Dustin Cong, 4/7/21, Period 2, Day A

Dustin Cong

Modern Mythology

4/7/21

Period 2

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

I last answered this prompt in October and a lot has changed since then. I'd like to update everyone about my progress with my goals. Many of us seniors were working on our college applications back in October, but now most of us have received our decisions. My dream school is NYU and I got accepted through Early Decision on my birthday, December 16. It was an amazing experience and I am so excited to spend my next four years there. Another one of my goals was my body image. I was progressing really fast from the summer to February, but I started hitting a plateau. I couldn't get my weight to go any lower so I decided to critique my workout plan and go on a stricter calorie deficit. I've started to count my calories more accurately using a scale to measure my foods and making sure to get the proper macros and micros into my body to reach my goals. After this change, I've lost 10lbs and I'm only around 7lbs away from my goal weight. For my new current goal, I've been focusing on my mental health. After being stuck at home for almost a year I became solely focused on myself and got stuck in the same everyday routine inside. This was a great experience and opportunity for self-improvement, but there was no balance in my life with both alone time and social time and staying indoors and outdoors. There was a period of time when I felt like there was no point in contacting my friends because it didn't feel the same as seeing them in person. I felt left out and disconnected from everyone, but at the same time, there seemed to be no way out since I was stuck at home. This put me in a very low mental health state and I didn't change until having a really deep talk with my friend Amanda Lee about it. After talking about it though, I decided to change and create a new goal: to reconnect with the outside world more and not stay indoors as much. 

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

It was hard at first to try to achieve my goals because I was stuck at home still for some of the time. When I was stuck at home, I decided to go outside for walks more often, leave the house to just pick up groceries, and just go on long drives with my family. These small things helped push me outside of this daily indoor routine that became unhealthy and build a foundation for the things to come. I started calling my friends more to catch up and having more group calls to play games together or to just talk. When February came around, the vaccines started getting distributed and luckily I was able to get appointments for my whole family. The vaccine helped all of us feel more comfortable with leaving the house and allowed us to see our friends and family again. Following the safety procedures, I went out to see my friends again multiple times after almost a year-long wait. I signed up for blended learning and I was able to walk into the school and receive a closer to normal learning experience compared to before. PSAL sports have also recently started and I signed up for volleyball. Although we can't go indoors yet and use actual equipment, this was a perfect opportunity to talk to more people and stay outside more. For practice we worked out outside running laps, stretching, and doing endurance exercises. With the weather starting to get better as well, I started going on walks with my sister and dog more often and playing badminton and volleyball outside. This is only the start of my journey to improve my mental health and reconnect with the outside world and I feel so much better after taking a few steps at making improvements. I am still sticking to my workout routine, diet, and self-improvement, but now I'm also achieving more balance in my life. 

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

The world around me affects my perception of this goal because it helps me realize I am not alone in this journey. The DOE is helping students get a more normal school experience by allowing blended and in-person learning to return, and bringing PSAL sports back this year. My friends are constantly keeping in touch with me and we are always planning when we could see each other soon. My family and I are spending more time with each other outdoors and going out together, learning to feel more comfortable with the situation we are in. Vaccine distribution is increasing allowing more people to be safe and feel safer, which really helps with the situation. Although we are far from normal, I'm still taking small steps at improving my mental health and reconnecting, and the world around me is constantly taking steps to improve as well to help me with achieving this goal.