beyond the green

Well, today is the day of the women’s tennis conference tournament. The winner of this tournament gets to proceed to nationals in Alabama! The Bethel women’s team has won this tournament and gone onto nationals the past four years and we hope to make it a fifth!

The semi final against Southwestern College was this morning at 9:00am in Wichita at Genesis. The Bethel ladies swept the match 5-0. In this tournament, the first to five matches wins. This means that the rest of the matches being played are stopped and are not finished. The girls won the three doubles matches and the two singles matches that finished, getting the last two points, were Bree Honer and Stephanie Shogren.

Because of the poor weather continuing on into May, today we have been playing indoors, however due to a mix-up in communication about courts we will not be able to play our final’s match against Kansas Wesleyan until 7:00pm this evening.

The men will play their semi finals match tomorrow, Friday the 3rd at Wichita Country Club at 9:00am for those who would be interested in coming out and supporting!

Now for a few more stress busters like I have promised:

- If you have some bubble wrap, pop it! If not, here is some virtual bubble wrap just for you http://www.virtual-bubblewrap.com/

- Stop and take a few deep breaths

- Practice Mindfulness - focus intently on an object such as eating and slowly savoring a piece of chocolate, or noticing the weight or color of your pencil, etc.

While the weather may not have agreed with the name, last week was our Spring Fling.  Campus was busy with many activities including: Minute to Win It, Ultimate Spoons, Iron Chef,  and the ever popular Bubbert Awards.

Other activities scheduled were PowderPuff football and Limeades that had to be postponed because of the weather, which refused to cooperate cancelling the water fight that was scheduled for that Friday as well.

However, Bubbert Awards and the dessert bar was still able to be held! Bubbert Awards is an annual film festival at Bethel that showcases student-made videos. The event was created in spirit of Bethel’s ficticious student, Herman Bubbert, who was known for playing pranks all over campus.

Bubbert Awards takes the form of a Red Carpet event, allowing students to dress up and take part in watching the wide variety of films.

This year there were 11 entries, some inspiring, others hilarious, but all creative. If you would like to watch the video, you can visit this link http://vimeo.com/64145221 which shows the entire show with the hosts and audience members.

Following the Bubbert Awards is a dance that typically lasts a few hours and this year was in the Drama Lab, with student DJ’s.

Spring Fling is always a good time on Bethel’s campus, even if the weather is not “spring” like.

Alright everyone, strap on your seatbelts because things are about to get crazy. At least they are for the Bethel Men’s and Women’s tennis teams. Scheduled to play today and three of the next four days the bulk of our season is on the line. The women are the defending conference champions and are hoping to repeat again this year. The men are looking for a shot at the end of the season tournament and both are off to an excellent start. The women are 5 and 0 with convincing victories over Southwestern, McPherson, Tabor, Bethany and Friends. The men are 3 and 2, their only losses coming at the hands of the nationally ranked teams McPherson and Bethany. All of the matches remaining in our conference schedule are at home as well as a few more non-conference matches. We would love to have you come out and support us. Both squads offer a peak at some of the best tennis around. Here is the schedule for the rest of the week:

Tuesday: Baker @ 2pm (Home) *****(Edit: this match was cancelled due by Baker due to possible bad weather)

Wednesday: Hesston @ 6pm (Hesston College) (JV) *****(Edit: this match was also cancelled due to rain)

Thursday: Kansas Wesleyan @ 3pm (Home) ****(Edit: this match might also be postponed until Tuesday because of possible rain)

***** Hopefully we will have some nice weather one of these days for those who are interested in coming out and supporting the Men’s and Women’s tennis teams!

Also as promised I have a few more stress buster tips thanks to a few of my willing mod mates!

- Make time for a fun activity. Do this so you can take your mind off of your homework for a little while!

- Eat a piece of chocolate. Chocolate makes everything better! (Plus it really does release endorphins in your body!)

- Take a nap. Another way to relax and help get your mind off of all you need to do while on a break!

- Go on a run. Sometimes doing a fun activity with friends helps reduce stress but other times or for other people making some alone time for yourself helps, along with exercise as I mentioned in my last blog. (Running release endorphins into your body, too!)

That’s all the stress busters for today, look for my next blog which will include some more!

Now that the school year is done, I like many others I am sure have realized how much work we have yet to do. So, I have decided over these next coming weeks to include stress buster tips in my blogs. Since I am currently going through the stressors of college, some of these tips will be geared more towards students, but there are some and maybe all you could apply in diffferent ways that would be helpful for faculty members or anyone else who is dealing with stress right now (which should account for everyone because unfortuantely there is no such thing as a total stress free life).

Here are some stress busters that have helped me so far:

1. Schedule your day. The few times I have tries this has really helped me. Scheduling your day makes you realize one: how much time you acutally have available to do homework and two: it helps you to manage and use your time so much better.

2. Make a to-do list and prioritize. Doing this helps you visualize what you need to get done and helps you be able to put things in order of importance.

3. Make smaller and more attainable goals. This has really helped me. Making smaller goals within goals helps them seem more attainable to you and also helps because you can cross more things off your list. Being able to cross more things off makes you feel more accomplished!

4. Schedule in small breaks. After you schedule your day and are working on homework, make sure to take some small breaks every once in awhile to rejuvinate your mind! This also gives you something to work towards or look forward to. Whether that be taking a power nap, checking social networking sites, or talking with friends, whatever you would like to do in that 15 minutes of free time before you go back to work. Scheduling the breaks also helps keep you from taking longer breaks than necessary to procrastinate doing homework (I have been guilty of this).

5. Make sure to get enough sleep. Yes you have a lot of things to do, and so yes you may feel like you need to stay up until two or three in the morning to finish them when you also have to get up early for class. However, if you are able to successfully schedule your day to make more time for homework earlier in the day, then you will be able to go to bed earlier, therefore getting more sleep. At least for me, if I do not get enough sleep, I am tired during the day and then definitely do not feel motivated to do homework whereas if I am rested and rejuvenated I will feel more motivated to get things done!

6. Have your roommate or mod mates help you stay on task. And vise versa. Having someone there to check in with you to make sure you are doing homework and staying on task can really help especially when you can both keep each other accountable!

Here are some other stress busters that you could try:

1. Exercise. Exercising helps reduce stress, so if you have been working on homework and feel like you are about to explode then go run up and down the stairwells a few times, or if the spring weather ever decides to show up and to stay then go for a walk or a jog outdoors!

2. Laugter. Don’t forget to laugh! Laughing can help relieve stress and lighten the mood.

3. Extend an extra measure of grace to those around you. Don’t forget, we are all stressed right now so keep that in mind while interacting with others!

That’s all I have for now, I will continue this theme in my next blog using other resources, possibly even other student’s tips with how they deal with stress (if they can take time out of their stressful and busy day to talk to me!)

As I am writing this blog, I am sitting and watching the “madness” of March Madness. This is what my spring break has looked like so far. Filled with basketball, practicing tennis and procrastinating homework. Needless to say, spring break has been very relaxing which was definitely needed after the packed and hectic week of midterms!

At the end of spring break, (today actually) the tennis team was supposed to have two matches, but the crazy weather of Kansas has done it again, and they were cancelled. It has been disappointing because it feels like we have hardly gotten to play any matches. This will not last for long, however. When we get back from spring break, weather permitting; tennis will really start to pick up.

Not only will tennis pick up, but so will classes and other activities. Before we know it, it will be time for finals! Yikes! That is scary to think about because it feels like there is so much that needs to be done before then. All of the tennis matches, big assignments for classes that have seemed so far away until now, choir performances, finishing up schedules for next year, turning in the documents needed to become an official social work major and figuring out the living situations for next year all have to be done! Then, before you know it, it will be finals, graduation for the seniors and summer!

Well, off to watch some more basketball and to start working on homework!

If you want to watch some tennis, our next home matches will be Friday, March 29 against Hesston College and Saturday, March 30 against Doane College!