"Exercise gives you endorphins. Endorphins make you happy. Happy people just don't shoot their husbands," Elle Woods, Legally Blonde. It's true that exercise is a powerful mood booster. And it's also true that we all need some mood-boosting from time to time.

To all the graduates celebrating, the campus you see now, the campus you hold dear in your memory shall change. For better (or worst) the campus changes to fit the needs of the new students and faculty. They create new dorms, purchase new digital materials for libraries, upgrade lab equipment, and so forth. Every now and again the alums or industry partners will donate large sums to purchase something rather sexy for the institution. By sexy I mean—not something necessarily needed by either students or faculty, but future students will inevitably be attracted to. Take example any outside artifact (aka statue or fountain that adds to the scenic ambiance to campus).

One look around any media platform and you will find mental health as a focal point. There are YouTube and Instagram accounts dedicated to yoga, wellness juices that boost the mood, face goop, and manifesting some of that good shit into your life. Some of it is helpful…and some of it screams like a cash grab. BGF cares about your mental wellbeing, but in the way that we understand that feeling stressed, overwhelmed, anxiety driven are all mental states that are not allowing you to be the best you. And that is a barrier to our mission where we want you to invest in yourself. So let’s take a moment to explore self-care and what that means to the BGF and what it should be to you.

It’s natural for us to reserve relaxation for the summer. We’ve been conditioned to behave this way since we were four years of age. Yet we need to learn that we can’t hold onto stress and wait for the “perfect moment” to invest in ourselves and relieve ourselves from the stress in our life. .. or if you are from East Philadelphia born and raised — chillin’ out, maxin’, relaxin’ all cool.

You have to rebuild your support network, maybe even cut ties to individuals who haven’t been as supportive, so now you might be looking at making other changes in your life. It is always a difficult decision to pivot to a new path, but it’s doable and this support network will be valuable in ensuring that it is successful. Let’s talk about changing majors, transferring colleges, and new career paths.

Technology has allowed us to have access to so much of the world. It has also allowed others to have access to us. Maybe too much access. As we struggle to reconnect with good friends and break up with bad friends, we find there are the people in between that may are in your life where you still want to set up limits to create a healthy relationship. These limits are not walls, they are boundaries and we aren’t really taught how to construct them.

We define bad good friend as a friend who is bad at managing the time between each gathering (physical) but is good at providing social and emotional support. SO what’s a good bad friend? That’s a friend that is good at showing up when invited…aaaannd not much else. Actually a good bad friend might just be toxic friend. They are friends that put you down, gossip about you, flippantly apologizes, makes you feel unsettled, tries to change you, or makes everything about them.

May’s theme will be about difficulties. The fact of the matter is that stress does create a strain on your mental health, and long term stress actually can affect you physically. Once we get to the physical ailments it’s easy to seek treatment the headaches and stomach aches. But to truly avoid getting to that level we need to evaluate and take care of the mental ailments. Sometimes that means nipping certain things that is providing you mental distress in the bud.

If you plan to do something to celebrate, we would recommend that you plan ahead. The Sunday we came to town students were moving out, a citywide marathon happened in the morning, church bells ringing, and the first warm wave came about. We didn’t plan ahead and were starving as we waiting in a never-ending brunch line.

John Lennon and Paul McCartney of the Beatles are not the only persons alive that shout “Help” in a rather peppy upbeat demeanor. A lot of us are not feeling so “self-assured” but trying to look like we have our shit together on the outside. We did everything to rally our spirits, yet we can't muster up the support we need to get our feet back on the ground. Here is a list of campus resources that can provide some help.

A lot of shit has happened in a short amount of time. It’s a lot to process. If the past year and a half hasn’t affected you, I’d like to know what magical beans you’re huffing. But if you’re like us the rest of us, our mental and physical health has seen better days. Self-care and self-love look different to everyone, but it doesn’t change the importance of staying on top of it, especially now.

Depending on how you like to connect with people, having friendships and gathering with them helps builds a sense of community and builds your support system that gives you a feeling of purpose. Here are three activities you can do to connect with friends.

The 2020-21 academic year has been rough to say the least. We have been in back-to-back zoom conferences and classes. Now finals are around the corner and the stress of uncertainty are starting the feel the suffocation of pressure and those that have been living in this state – can't really provide information on how to avoid or get out from underneath this pressure.

We will give you some resources and advice on how to be resilient.

The Bad Good Friends first reconnected at the University of Louisville as it was the halfway point from Ayrielle and Krista, who at the time we're living in two different states. It was a rainy day thanks to a tropical storm, Gordon. As a result, there would not be plans to meander around campus too much so we opted for the campus art museum.

Welcome to the inaugural post of Bad Good Friends – your college town lifestyle center that helps you get off campus and invest in a self and community that inspires you. We understand that being a college student is a lot of effort, but we don’t want you to get lost in the “work”. Part of the college experience is creating a place for yourself. That was how BGF was created.

Currently, this site and the Bad Good Friends services are on pause as Ayrielle and Krista review, retool, and reschedule after meeting with our advisors — but we should be back in action at full-force by mid-terms! And who doesn’t need some bad good friend time with a cup of coffee in hand when you are knee-deep in tests, projects, and general academic stress?