College is a once in a lifetime experience, and, of course, anyone would want to make the most of it. But a part of this experience, unfortunately, is stress.

I’m juggling a course over load (over load of homework too!), PRSSA meetings, a job and a social life, so I am no stranger to stress. I’ve had a pretty hectic week. This tends to happen occasionally, but I’m at the point in my collegiate career where I now know that not everything is going to be the end of the world and life will go on as it always does.

So, whether you’re a freshmen still discovering how this whole college thing works or a senior getting ready to graduate, I want to share with you guys some tips to manage stress!

Stay Organized! This is key! Professors give you a syllabus for a reason. Most tend to have a schedule of due dates for assignments and exams. Know what is coming up so you’re never caught off guard. I also recommend having a planner to stay on track.

Prioritize. Now that you know that your syllabus is your best friend, all you have to do it prioritize based on when assignments are due and roughly how long it will take you to finish the assignment, project, etc.

Use Free Time Wisely. I am more than guilty of scrolling through Twitter instead of reading a textbook chapter in between classes. Don’t be like me! Try to utilize free time wisely. This will benefit you in the long run and reduce the likelihood of you being stressed out. Future you will thank you.

Find Studying/ Work Habits That Are Best For You. What I mean by this is to immerse yourself in a setting that will allow for you to focus and perform to the best of your ability. For me, I need a quiet room that’s devoid of all distractions. I’m so easily distracted that it’s impossible for me to work with other people around me. It took me until my junior year to realize that I was actually hurting myself by studying with my friends because I would spend more time talking to them than actually studying! But if studying/ doing homework with your friends helps you and gets you motivated, go for it.

There’s Always Someone To Listen and Help. If you ever feel as though you are overwhelmed, talking through your issues is a great way to feel better. Fortunately, SUNY Oswego offers counseling services at the Mary Walker Health Center on campus. It’s free and confidential.

Decompress. This is the most important. Sometimes stress can be a little overbearing and I don’t know where to start first. When this happens take a deep breath, relax and do something other than work. Simply do things that make you happy. Trust me, this will go along way. If you’ve been cramming for an exam, take a nap. Your brain works a whole lot better when you’re not running on fumes. Hang out with friends. You’ll find they’re probably dealing with the same things you are and it’ll feel better talking about it.  Watch Netflix…Yes I’m saying it’s okay to ditch the homework for some House of Cards.

Hope these tips can help you guys in the future! Always remember that your mental well-being is more important than any grade on a test!

Happy November, Oswego!

The season of fall has progressed quickly, and is now 2/3 over, from a meteorological standpoint. Meteorological seasons are a little different from regular seasons – for example, fall runs from ~Sept. 21 to ~Dec. 21 on the calendar, but meteorological fall runs from Sept. 1 to Nov. 30. The reasoning for this is that meteorological seasons are based around times of temperature change (spring and fall) or non-change (summer and winter). It also is easier to keep track of!

Anyways, here’s an update to what’s happening in the trees around campus! Lots of colorful leaves have blossomed over the past couple of weeks, and I had a chance to check out the color a couple days ago.

Maple trees adorn in yellow along the road to Hidden Fields. Photo credit: Matthew Seymour

Maples in front of Culkin Hall, Oct. 30. Photo credit: Matthew Seymour

Trees near Littlepage and Glimmerglass, Oct. 30. Photo credit: Matthew Seymour

Oak tree in the quad, Oct. 30. Photo credit: Matthew Seymour

Foliage conditions on campus were generally mixed. About 1/4 of all trees were bare and prepared for the long winter ahead, while another 1/2 had leaves in fall colors, and the last 1/4 were still mostly green. The area around the Lakeside dorms generally had the most green trees left, while Central Campus, The Village and Hidden Fields (the athletic fields near the Village) held the most fall-colored foliage.

While these conditions are similar to what Oswego experienced during autumn last year, I continue to be surprised by the longevity of the foliage season. I am originally from the Ithaca, NY area, which is typically on its tail end of fall foliage season at this time. Oswego’s season, in my opinion, is peaking right now, and if not will peak later this week.

Lake Ontario, in part, helps locally change the timing of foliage emergence on campus. The lake typically keeps nighttime temperatures from dropping too low. Trees require cool nights, in combination with mild days, in order to produce maximum color. Additionally, the overall weather pattern has been mild. Until about a week ago, nights were generally mild to warm, prolonging the foliage season. The recent colder weather has finally jump-started the trees’ preparation for winter.

Weather conditions this week will generally be drier and warmer than last week, but not perfectly dry nor perfectly warm. Every day this week, except Thursday, should offer plenty of dry time to get outside and check out nature’s beauty. Have a great week, Oswegonians!

Hello Oswego! Midterms week is finally over. Can we say, relief? In more ways than one, too. I’m typically a fan of cooler weather (just wait till it starts snowing…), and the recent trend downwards in temps has been more than welcome. Two major weather stories occurred this week, so let’s get to it!

On Oct. 17, a noisy thunderstorm passed through campus during the early evening hours. Before the storm hit, I was able to (safely) capture a few shots of lightning flashes, as well as a shelf cloud, over Lake Ontario. It was quite an unusual storm given the time of year, frequency of lightning strikes, and organized structure. What a “shocker”!

The other big weather story of the week began last Thursday, Oct. 20. A large storm began to affect the Northeast, bringing with it a slug of rain. Nearby official rain gauges reported 2 to 5 inches of rain over the course of 48 hours. Definitely something to put a dent in the lingering drought from this past summer.

The bigger story, especially here in Oswego, is the wind. As the storm wound up, winds howled out of the north across the wide open waters of Lake Ontario. The Oswego buoy station reported winds of over 30 mph at times Friday (10/21), Saturday (10/22), and Sunday (10/23). The weather station atop Shineman Center even reported a wind speed of 51 mph early Sunday morning. A few small tree limbs fell on campus, as a result. Now doesn’t that just blow you away!

Why the strong winds? Two main reasons. 1) The storm system that generated the weekend rain created a tight pressure gradient between itself and an area of high pressure over Canada. When a tight pressure gradient is present, wind speeds increase as they attempt to counteract the pressure imbalance. 2) The wide open surface of Lake Ontario provides little in the way of obstructions that the wind must encounter (hills, trees, etc.), hence locally increasing the wind speeds along the shore.

Looking ahead, a chance for a few snowflakes is coming Thursday morning (Oct. 27). Currently I don’t expect accumulations, but a slushy coating cannot be ruled out. Keep your eye to the sky, and have a great Halloweekend!

Hello everyone! What a week it has been. We all could use a break from midterms, right?!

As always, there’s been some excitement here in Oswego, weather-wise. Let’s get to it.

Photo credit: Matthew Seymour

Saturday, Oct. 8, ended on a brilliant note. As the sun set, the clouds lit up like fire. The surrounding landscape glowed of yellow as the sky became very bright. As the sun continued to set, the color morphed from yellow, to bright orange, to deep pink. It was a surreal experience to stand at the lakeshore and look at the best sunset of the semester so far.

Thank (in part) Hurricane Matthew for the extreme sunset. The clouds from the system, well to Oswego’s south at the time, streamed north, but the edge of the clouds ended just below the horizon as seen in the photo above. This allowed the setting sun to briefly illuminate the clouds from underneath, creating an effect known as afterglow. Afterglow is fairly common among most sunsets, however this intensity is probably only a twice-a-year occurrence in Oswego.

Photo credit: Matthew Seymour

Then, on Oct. 13, a weather system moved through the Great Lakes, bringing with it some morning rain showers. Later in the afternoon, the dreaded Oswego wind moved in. Large waves ensued as the wind blew out of the northwest, some of which likely exceeded 5 feet in height. As the waves came in, some would crash into the rocky shoreline and have nowhere to go but up. Not a good day for boating!

Don’t be fooled, however, waves around here can (and have) reached 10-15 feet in height. Come wintertime, I’ll probably come back to this topic for one reason or another.

Photo credit: Matthew Seymour

The night of Oct. 13, Oswego had a chance to see the Aurora Borealis. I walked down to the lake around 9:50 pm to snap some shots with my camera. While I did not succeed in photographing the aurora, I did still walk away with this cool view of Lake Ontario at night. However, aurora were sighted and photographed around nearby Rochester, as well as several other locations in the Great Lakes region.

Why the lack of visible aurora here in Oswego? A couple reasons. 1) The nearly full Moon added a lot of light pollution to the sky, making it harder to spot the relatively dim aurora. 2) There may have been a “substorm”, or brief uptick in auroral activity, that initiated the flurry of aurora sightings in the region. At the time, Oswego had cloudy skies, with clearing taking place shortly after the time of those reports. Substorms normally do not last more than an hour or two, so Oswego may have just missed the viewing window. Tough luck on this one!

The upcoming week looks like pretty typical fall roller-coaster weather, with near-daily rain chances, warm temps to start the week (chant enough and we might reach 80 on Tuesday!), followed by cooling as the week progresses. Until next time, Oswegonians!!!

This past week there have been many stands just like this one all over SUNY Oswego’s campus making sure people are registered to vote and have their absentee ballot through Vote Oswego.

Earl Bellinger is an alumnus from Class of 2012 who came in this week to give a lecture called “From Starlight to Stellar Ages: A Look inside the Private Life of Stars.” He is an astronomy doctoral student at Yale and was the first SUNY Oswego student to intern with NASA at CalTech’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.