Guess who’s back? It’s the very much alive author of your favorite self-titled blog! I decided to take the last few months of summer off to refocus on my own health and spend uninterrupted time with my family and friends in Manitoba and BC. The time off was thoroughly brilliant, and I learned so much about myself and for this I am ever so grateful.

This post will be a sort of smorgasbord of describing my vacation as well as going into detail about some new things I tried out that had a lasting positive effect on my mental and physical health.

Before my vacation started, I was enrolled in three different summer courses that are required for my new program, two of which I found terribly interesting. I found myself enveloped by these two courses, to the point where I finished the semester 3 weeks ahead of schedule and had actually received messages from my professors requesting that I would take my time finishing the class (regardless of the fact that I finished with an A in each).

The course in which I finished with a higher grade, Intro to Abnormal Psychology, was focused around introducing the student to the diagnostic requirements listed by the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders) for different mental disorders ranging from depression to schizophrenia and borderline personality disorder. I feel as though this course benefited myself as I could more clearly differentiate why my diagnosis was different than X or Y diagnosis, and what would have to be different in order for myself to fit into a different category. I believe as of recent that in order to understand other individuals more thoroughly, we must first understand ourselves and how we function and this course certainly helped fill in a gap that I didn’t really know existed until I had completed it. I have never been a very strong student due to me failing to have the motivation to push myself as well as simply not seeing the benefits I could reap with just a little bit of effort, but I am hoping to carry this momentum into this new semester and eventually my bachelors and/or masters program.

Another new step that I took in self-development was changing my diet. I heard about a low-carb, high-fat and protein diet on the internet that athletes have found useful in losing pesky body fat that obviously isn’t optimal for athletes to carry around. The reason that I decided to try this new diet at first was almost entirely to do with my athletic performance and I didn’t really consider that it may help my mental health as well, but it absolutely affected my psychological health most prominently. While I felt sort of terrible by forcing my mother to change her shopping habits in order to accommodate me, I found myself having far more energy throughout the day while eating less and rarely feeling very hungry. It limited the variety in my diet, but I found myself able to consume a couple of different foods at each meal that included my favorites. It was intense and difficult at first (initially resulting in a nasty flu) but I have never really been a fan of having a huge amount of variety or spontaneity in my life in other areas, so it wasn’t as difficult as I had thought it would be. I also went from weighing 201 pounds to 184 pounds which was pretty neat.*sunglasses emoji*

After spending two-ish weeks at home with my family and close friends, I flew out to Victoria, BC with my whole family minus one big brother and spent a few weeks on Salt Spring Island at my parent’s new property. The spirit of bliss and carelessness that inhabits the island quickly possessed myself and I found myself happier than I can remember being for what seems like forever. The island’s population seems to be entirely made up of retired academics/couples, stoners, hippies, and beautiful women. (The last point may have been a side effect of the cider I was drinking, but I prefer to remember it that way) The island is almost entirely free of advertising and corporate interest which gives it it’s own unique vibe that I have never experienced anywhere else. The weather is fantastic, the people are beyond friendly, and I was happier than I can remember ever being. I highly recommend the Vancouver Island area as both a vacation spot and a brilliant place to live if you can find employment if you’re familiar with a small-town mentality and enjoy a more self-sustaining lifestyle.

My initial plan was to head home on the 30th of August to get myself prepared for the upcoming school year, but there was a very large bump along the way. Upon arriving at Victoria’s airport and being just about to board, I turned my phone off of flight mode for a brief moment to, what I believed at the time, see if I had any last minute messages that were important. In this split second, I received a call from my eldest brother Jared telling my about my grandfather who was in a very poor state in the hospital. He highly suggested that, although my mother would argue against it, I should come home to Winnipeg to say my final goodbye’s as he was not expected to last much longer. Through 2-3 absolutely brilliant WestJet employees, we made it home to Winnipeg’s airport at around 3:30, drove quickly to the Seven Oaks Hospital, and I got to saw my only living grandfather for the last time. His passing was peaceful, but terrifyingly silent at the same time. My brother Jared said it best: “Papa would always wait for others: whether he was waiting for everyone else to get their food before he would eat, or if he was waiting for the next political talk show to come on, he was always waiting. In the end, he waited for us and Grandma to arrived before he passed on.” It was poetic, terrifying, and beautiful. I will forever miss him, and am ever grateful for the family that he has provided me with, whether it be my aunts, cousins, mother, everyone. He was a peaceful man in life, and peaceful in his last breaths. The whole process of getting home was one of the most fortunate series of events in the most unfortunate of times, and for that I am ever thankful. I wouldn’t have been able to handle myself if I had accidentally gotten onto the plane home and didn’t say goodbye, and I thank God that I was able to arrive on time.

As this blog post is less emotionally driven when compared to some of my previous entries, I will keep it short and sweet and provide an update to those who may have been wondering what happened to my blogging schedule, as I sort of dropped everything without any notice given. More material will be coming in the following weeks, and as always I invite anyone to send me a message either on here, social media, or if you want to do it anonymously, through my blog’s email on the bottom of this entry.

Let’s talk,

Garrett Suderman

sudermangblog@gmail.com

Rest in Paradise, Papa.