Michille Zhang, 12/7/20, PD 8, Day C

Michille Zhang
11/7/20
PD 8
Modern Mythology

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

Since the beginning of this school year, I’ve been very disorganized and messy with all my work. At this current point in time, I want to become more organized and more motivated for school work. Because of the COVID-19 pandemic, my aunt and uncle's restaurant had found themselves short staffed. With the ability to move to remote learning, I was able to go to Ohio and help out with the business. However, I found myself procrastinating almost every assignment, since I would have to go work immediately after class ended. Though I could bring my assignments to work with me, I found it frustrating that I was always on edge since a customer could walk in any minute. I couldn’t focus on my work as every train of thought would be disrupted. When I would return to my work, I couldn’t remember my ideas anymore and it became very frustrating to do while working. In addition, everyday after work, I would be too tired and unmotivated to do any actual work. When I sit down to try to get some work done, I’ll be constantly distracted by technology and trying to respond to everyone’s messages on the discord app. With the upcoming due dates for common app, I’m also feeling the stress and pressure of going to college. Although I have already finished a portion of my applications from doing Early Action, there is still too much to handle with the school work, the family business, and college. I still have to write supplementaries for each of the colleges by the end of this year, in addition to all the school projects and working. I’ve been trying to focus more in between classes and get some of the simpler tasks finished as well as tracking down all the work in an app. With all the things ongoing in my life, I find it a little helpful so I won’t forget.

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

I’ve been recently putting all my assignments into an app to help track my work and remind me of due dates. I often lose track of time and forget the assignments needing to be done because of my hectic lifestyle. I would sometimes forget tests or big projects until the day before the due date, leading to many all nighters and stress. The app allows me to portion out and break down those huge projects so I can complete little tasks everyday. I would then be able to finish before the actual deadline and feel some relief. In addition, I would try to finish the smaller tasks in between classes, as I might get too focused and forget about the next session. I’ve also been trying to complete assignments before the day it's due, as I often come home at 9 to 10 giving me little to no time to do my homework. The app has also helped me deal with the stress as everything is portioned out. I won’t have too much work to do in a day, and I can have a restful sleep knowing everything is in on time. I still have a little trouble with following the schedule and I will sometimes forget to add assignments. 

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

Seeing how everyone else seems to be so ahead and on top of their work has motivated me to try to keep up with the workload. I used to sleep whenever I felt stressed, as it helped me relieve some tension and forget everything needing to be done. However, my current situation doesn’t allow me to just sleep whenever I want, as I have to tend to customers. Lately I’ve found listening to music has helped me calm down and focus on my work a little more. Like the different genres of music, everyone has different situations and not all of them can be dealt with in the same way. I learned not to compare myself with those around me but have them as role models. I see the people around as goals/ destinations that I could one day reach but the path is my own to pave.