Nicholas Lofaso, April 27, 2021, Day B, Period 5

 Nicholas Lofaso

April 27, 2021

Period 5 Mythology

Blog 3

Goal Setting & Growth

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

   

Right now, I’m really just focusing on wrapping up high school on a strong note and finishing everything that I need to before graduating. I’ve been pretty busy/stressed trying to decide on a college, and as of right now I’m still not entirely sure where I’ll end up going. I’ve always been indecisive so the fact that I’m going to end up deciding right before the deadline to commit to a school definitely isn’t surprising. I also feel like it’s much harder to decide on a school now than in normal years—I haven’t been able to get full tours of any colleges, and they all start to mesh together when all you can see is the outside of buildings. 

The main thing that I still haven’t been able to decide on is how far away from home I’m comfortable being, and I think this is something that I’ll only be able to answer with confidence once I’m actually in college and living away from home for the first time. This is the biggest issue that I have with actually committing to a school—I really don’t know what to expect from college, and everything being virtual makes it feel like I’m almost choosing a school blind. I’m sure it’ll all work out though, and I believe that most people can be happy in a lot of different places, so this decision hopefully won’t have as much of an impact as I think it will right now. 

Once I make up my mind, though, I won’t be anywhere near finished with school. I’ll immediately have to inform the other colleges that I got into that I won’t be attending, and then complete the graduation survey for Tech and finish filling out my Naviance data. Then come AP tests, and I’d like to do well on them to be able to get credit that I can use for college, which means I’ll have to spend a decent amount of time studying for them. My major goal right now, though, is just choosing a college. Once this is done, so much stress will be taken out of my life and I’ll be able to really enjoy my last few months of high school. 

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

I demonstrate resilience towards achieving my main goal by continuing to research more and more about the schools I’m heavily considering, trying to find what I’d prefer and what I don’t care so much about. It’s been a long time of thinking about college almost constantly—since I first created my Common App account in August, I’ve had college on my mind nearly nonstop, with only a real break in February when no decisions came out. As the process comes to a close, I have to think about what it is I really want out of a college experience, and which school would be best at achieving this for me. 

In terms of my other goals, I demonstrate resilience by continuing to do my school work and pay attention in class. It’s hard to convince myself to continue doing all of my work sometimes, since school is practically over and we’re almost through college season, but this is important to remember to finish out the year strong. Remembering that we’re all in the same boat definitely also helps. 

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

The world around me specifically is mostly made up of people the same age as me, so it’s helped my sanity knowing that we’re all in the same boat when it comes to making a college decision. But everyone always shows the fun side of college decisions on social media—you never get to see the extremely difficult choices that people make when choosing a school, or the fact that most people don’t have one school “calling” them, and find that they have to pick between a few colleges where they can see themselves being happy. This reality that exists online sometimes brings me down, almost making me feel like I’m the only one who struggles with hard choices, even though the reality is much different. I have to remind myself of this often to keep a level head and make the best decisions for myself.