THE PRESIDENTS.

Blog #1

Mentally-stimulating Group Task

Exercise: To read articles that caught the attention of fellow teammates and write an explanation of how each other's article affected us mentally.

Jessica: Chicago Tribune "A Missed Connection Leads to a Special Bond" ->

I have always been an avid fan of reading the newspaper whenever I can, and actually would rather not get my news from the internet, but instead every morning, sit down, get a nice cup of coffee, and read the good ol' black and white. What I love about the paper is the versatility and variety of the articles, surprising the reader everytime he/she unrolls it.

The article Jessica brought was a truly awe-inspiring and unique story that would make anyone smile. It was a story of an older woman, who was handicapped, had a meager financial situation, and completely down on her luck. She was traveling over the holidays, and had a horrible day of flying; with flights being delayed, missing flights, and way more sitting in an unfriendly airport than she ever wanted, it simply was not a good day for her. When she was about to break down in tears, a nice man began talking to her to find out what was wrong. Turned out the man was a successful Chicago businessman. He decided to take the lady home to have dinner with his family, get her a room in a nice Chicago hotel, and a ride to take her to the airport in the morning.

These kinds of stories always mean alot to me. This is a wonderful story of a random act of kindness that shows the incredible love people have for eachother. This really touches me because in this world of difficulties it is often hard to see the small joys and kindness in life. This story showed once again that there is hope and I no longer have to be pessimisstic.

Tyler: Good-The Magazine "In Defense of Time Off" ->

I am always rushing around and constantly have things to do. This is certainly not my choice, but somehow it always turns out that way with me being super busy.

It was a very interesting article, because it showed a different side of things, instead of the typical work as hard as you can as much as you can, it talked about ways that someone can take time in order to relax and have free time. The article stressed the often forgotten joy that is free time and ways that it can be easily achieved. A few of the ideas caught my attention: do not be afraid of relaxing, perform a blackout that is not using facebook, internet in general, do not look at your phone, etc., and finally set aside alotted time for being lazy. One can enjoy being lazy by wearing comfortable clothes, reading more enjoyable books, not being afraid to watch a television show, and sleeping more.

Thanks to this article, I hope to take advantage of more free time, in order to more efficiently manage this busy semester.

Dawn: Time magazine "Want To Boost Your Memory? Sleep on it." ->

When trying to describe a college student, many things come to mind, but the most apparent is the sleep-deprived zombies walking around our campuses. Sleep is a necessary part of life that needs to always be a priority, sadly while in college, students often forget this fact.

The article recounts the recent studies of Northwestern University scientists on the affects of sleep on memory retention. In the article, it states how deep sleeping seriously helps one ability to better remember things that they did the previous day. Studies showed that people are able to remember more acutely if they sleep on it, and if someone can achieve R.E.M. or the state of dreaming, motor activities (sports, dancing, etc.) are easier to do.

This article informed once again the benefits of sleeping and resting, in not just the physical, but also the mental aspect.