sabrinasometimesstudies

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

A black girl will be spending years in jail because she had a mental health crisis. PLEASE READ

Meet Saraya: she was experiencing a mental health crisis. Police came and tackled her. She is 15.

Saraya Rees is a 15 year old biracial girl from Coos County, Oregon. After being abruptly instructed to stop taking her antidepressants by a local pediatrician, Saraya went into psychosis. In her manic state, Saraya poured a small amount of gasoline on the floor. Her parents called Coos Health & Wellness in hope that that would send mental health advisors, Coos Health & Wellness sent the police. While still in psychosis, the officers arrested her, questioned her without her family or lawyers present, charged with attempted murder and assault, and sent her to juvenile prison for 11 years.

ELEVEN.YEARS.

This is not justice.

This is inhumane.

WHAT YOU CAN DO TO HELP:

1. Call these people and demand that she be let go to the custody in her parents.

Please call Governor Kate Brown and Senator Jeff Merkely.⁠

⁠

📞Governor Kate Brown: [phone]⁠

📞Senator Jeff Merkley: [phone]⁠

2. Sign the petition! 

http://chng.it/dPR59dnMzq

Please DO NOT donate to CHANGE.ORG, instead donate to Saraya’s gofundme. 

3. Follow @justice4saraya on instagram. You can find info on where to send her encouragement cards and get updated on progress.

4. SEND CARDS TO THE FOLLOWING (please also note card sending rules)

OAK CREEK CORRECTIONAL FACIILITY 

C/O SARAYA REES

4400 LOCHNER ROAD SE 

ALBANY, OR 97332

EDIT: PLEASE CONSIDER THESE RULES WHEN SENDING HER CARDS! The family has asked for the following when sending cards: 

-No vulgar language or cursing (she’s a child, afterall) 

-No stickers

-No metal 

- Do not use return address stickers

-No Cash

Using these things could mean Saraya doesn’t get your card. If you want to donate to the family during this very hard time, please use the GOFUND ME.

 https://www.gofundme.com/f/justice4saraya

You can also send her gifts for when she gets out to a PO BOX: 

SARAYA’S PO BOX

PO BOX 211

MYRTLE POINT, OR 97458

MENTAL ILLNESS IS NOT A CRIME. LET’S FREE OUR GIRL SARAYA!!!

Saraya’s website: https://www.justice4saraya.com/

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

Happy 21st, Now get Typing.

Nothing says happy 21st birthday quite like cutting a research paper deadline dangerously close!! My research advisor is also an academic advisor for the entire department, plus he is a professor with other research projects. Unfortunately, that means he fell a little behind in editing our paper, and i have until the 20th to make the changes before submitting the draft for consideration at conference. Instead of drinking all night I'll be revising since I work all day tomorrow as well.

I wouldn't want to do anything else, however. I'm very happy with my research and my advisor was impressed with my first draft that I had sent to him early Monday morning.

#adhd #engineering #personal #studyblr #research #birthday #women in stem

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

Get to know me through my music!

Hello!! While I do LOVE a good dive into someone’s natal chart or just a normal conversation to get to know them, I think there is so much you can learn about someone from their Spotify playlists. Here is the link to my Spotify account, feel free to laugh at the playlist names or make assumptions on my personality!! 

https://open.spotify.com/user/sabrinalizmartin

I have a ton more playlists that will be going live here soon, I just have to update the cover art before I make them public. One of my favorites is actually a study playlist with video game music from my favorite games! 

#spotify #music #playlists #actually adhd #personal

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

Productivity Tip

Productivity looks different on everyone, and that’s okay! Here is one tip that I’ve found really helps me out during school terms!

Different devices have different purposes.

Very often my brain subconsciously connects certain spaces and things with specific activities. For example: my desk is my work space, my bed is for sleeping, and my shower floor is for mental breakdowns (I’m only half joking about the shower floor). I’m pretty sure a lot of people can relate to this. As a “hack” I dedicate certain devices to tasks just like the spaces throughout my apartment so that I’m not tempted to scroll on twitter during an important class. 

I’m lucky enough that I have old laptops laying around. Like I have two Acer netbooks from like ~2010-ish, another Acer laptop that got me through high school, and my beautiful HP Envy x360 that I got as a graduation gift and I have plans to use through at least one Doctorate. Plus I have two phones that I paid for myself (a Google Pixel 2 without a SIM card and a Pixel 4a that is my actual cell phone). Obviously there is a TON of privilege in having multiple working devices (although the two Acer netbooks can’t turn on if they aren’t plugged into a wall outlet) and so this tip may not be useful for everyone. I’ll have an alternate tip on how to utilize one device in a later post. 

Here’s what my breakdown looks like for what I use my devices for Primarily & Secondarily.

HP Envy x360 - Note taking, homework assignments, MATLAB, 3D modeling, Research

Pixel 2 - Displaying my previous notes during lectures/ assessments that are open note, email, Linked In, Handshake, other professional networking

Pixel 4a - Entertainment, communication, Zoom calls, organization

Acer laptop (has a 360 degree hinge and a 13 inch screen) - I didn’t have this available to me last semester because I left it at home, but here is what I plan on using for: Accessing digital versions of textbooks ( I will have to use either google drive or a USB for storage), possibly displaying notes instead of using the Pixel 2, blogging, essays, other e-books.

#Productivity #electronics #ADHD hack #ADHD #Engineering student #student #studyblr #personal #advice #study hacks #college

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

Story Time

Since I'm in between semesters right now, I think I'll give you guys some random content and try to stay active!

SO let’s start off with a story time! 

About 6 or 7 years ago I was in the eighth grade, and this story takes place in my language arts class. It was the class right after lunch (I’m pretty sure, forgive me for not remembering my 8th grade schedule exactly) and we always were given individual assignments to work silently on. The issue with this is the fact that many of my classmates didn’t work well in complete silence. 

I remember that a silent classroom was HARD for me to be productive in. I needed some sort of background noise, whether it was a movie, music, or even someone else’s conversation. This was before teacher started letting us have our phones or iPods out during class to listen to music to with headphones in. So my classmates and I would ask our teacher to play music quietly. The answer was always no even though we told her that we felt more productive if we had background noise. We even tried to compromise and asked if instrumental music would be allowed. One day my teacher SNAPPED on the class and went on this whole rant about how music or background noise doesn’t actually help us at all and we were lying. Her source wasn’t observing her students’ behavior, or asking other teachers, but one study from the early to mid 90s. So we just kind of dropped it because we didn’t want to be subjected to another rant. 

Jokes on her though because I’m neurodivergent and background noise actually does help me to get work done when I’m unmedicated (which I was at the time since I didn’t receive a diagnosis until I was 19). So if anyone out there is a teacher who refuses to play music or let students use headphones while they do individual assignments, maybe reevaluate the reason behind it. Some students need some sort of extra stimulation, and aren’t privileged enough to have a diagnosis and IEP. Try to be sympathetic and at least give them a chance, especially if the students who are asking for background music fidget, talk, or maybe don’t fit that box of a “perfect” student. That little bit of extra stimulation in their brain may make a HUGE difference in their behavior. 

Sincerely, a student with ADHD who didn’t know her brain was different until college.

#ADHD #neurdivergence #music #story time #middle school throw back #personal #college

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

So three days after grades were due to be finalized, I finally received notice of this semester's grades! This has been by far my best semester yet. Online classes HELPED me because I was able to have a ton of accessibility tools to use as I needed. Plus being able to take classes asynchronously meant I could catch up on sleep when needed and use the later hours of my day to do class work.

I also received academic accommodations for the first time in my life, and I finally feel like I'm on an even playing field with my peers. My brain may work differently, but that doesn't mean I'm not able to do great things. I just needed a little bit of a boost. Until this point I was putting in about double the time and effort as the majority of my peers just to perform around average and sometimes below average on assessments. Now I'm able to put in the same amount of work as my classmates and perform at the same level.

After a very, VERY hard five semesters my cumulative GPA is above a 3.0 for the first time in my college career.

#engineering #adhd #mental health #studyblr #personal #academics #accomodations #zoom university

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

Keeping Organized

I can’t tell you how many planners I’ve either bought or received as gifts that got used maybe half the amount that they should have been. Usually they sit in my backpack or on a shelf after I spend an hour or two at the beginning of the semester neatly writing the dates of exams, due dates, and what sections of the textbooks to read. Unless I’m going through a major memory crisis about due dates, I won’t touch that planner again until the beginning of the next semester.

So how do I stay organized as someone with horrible working memory?

WHITE BOARDS. I love white boards. With my whole heart. These and google calendar are my best friends in the world. The boost of dopamine I get after completing a task and getting to erase is from my board is the whole reason I do what I do.

I have my dry erase board hanging on the wall over the side of my bed, so I can clearly see it from anywhere in my room. I also keep a mini white board at my desk incase I need to do real quick scratch work or write down an important note but can’t find a piece of paper quickly enough.

#ADHD hack #white board #organization #studyblr

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

Philosophy Essays

Finally done studying for my Philosophy final :-) We were given 11 prompts to study that cover material from the second half of the class. The day of the exam we'll be given a narrowed down list of five and get to choose three of those prompts to actually submit answers to.

Typing out 11 mini-essays would be VERY daunting for me, even though we were given the prompts over a week before our test date. To make tests like this more manageable I create outlines for myself under each prompt and spend the given exam time typing my answers into paragraph form. 

To create my outlines I used a combo of my own lecture notes, the lecture recordings, and the texts provided to us to read. Even though I do have the prompts copied into the doc, I use the main bullet points under the questions to summarize what I’m supposed to be answering. The next level of points are my answers to the questions, the evidence to support my answers, and then any other important points I want to make. When writing for philosophy (even if the answers are fairly objective) I find it super helpful to draw my own comparisons between the texts and real-world examples. Showing a deeper understanding is a really easy way to get extra points even if your actual arguments aren’t that strong or in depth. 

#adhd #studyblr #final exams #philosophy #study tips #exam prep

[sabrinasometimesstudies]

Hi there! I'm Sabrina, a third year Mechanical Engineering student with combined-type ADHD that has made my college experience different than that of a lot of my peers. My hope is that this blog will motivate me to study more often, but also be a resource for whoever needs it! Please reach out with questions about ADHD, college, STEM, mental health, or just life in general!

It should go without saying, but I will not tolerate hate speech or discrimination from anyone. It will be called out regardless of who it was directed to. Human rights are not something that you can have an opinion on, and if you think it is okay to deny people basic necessities for any reason then you are not welcome here. If this paragraph got under your skin for some reason then please, crawl back to the incel Facebook group you came from.

For everyone else, I can't wait to be friends :-)

#mental health #personal #study blog #adhd #engineering #student #lets be friends