Spring Semester Goals

At the end of this semester, I’ll be 50% of my way through college.

Like, hold up.

I am not ready to be halfway done here! Are four years really long enough for me to learn everything? Will I have enough time to take advantage of all that is available to me?

The answer is no, of course I’ll never be able to take advantage of every opportunity that comes my way… but this semester is already off to a great start in the department of saying yes to adventure and opportunity.

What adventure and opportunity do I speak of, you ask?

I was invited by my class dean to participate in a vocational discernment retreat exclusive to sophomores prior to the start of spring semester. I was going to say no. After all, I would be missing winter RA training – and that’s mandatory! But I decided to give it a shot and ask, and I was granted permission to attend! I can’t wait to meet new people and learn all I can through this program. It’s truly a once in a lifetime opportunity!

Now, as I just mentioned, I’m an RA. At my university you can be a Resident Assistant or a mentor to first year students, but you can’t be both. First year mentors lead a small class of 15 students in enrichment sessions throughout their fall and spring semester, go on trips and outings with the class, and act as an on campus support throughout the year. RAs… well if I went on to explain all that we do, it would take me forever. I won’t really get into it, but there is a feud between the RAs and the first year mentors, because they think they do more and are more important than we are. Totally not true. However, the first year mentors do great work and have the opportunity to form great connections with the students, and I truly appreciate what they do.

In a strange turn of events, I will be serving as both an RA and a first year mentor this semester!

Didn’t I just say you couldn’t do both?

Yes, I did.

However, something came up and they were short first year mentors due to a schedule conflict. As an RA for first years, living in the residence hall of one of the two classes in need of mentors, I was asked if I could take on this role. It took a schedule change and overriding into a full class, creating a slightly less ideal schedule, but this opportunity was too good to pass up! As an advisory board member for the first year mentor program at my university, this opportunity will also give me a unique perspective, as the board is a compilation of both RAs and first year mentors. Now I’m both!

This semester will be one of a kind, and I love that!

Oh yeah, and the single most exciting thing of the entire semester will be happening within the first few weeks of classes: Roxane Gay is coming to speak at my university! Yes, the Roxane Gay. I am beyond excited, as I am a huge fan of Roxane and her work. She’s even doing a book signing! I may have to buy a paper copy of Bad Feminist just to have her sign it, since she can’t exactly sign an eBook.

Honestly, I teared up in class when I saw the email announcement that she was coming flash across my laptop, and I’m tearing up now of excitement just to see her speak! 

I’m definitely looking forward to more this semester than I ever have before. Now let’s get into my semester goals!

My goals this semester are:

• Attend a sporting event
• Publish 12 blog posts
• Say “yes” to opportunity
• Take more notes in my Simplified Planner
• Keep my room tidy

Attend a Sporting Event

This will likely be a men’s lacrosse game, but who knows! There may be basketball, I could go to a swim meet, we’ll just have to wait and see what happens! I really like going to games but also really struggle with how transportation works going from our stadium to campus. I’ve been shoved to the ground waiting to be picked up and brought back to campus every time, and that’s really not something I desire to experience again! Without a car there’s no other way to get there, unfortunately, as the stadium is across a major highway and a few miles from campus (perks of going to a small school in a city?). 

Publish 12 Blog Posts

I mean, last semester I did 10, so it is only right to up the ante, right? My goal is to publish 12 blog posts from roughly mid-January to mid-May. This will happen. I am so excited to share with you posts I’ve been working on as well as whatever new and exciting things I dream up this semester!

Say “Yes” to Opportunity

There are so many opportunities everywhere you look as a college student and being almost halfway through my college career, I’ve decided I need to take advantage of more of them. Not that I’m not already busy as heck, believe me last semester was a doozy. But I’m determined to make it work, and take on more opportunities to learn, grow, and simply experience life. I’m starting with being a mentor and going on a pre-semester retreat… and I’ll see where I go from there!

Take More Notes in My Simplified Planner

This academic year I am using the Daily Simplified Planner by Emily Ley as my planner / organizer / key to success. It’s absolutely fantastic and just what I needed this year! I’m super happy with it, and there will be a full planner review coming soon.

Last semester I don’t think I took full advantage of the amazing notes section on each daily page, and I want to be better about that this semester! It will only make life easier. Instead of jotting down random notes at the top of papers or in my class notes, I want to put it all in my planner. It’ll have to end up there at one point anyway, might as well just have it start where it’ll end up!

I love the to-do and hourly sections of this planner, basically almost everything about this planner, so if you want to be planner twins, haven’t gotten your 2019 planner, or are looking for academic planner options already for next year because you aren’t satisfied with what you have (I’ve been there) click here to get $10 off your very own Simplified Planner!

Keep My Room Tidy

There were points throughout last semester where I had clothing everywhere. Clean clothes on my desk, on top of my dresser, on my chairs, in piles on my ottoman, just… everywhere. I would also put off doing dishes sometimes because *hello* if I have three clean bowls, why wash the one dirty bowl? The answer is I need to wash the one dirty bowl because I never know when people are going to be coming into my room and the last thing I want is to have my clothes everywhere and dirty dishes in the sink when they do.

I also want to keep my door open a lot more this semester to make it feel more inviting for my residents to stop by, and I will not open my door unless my room is near spotless. Sooooo a tidy room is going to have to be maintained.

I think a big reason why I was so unorganized at points throughout last semester was that I’m not happy with the way my room is and my storage situation. Luckily, I’ve had some major inspiration over the break, and I’m hoping to go back a day early (which I can do because I’m an RA) to get things more the way I want them.

Academically, I simply want to stay on top of things as best I can and put forth the effort without forgetting that my health comes first.

This semester I need to remember that it’s more important to sort my pills than to do any sort of homework. That sleep is more important than getting a 100% on that online homework assignment. And that just because I can get it all done a week ahead of time doesn’t mean I need to burn out doing so. I don’t need to get it all done a week early.

Sleep and taking time to rest are more important.

Are you ready for the semester? What are your semester goals? Even if you aren’t in school, I’d love to hear any goals you have for yourself that you hope to accomplish these next few months! Leave them in the comments below, and good luck!