Emily Ye, 3/15/21, PD 8, Day C

Emily Ye
Period 8
3/15/2021
Day C
Modern Mythology 2021

Goal Setting & Growth

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

At this point in time, college applications are over and it is time for us to hear from those schools. Although waiting for the results is anxious, I have been reminding myself that no matter the result, everything is going to be okay since I have tried my best for each application. I will instead, try to focus on the present. Since AP exams are soon, I have been trying to studying for each exam while also maintaining a proper balance between work and social so that I don’t stress myself too much. With that in mind, I want to make sure that I’m using each day to be productive and to not procrastinate as much anymore. However, because it has almost been a year of staying inside due to COVID, I am becoming increasingly more tired and unmotivated. To counter that, I have been trying to organize my time into free time and work time. During my free time, I would also try doing things that would make me happy in order to motivate myself to do better and to work harder.  

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

In trying to maintain my productivity, I always try to continue doing work right after class ends. For example, with the 45 minutes in between each class, I will try to continue doing the work I was doing for that class, or I will try to complete the work for another class that is due that day. This ensures that after school, or at night, I will have plenty of time to do whatever I want without having to stress about being unable to finish all the work assigned. In addition, to keep me from being bored or losing focus, I try to take a break after every 30 minutes of working. This way, it motivates me to work harder in those 30 minutes so that I can reward myself with the break. The breaks also help me in trying to maintain a balance between schoolwork and free time. I have also spent some of my free time trying to study for the AP exam through Khan Academy and with the practice problems my teachers put online. Being able to practice with AP questions has been helpful as it shows me what to expect from the real test. However, I am still anxious as to whether or not I am able to complete the exam on time since we are taking it online. The formatting of the exams still confuses me, but hopefully, CollegeBoard will release a demo version like they did last year, in order to prepare me for the actual exam. Although I am a bit anxious, I have been watching videos and listening to music to calm myself down. I find this very relaxing as it takes my mind off from worrying. 

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

I think that society has made it seem that school grades and exam scores are super important for college. However, as a second-year senior, it doesn’t seem like those matter as much anymore. However, we are still expected to take the exam and perform well on them. For the AP exam, it seems that most people are expected to score either a 4 or 5. That makes scoring a 3 or lower, seem reflective of bad studying or a bad score. Thus, everyone is trying their best to aim high by studying hard around this time. Also, it would be important for me to continue working hard on my studies despite it being the second semester, the time where senioritis usually happens. I would be ashamed if my studying habits and grades dropped this semester, ruining my efforts for the past 4 years. I would want to score high on the AP exam in order to show off to my colleagues and make it known that my motivation and ability to handle work and responsibilities have not changed.