015. My Summer Plans

tldr: setting personal goals is good

A note before I jump into today’s post: Sorry about the holdup y’all! I took time off last week from work and from blog posting to work on my FEE essays (First Year Evaluation Essay). I can’t talk too much about them, but for my own documentation: I finished them yesterday (6/09/2020)! Good times.

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This summer is, by far, the weirdest ones I have had over the last four years. Mostly because of the quarantine. Over the last two years I took some summer courses with close friends. Now, not only am I not taking a summer class, but I likely won’t see my friends much. I can’t do *nothing* over summer, so here are my plans, listed out. If I lounge around all summer it will feel like an utter waste, might as well make the most out of the next few months.

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1. I am tutoring! At the moment I am doing drop-in tutoring (anyone can stop by from Fresno City College), and soon I will transition to embedded tutoring (specifically for Algebra– not abstract but the regular one). This is good because, frankly, I need the money. Plus, it holds me accountable for more than myself. Also, as a tutor, I have to take a summer tutoring course, but that will be over soon. It is fun though!
2. I am taking an Abstract Algebra class. It isn’t an official thing, more like students working through a textbook together, run by a student at the University of Washington. I’m enjoying it so far! I am using Latex to type up in-depth notes and it is a) good practice and b) very enlightening. I hope to take 18.701 in the fall.
3. I want to read through *at least* The Hobbit this summer. If I push it, maybe The Fellowship of the Ring. I need to get back into reading books quickly and efficiently, but also appreciating the work itself.
4. Keep writing blogs. Better have more than 30 by the end of summer.
5. Finally, more for myself than for anything, I want to get into a regular sleep schedule. Especially with quarantine, my afternoon naps have been off of the charts– and extremely long. The ultimate goal: waking up at 8, making coffee and breakfast, reading for a bit/watching TV, tutoring, relaxing, and going to bed at 11PM. That’s all I want. This will likely be my most difficult goal.

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Could one argue this is a very lame blog post? I sure am. My brain has been fried from the FEE. I think this is because it was just a random essay? Normally, especially for a class, I can work on an essay for hours on end. But this one just drained me. I have a theory as to why: I have been writing a lot of math stuff for the past semester and use words like “thus, ____. therefore, _____. hence, ________. furthermore, ______” all of the time. Fun fact: that does not make for a good essay. Transition words are necessary, but overused in my writing. Editing those out took *forever*.

But I am done now, and have time to come up with some good blog ideas. Maybe I will make Wednesdays a regular ‘check-in’ sort of blog– with what has been going on in my day-to-day and current plans. [Uncertain– will update if this will happen next week.] In any case, I am glad I got this blog out of the way. It was one I was planning to do for a while. Will revisit this topic/blog at the end of summer and discuss how well these goals and plans worked out. But for now, I am going to not take an afternoon nap.

Paige