Yana Polonskaya, Period 5, 11/10/2020, Day B

 Yana Polonskaya

Period 5

11/10/2020

Day B

Modern Mythology 2021

Goal Setting & Growth

1. At this current point in time, what specific goal(s) do you have for yourself? Why?

With college application deadlines around the corner, my goals currently revolve around getting accepted into schools which will foster my main interest in STEM while also developing my numerous passions within Humanities fields. As an aspiring neurologist, I hope to be in an environment which provides an in-depth education on scientific fields such as biology and psychology; I hope to take advantage of any research opportunities available to me. However, I also understand the importance of studying language, literature, and history—these fields will allow me to communicate my scientific knowledge to the rest of the world and use scientific concepts in order to battle pressing socioeconomic issues. Moreover, as a dancer and an enthusiast of theatre, I hope to continue developing these interests throughout the next 4 years. My experiences and knowledge up to this point would heavily contribute to the college community; I would learn everything I possibly can from this new environment as well. Because of this, one of my most pressing short-term goals is to put my best foot forward and write the best essays I possibly can, creatively depicting all the various aspects of my personality. I hope to have no regrets when looking back on this fall semester; my biggest fear is one day thinking “I should’ve spent more time on this response, it definitely could’ve been stronger.” These months have been so critical and I know I have to work as hard as ever, whether spending hours practicing for interviews or writing 10 different essay drafts before producing a response I can be proud of. My goal is to make my applications undeniably me—to have my personality shine through my writing style, to mention all my interests, no matter how diverse they are, and discuss how they shaped me. Though college applications have always been on my mind recently, I also put a lot of time and effort into keeping up my grades and learning everything I possibly can from the classes I’m taking. I never put school on the back-burner, my education continues to be a priority. I aim to continue being a straight-A student, even with the added pressures of college application deadlines and barriers that come with online schooling. However, both school work and applications involve spending extended periods of time sitting in front of a computer screen. This can be detrimental to my mental and physical health, so I aim to eat healthier, exercise daily, and meditate. I try to maintain a daily schedule: wake up at the same time every morning, exercise for at least an hour total every day, eat three nutritious meals during the appropriate times of day, and meditate before falling asleep. Maintaining a proper sleep schedule has proven to be the most difficult, considering the amount of work I have on a daily basis, but I’ve been working on properly managing my time throughout the day. My final goal has to do with my aforementioned love for dance: due to Covid-19 restrictions, I haven’t been in a dance studio since March. I try to spend at least 2 hours every week either learning a dance routine from online or choreographing my own routines. Dance is my escape from reality, an outlet for my emotions, and these 2 hours have been essential to improving my mental and physical health. I’m aiming to maintain all my technique and flexibility during these unprecedented times.

2. How do you demonstrate resilience towards achieving this goal? (or these goals?)

In achieving these goals, one of my hardest yet most important responsibilities is implementing a growth mindset. Growing up, I have always been a perfectionist. I’d spend hours crying over any grade lower than an A+; I’d watching recordings of my dance recitals on repeat, losing my mind over the most insignificant mistakes. Homework assignments that my peers would finish in half an hour took me all night long to complete, which in turn messed up my sleep schedule. Soon enough, I began to realize that this mindset wasn’t sustainable. I couldn’t continue blaming myself for every small mistake; I had to learn to be okay with letting certain details go in order to focus on the bigger picture. Most of all, I had to understand that while I should continue aiming for the stars, I had to fall in love with the journey towards them as well. Rather than getting angered by my mistakes, I should view them as inspiration to learn and improve. I continued to embrace the perfectionist in me, as she drove me to be the best possible version of myself. However, I began to view every experience as a learning opportunity. I took the term “set back” out of my vocabulary; even mistakes brought me steps closer to my final goals. This mindset, along with my career goals and varied passions, was my driving force throughout high school. Every year, I selected the most rigorous schedule available to me, including taking AP Physics as a sophomore and AP Calc BC as a junior. I participated in various after school activities including SING and Science Olympiad. I slowly began to overcome my fear of failure—it was replaced by my love for science and mathematics, my appreciation for the arts, and my desire to spend every day working to better myself. However, the abrupt switch to a virtual lifestyle in March made this mindset harder to maintain. With a lack of human interaction and an abundance of time, the negative aspects of my perfectionist tendencies slowly came back. Where college applications where concerned, nothing I wrote seemed to be good enough. I’d spend hours at the computer, crafting “perfect” sentences, just to delete the draft at the end of the day. This cycle would go on for days on end, until my whole list of essay topics was deemed unsatisfactory. Though dance used to act as my escape from daily stressors, I seemed to spend more time thinking about my dream body and technique rather than actually working to achieve it. I began getting lower grades, solely because I would submit certain assignments after the due date just so I’d have more time to “perfect” them. I realized that under these new circumstances, I’d have to work even harder to maintain my growth mindset. I immediately began working to get my grades back up; I would establish daily timetables to make sure I spent an appropriate amount of time on each assignment. In terms of college applications, I realized that at the end of the day, I just had to describe all the diverse aspects of my personality and background as best as I could. I focused on making my authentic voice heard through all of my responses. I still wrote numerous drafts and continued aiming to produce my best work, but I slowly stopped putting so much pressure on myself to match my own unrealistic expectations. I developed schedules to help myself heal mentally and physically as well, dedicating time to working out and meditating. I began to remember how much I loved the process, the work, the effort. Moving forward with my short and long term goals, whether it's finishing my AP chemistry homework or becoming a neuroscientist, I know that my drive and my growth mindset will both help me along the way. 

3. How does the world around you affect your perception of this goal? (or these goals?)

A second wave of Covid-19 infections is currently affecting New York, prompting lock-downs all across the state once again. Learning that schools are getting shut down made it feel as though we’ve come full circle since last March, ending up right where we began. Though I’m grateful for the restrictions put in place to keep us safe, I was concerned about how returning to fully remote school and losing already limited in-person interactions would impact my mental health. However, after reflecting on my experiences over these past several months, I realized that I learned how to transform some of my negative emotions into a desire to work harder. I have to continue working towards my future no matter what— I can find motivation within myself, not just from my surroundings. I’ll become healthier by maintaining a proper exercise schedule; I’ll practice mindfulness through daily meditation. Dance won’t stress me out the way it did in March; instead, I’ll use it as an emotional outlet. Properly maintaining my physical and mental health would make me a more focused and creative student—I’d get my school work and college applications done with greater ease. Achieving all these goals would help me on the path to becoming a neurologist. Throughout these past few months, I’ve seen medical workers risk their lives to help strangers. Seeing them exhibit such selflessness solidified my career goals. To me, there would be nothing more rewarding than forming relationships with my patients and potentially putting smiles on their faces. As I work towards getting that white lab coat, I know I have to stay focused on the goals I set—I can’t let anything get in my way.