March: Moments of Growth
Inside: Stories from developing a podcast with a friend, crafting my own pottery, and embracing my creative side this month.
Ah, yes. March.
Students know it as the month that provides relief from the stresses of endless homework assignments and clubs and whatever else you have going on.
Or, that’s how it’s supposed to be. 🤔
A lot of students actually use the break as a time to get ahead—whether you have one week off or two, students grind on homework assessments, forget the actual purpose of a March Break and come back feeling even more exhausted.
This was me during the Winter Break and it absolutely sucked. Literally, it sucked all the energy straight out of me. 😴
I came back to school not feeling as rested as people who used the break for it’s intended purpose, and I didn’t like that either. I was tired and I wanted a break.
So, this March, while many kids were grinding, I just stopped and left everything alone.
I spent my March break doing what I loved and relaxed and it was refreshing. My advice for anyone reading this right now is that you do the same. 📖 There will always be time for homework assignments and school work, but there’s only a week or two of March Break, so enjoy it!
😊 Now, without further ado, some stuff I’ve been up to this March, but NOT this March Break:
🎙️ Starting a podcast!
Yes, it finally happened!! I now officially co-host the Curious Minds podcast with Jula He!
Beatrice, why didn’t you mention that earlier?! On your LinkedIn, it says the podcast was co-founded in February! 👀
Well, if you’ve been following along you already know that I don’t have a “What’s Next?” section at the button of my newsletter for this very purpose. I like to surprise you guys. 😉
I’m going to be honest…
At the start of last September, I couldn’t see myself co-hosting a podcast on emerging tech. I couldn’t see myself casually writing articles on various topics within the space tech area (*gasp* no, that was not self-promotion, how dare you accuse me of such a thing! 🤨) and I could definitely not see myself saying things like “particle physics is my jam 👌” or even just "artificial magnetic field generation”.
I believe my unfamiliarity with all these up-and-coming technologies or science-tech topics was largely because emerging tech isn’t something high school students are familiar with, and therefore don’t care about. After all, if it’s not in the Ontario school curriculum it’s probably useless, right? 🏫
We created Curious Minds with this in mind. Jula and I wanted to provide a free source for teens to learn about all areas of emerging tech, as sources for a younger teen audience are generally harder to find.
→ Curious Minds is made for the next generation of aspiring young entrepreneurs, innovators, and change-makers. 🧠
→ Every episode features a memorable professional in the industry who will impart their invaluable experiences, expertise, and insights. From the future of food to space exploration, we’re your go-to source for in-depth discussions on the most exciting and transformative emerging technologies!
On March 21st, we launched our first episode, featuring Nina Khera and Akshaj Darbar, two co-founders of Biotein.
Biotein is a startup working towards making at-home bio-age testing more affordable and accessible while combating age-released disease. The two have done invaluable research in the human longevity space and plan to release their first at-home bio age test sometime this year!
Nina, Akshaj, it was lovely to have you both on the first episode of Curious Minds - I’m sure our listeners learned a lot from the insight you provided. Best of luck with all things startup-related! 😊
🎨 Creativity Corner
During my March Break, I emersed myself in many creative activities that I was fond of and even explored some new ones.
I find a lot of tech/science people usually don’t venture much to the ✨creative side✨ of things, so I thought I’d give it a whirl and see how it goes.
TL;DR of my experience:
it was fun 🥳
10/10
learned a lot more than I thought I would
definitely recommend trying something creative (whether or not you like indulging in creative activities, just try 😎)
But my newsletter would be pretty boring if it was just me saying, “I did stuff and had fun, trust me” without showing any pictures, so…
Your wish has been granted. 🧞♀️
1 - First up, let’s start with pottery. During the break, I enrolled in a pottery wheel camp for a week - this was my first time using an actual wheel, and let’s just say that spinning clay on a giant piece of metal is a lot harder than it looks… However, over the course of my one-week pottery camp improvements were definitely made!
2 - Next we have a creative collage of paintings and works-in-progress:
I haven’t painted much recently and it was really nice to fall back in love with it again! If you have any hobbies that you’ve let go of, whatever the reason may be, I would recommend picking them up again - you never know where they may lead. 👀
🐣 Dopamine hacks
(For newsletter newbies: this is the section where I give you tips on how to hack those happy hormones! 😊)
I usually write a nice intro here, but if you’re not following this month’s dopamine hack (and, let’s be honest, most high school students probably aren’t), you’re probably too tired to read it anyway, so let’s save you the trouble and skip ahead:
This month’s dopamine hack: get enough sleep! 😴
35% of people living in Canada don’t get enough sleep. That’s 13 526 300 sleep-deprived people!
Not getting enough sleep can contribute to:
a higher risk of obesity
heart disease
stroke
contributes to poor mental health
A lot of us tend to struggle with falling or staying asleep so here are some tips that may be of help to you! ☁
Setting a regular wake-up time (a really good way to synchronize your biological clock ⏰)
Avoid napping during the day (could temporarily disrupt circadian rhythm and make it harder to sleep at night 🛏️)
Avoid consumption of caffeine or alcohol ☕
Try practicing meditation or mindfulness 🧘
Avoid using your cell phone during those few hours before heading to bed 📱
→ Hopefully some of these tips can help you on your journey to more restful and recharging sleep!
Aaaaand, that’s a wrap! 🎬
Thanks for coming out - I’ll see you in May!! 📅
✉️ Personal links
Scroll through my small business website → view the shop ✨
Explore my Medium profile → take me to the land of articles 📰
Find me on Linkedin → view my profile 👀
Personal website → scroll through it 🌱
yess i love the pottery items that you made @ camp hehe!!
I loved reading your newsletter Beatrice!! Can't wait for the next one, and I'm so excited for the future of our podcast :)