E054 Isabelle Sinclair Stressors at University

Let’s Be Well Together Podcast - Episode 54
Date: February 7, 2023

Participants: John Webster, Sammy Damaren, Cameron Earnshaw and Sheila Webster
Guest: Isabelle Sinclair (Interview) and Jason Schreurs (Move That Body)

Start times and Segments:

[0:00:35] What’s On Your Mind: An environmental social media post – 5 tips for a healthier you or planet. It’s more expensive and time consuming to eat healthy and choose organic. We make a pitch to spend both on eating healthy. There are opportunities to eat healthy and care about our planet.

[0:09:37] Expanding Minds Interview: We interview Isabelle Sinclair about stressors she faces as a university student: grades, chasing co-op placements, comparing herself to others. Social media and the grinding mentality of students that can be toxic at times. Fortunately, Isabelle’s developed approaches and perspectives that help her navigate the stressors. They include staying humble and down to earth, while remembering that university is a time to find oneself, with more time down the road to figure things out. She believes that challenges are making her more resilient. Getting through them transfers into life skills and positive outcomes.

[0:24:25] Adventures of the Starving Artist: Cameron gives a preview of jazz music he wrote for an indie film a long time ago, but couldn’t share until now. It’s exciting to see the music getting out into the world.

[0:28:30] Move That Body: Jason Schreurs enjoys punk rock and mosh pits. It’s a fun way to be active and physical.

[0:34:10] Running Popup: John had another breakthrough about the wellness theory he’s working on. The facet activities, which foster wellness in different areas, are like building blocks that help us regain and keep balance.

[0:37:09] Flipside of the Coin: Sheila enjoyed the interview of Rev. Jessica Purple Rodela on Episode 51. She has questions and thoughts about it

Quotes and Take-Aways:

Sammy – People tend to forget that it’s really expensive to eat super healthy.

John – There’s another way where people can’t afford to eat healthier, which is time. It takes time to learn how to cook, but also to plan meals, to buy food and to cook the meals. Between money and time people are not eating as healthy as they could be.

John – My two cents: if you must choose between where you’re spending your money and you time, healthy eating is where you should spend money and time.

John – One of the main themes I’m trying to put forward in this podcast is that your physical health is central to everything. If you need to make trade-offs, can you find something else to trade off so that you can eat healthy? That’s my pitch.

Isabelle – As a university student, grades are very high up there in my stressors. I’m someone who compares myself to my peers and my friends. It’s something that really stresses me out in terms of future job prospects. My transcripts are given to employers in the co-op stream. I always pride myself on doing the best I can, so when a number on a paper doesn’t reflect that, it tends to upset me a lot.

Isabelle – Another stressor that poses a lot of difficult emotions for me is co-op placement. When a student is rejected in the first cycle, as I have been in the past, it can hurt the ego and force the student to spend extra time applying in subsequent cycles, with added stress and less time for school work.

Isabelle – I find that I compare myself to others, whether on LinkedIn or grades or behind in the sense that I’m not doing enough to make my resume strong compared to other future candidates.

Isabelle – LinkedIn can be quite toxic, in the sense that it’s very easy to compare yourself to others on experience, volunteering and mentorships. That’s another big stressor of mine, even though I feel confident in myself. Oftentimes when I could get down on myself and look at LinkedIn, then I feel I could do more. The grinding mentality of students can be toxic at times.

Isabelle – Social media is so subjective and used as a highlight reel. People don’t put the worst moments of their lives on social media for their followers to see. It can be toxic.

Isabelle – Life is all about perspective. The way you see yourself compared to someone else will not be the same. It’s about keeping yourself humble, staying down to earth and remembering that everyone sees and interprets things differently, which is important to remember in tough times.

Isabelle – It goes back to the perspective point. When times get difficult I like to bring myself back down to earth and remind myself that I’m a 20-year-old girl navigating school and life and I don’t need to have everything figured out right now, and that university is all about finding myself, finding what I value over other things and what I want to accomplish. People need to go through the ups and downs of life to figure out who they are and how they’re going to place themselves in the future. As tough and challenging as it can get, I really think the tough times I go through are going to make me a better person and more resilient, which will transfer into life skills and positive outcomes. If I can survive this turbulent time, I feel like I can survive anything.

Bulletin Board Quote brought to you by Isabelle: You’ve gotta pick your poison.

Guest Information: Isabelle is a third-year student at the University of Waterloo double-majoring in English Literature and Legal Studies. She is studying in the co-op stream. This term, Isabelle is currently working as a Junior Policy Analyst for Crown-Indigenous Relations and Northern Affairs Canada. In her free time, Isabelle enjoys reading, running, and travelling anywhere she can!

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Thanks for joining us,
(-(-_(-_-)_-)-)   Your wellness check-in team
John, Sammy, Cameron, Sheila and Julie

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E055 Jason Schreurs Punk Rock and Mental Health

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E053 Jill Melanson on Household Budgeting