycle of student life was a whimsical and realistic view of the stark reality of being a student. Please feel free to share this image with your son,daughter, or fellow student. If you are a parent of a college freshman I hope the first year away from your child hasn’t been real stressful for you or your child. I know that it is a trying time but it gets easier, believe me.

In late January of 2011 the NY Times published an article entitled “Record Level of Stress Found in College Freshmen”.  They cite a number of factors including more pressure to perform in the later years of high school as well as the state of the economy.  The study involved responses from more than 200,000 incoming freshmen at four-year colleges.  Also, it is interesting to note that in the article campus counselors echo what is being shown in the survey.  They are seeing more and more depressed students with high anxiety levels and a large majority of these students are entering college already using psychiatric medication. Overcoming anxiety levels require strategies that are touched upon later in this article.

The study mentions that not only is the economy stressing out the parents who may have either lost their jobs or have had to take salary reductions, but the students are concerned about their own college debt and prospects for getting a job when they graduate.

In the NY Times article, Brian Van Brunt, director of counseling at Western Kentucky University and president of the American College Counseling Association had this to say about the emotional state of college freshmen.

“More students are arriving on campus with problems, needing support, and today’s economic factors are putting a lot of extra stress on college students, as they look at their loans and wonder if there will be a career waiting for them on the other side.”

At Bowdoin College in Brunswick, Maine, the Director of the Counseling Service and Wellness Program Bernie Hershberger had this to say about stress and students in a recent article in the school newspaper, the Bowdoin Orient.

“The overriding thing that we deal with, with students, is more anxiety-related conditions.  Stress and anxiety easily consume about 60 percent of issues and concerns that we help students with.”

To be perfectly frank, it doesn’t surprise me at all.  As a parent of a high school sophomore and a college sophomore, I have certainly witnessed the levels of stress and pressure facing, in particular, high-achieving high school students.  My high school daughter’s schedule includes seven courses per semester and most of them are honors courses.  The amount of work that is heaped on her is alarming, her organizational skills have to be impeccable, and her time is extremely limited.  So it is not at all surprising to me that incoming freshmen are experiencing high levels of anxiety.  It is simply a continuation of their high school pressures that are now transformed into a college setting.

So what can be done for overcoming anxiety levels seen in college students?

Raise Awareness

At Bowdoin College a campus club called Active Minds was formed in hopes of combating social stigmas about mental health.  The idea is to raise awareness about mental health by inviting mental health professionals to the campus to address students about such issues.  Simply the act of addressing the issue is valuable to students who are facing a different kind of emotional pressure in the college setting.

Diet

High caffeine intake is prevalent in college students.  Caffeine can come in many forms including coffee, hot chocolate, tea, and the all-too popular energy drinks that have seemed to explode onto the scene in recent years.  There has even been an influx of alcoholic caffeinated drinks on campuses, such as Four Loko, that are now being banned by the Food and Drug Administration.  Excessive levels of caffeine can add to the already stressed psyche of the college student.  In recent years colleges have begun to focus on the quality of the meals that they are serving to their students.

The quality of the dining experience is clearly becoming a factor when a prospective student has to decide between comparable colleges. The Princeton Review, a website that is known for helping students prepare for standardized tests also ranks colleges, in their college guide, based on various metrics.  One of those metrics is “Best Campus Food” and Bowdoin College in Maine ranked #1 for 2010 in this category.  Scott Meikeljohn, Dean of Admissions and Financial Aid at Bowdoin, in a recent article admits that a high-ranking gives their school a competitive advantage over other colleges in their class.

“If so many people do a college search on ‘top 10′, then it’s great we’re showing up. We don’t promote [rankings], but we do benefit from them.”

Mary Kennedy, Director of Dining and Bookstore Services at Bowdoin, points to the quality of the campus food at Bowdoin as being an important factor when it comes to the well-being of the students.

“Dining is an integral part of the residential experience of the campus and we feel respected and supported by the Bowdoin community,” she said. “It’s important to me that the food and the atmosphere in Dining contributes to students’ health and well-being so that they can do their best academically.”

College Prowler, a website geared at reviewing and comparing different colleges, ranks Campus Dining as one of the all-important metrics that matter to students.  The quality of the meals that a college student eats on a regular basis can be a big factor when it comes to influencing anxiety levels.

Exercise

Working out regularly is one of the best ways to lower stress levels in college students.  Students should take advantage of the facilities that the college has to offer.  Yoga, aerobic, and step classes all can be used effectively to combat the stress that college students face on a regular basis.  Adding a class or a workout session to your daily calendar, much like an added course but without the stress, will make it part of your daily routine.

Get Involved

Student clubs are on the rise on college campuses.  There are clubs ranging from intramural sports to drama clubs to clubs promoting green living.  Colby College, another Maine Liberal Arts college boasts an Environmental Studies Club and an Organic Gardening Club. Bates College in Maine advertises that the college has 110 recognized organizations formed by students which allow Batesies to pursue interests with other like-minded students.  Getting involved in clubs is a way for the student to feel part of the college community by meeting new friends and thereby reducing anxiety levels. And, at the same time, they are adding to their emotional well-being.  Taking part in the student experience is one big step in the right direction for anyone entering the college scene for the first time.

Stay connected

One important stress factor for college students, especially new students, is being separated from their comfort zone which is their home and family for the first time.  If you are a parent, one simple way to stay connected with your child is to utilize the fairly recent method of communication called texting.  I understand that texting is not everyone’s cup of tea, particularly older parents, but it is one of the better methods of communication with your college student. Why?  It’s more indirect than a phone call.  Your son or daughter can respond immediately or later.  But the comforting aspect to the parent is that there is a sense that the student will immediately receive the text.  Unlike email which may have a time lag between when the parent sends the email to when the student accesses their email account.

Another great aspect about texting is that the student can receive and respond to a text at the library, a

rehearsal, in the dining hall, studying in a student center, or in a meeting without annoying anyone around them.  I’ve learned to appreciate texting and I’m actually surprised I’m saying that.  Staying connected with your college student via texting is mutually beneficial and helps to alleviate separation anxiety in both the parent and the student.

Anxiety levels are a very real concern for college students and overcoming anxiety should be a priority.  Leaving a rigorous high school pressure-filled environment and entering a foreign college campus setting can be trying to the new college student.  Their organizational skills are lacking and they are trying to fit into a totally foreign environment. Taking the proper precautions to alleviate the stress seen in college students can only lead to a happier, healthier, and wiser educational experience.

It’s that presidential time of the year again in the US where the car dealers brush off (this snowy winter has been brutal), shine up, and line up another year of new vehicle inventory in hopes of starting the year off to a financially rousing start. When the days get a little longer and the temps start climbing as we get a little closer to spring, we tend to venture out of our houses a bit more.  The car and truck salesmen are banking that the winter shut-ins will make their way to their local dealerships in search of a new toy after the holidays. But if you are considering a new toy to help alleviate your post holiday winter blues, you may want to factor time management and financial management into the equation. We can all use time management tips and financial management tips in our lives.

If you are thinking about getting a new car or truck then you certainly have some options.  In years past leasing has certainly received some bad press.  But, for some people, leasing is a great option.  In fact, I am a huge proponent of leasing.  I have leased many cars in the past and I currently have two outstanding leases for cars in my household.  So what are the conditions that could lead you to lease?

Your time is precious

If you are like me you absolutely hate to have to continually go to the car mechanic.  In fact, in years past, the car mechanic was my best friend.  So, I pretty much made a conscious decision within the past few years that I wanted to have cars that didn’t require constant mechanical attention.  So this is when I decided to go the leasing route.  I wanted to have a car that was under warranty at all times and didn’t want to spend my time and aggravation having to bring my car to the mechanic and have someone pick me up and bring me back when the car was done being worked on.  And I would also have to arrange for somebody to bring me to and from work if the car was being worked on during the week.

You don’t drive too many miles

Leasing is probably not a good idea if you tend to drive over 12,000 miles per year.  You can lease a vehicle based on a higher number of miles driven per year but that poses a problem.  If you are leasing a car to remain within warranty for the full lease (I’m assuming a 3-year lease) and the typical car warranty is 36,000 miles or 3 years, then if you go more than 12,000 miles per year, you will go over the 36,000 miles by the end of the lease.  That negates one of the true benefits of leasing which is to drive a car that is within warranty at all times.

Your money is precious

Lower Up-Front Costs

I have leased many cars and have never had to come up with a down payment. I feel that having lower up-front costs is a huge benefit because I can do other things with that down payment like pay other bills or invest it. 

Lower Monthly Payments

Another advantage of leasing is that when you lease you aren’t paying for the full amount of the car. You are basically paying for the value of the car for the first three years of its life. When you buy a car you are paying the full cost of the vehicle which means that your monthly payments will be higher. Cash flow is important to all of us and with leasing you have lower monthly payments freeing up your cash for other purposes as well as always having a safe and reliable car to drive.

So, should you lease?

If you tend to drive a lot or you keep your cars for years and years and don’t mind spending your time going to the mechanic on a regular basis, then buying may be the best option for you.  But, if you don’t drive an exorbitant

amount of miles, prefer to drive a mechanically sound car at all times, have lower monthly payments, and always be within the manufacturer’s warranty, then leasing may be the best option for you.

Time management and financial management are huge issues in our lives that we all deal with on a daily basis. Utilizing effective time management tips and financial management tips in our lives can help us tremendously. Peace of mind when it comes to my cars is also a big issue for me especially when my daughter is driving one of my leased cars and my wife is driving the other one.  So the next time you have to arrange for someone to bring you to and from the mechanic, drive you to and from work, and shell out another unexpected car payment for new ball joints or a timing belt, think about leasing.  It just might be the best option for your time, your money, and for your peace of mind.

After the presents have been opened, the New Year’s celebration is over, and your vacation break from work is done, the post holiday blues may take over your life.  The snow has piled up outside and the temperatures have plummeted to all-time lows.  Maybe you have gained a few pounds eating uncontrollably during the holiday break or you’ve tipped a few more beers than you typically would.  And your college student has spent a good month with you and now has returned to college life and you’re feeling the pangs of separation from your child once again.  Basically what you are feeling is anxiety.  We all have anxiety in our lives but dealing with it and overcoming anxiety is the tough part.  There are a few steps that you can take to make the post holiday winter blues go away.

Make plans

I don’t know about you but I need things to look forward to.  I certainly understand that you probably have just laid out a good deal of money to buy presents for the holidays so spending money in the near future is probably not high on your priority list.  Now I’m not talking about spending thousands of dollars on a European vacation (but if you can, go for it).  I’m talking about making plans for a weekend break in the mountains or taking some time off during your younger child’s February school vacation.  Just set something up even if it’s one night in a local hotel just to break away from the humdrum of the post holiday doldrums.

Get Active

During the holiday season a lot of us tend to get away from our normal routine.  My normal routine involves going to the gym the first thing in the morning on a regular basis.  Admittedly I am way out of my gym routine and must get back into it.  I always feel so much better when I do and I am making the monthly gym payments so it makes sense to get back to being active.  And it certainly will help rid those unwanted pounds that always seem to crop up during the holiday season.

Text your child at college

This tip is for those of us who have children away at college.  I am not a big fan of texting because I think it can be abused.  But, if you have a child away at college, texting is one of the better methods of communication. Why, you might ask?  It is much more indirect than a phone call.  With a text your child can be contacted when he or she is in class, at a rehearsal, or at the dining hall.  Your child can return your text when they have the availability.  An email will do the same thing but I think a text is much more immediate for most kids and they prefer this mode of communication.  I know this sounds a little strange but it is wise to keep in mind how your child wants you to behave. As a result of keeping in touch with your child, those pangs of separation anxiety will be reduced and you will feel that close connection with your child.  Believe me, it helps. I know because I am living proof.

Plan a project

This could come under the heading of Get Active but I’m talking more of tackling an inside project that you always wanted to accomplish.  It could be anything from painting a room, converting your basement into a playroom, or just working your hobby such as woodworking or pottery.  Maybe you’ve always wanted to replace those rugs with hardwood floors.  Working toward accomplishing a goal will transform your focus and should help alleviate those post holiday blues and anxiety.

Organize

With all of the time that you spend inside during the winter months one thing that you could do is to decide to take a more organized approach to your life.  Organization should add simplification to your life which should alleviate anxiety.  If you are feeling overwhelmed with your finances, for example, then utilizing a free online money management tool such as Mint may help you feel more in control of where your money is going each month. Mint may just alleviate some of your financial stress. Or maybe just organizing your basement or your garage will help simplify your life at home.  Do not underestimate the power of organizing your life.  For me, it makes a big difference in dealing with unexpected circumstances that life can throw at you.

If you’re trying to deal with the anxiety that the post holiday winter blues have dealt you, try incorporating some of the steps laid out here into your life.  Maybe then, before you know it, the winter blues will melt away and the warmth of the spring sun will shine upon you.