Elizabeth Vesialou, Period 2, 11/30/20 Day A

Elizabeth Vesialou
Period 2
11/30/2020
Day A

Modern Mythology 2021

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

                At this time I have many goals that involve academics and my future, but also self-care and the present. For example, my short term goals include applying to colleges and being accepted to ensure that my future has a clear path that will take my to my career goal of becoming a physician. Other academic goals are to stay on top of my workload,which has been harder than usual since the pandemic hit. Because we have been out of practice (since March 2020) of having regularly scheduled school days with classes and homework everyday for so long, it has been difficult to get a routine going and focusing on school. Thus, a goal of mine has also been to be more organized which I have done by creating approximate schedules to get a certain amount of work done everyday while balancing college applications and outside work such as the assignments I have for the lab I'm working for (an epilepsy lab at University of Southern California).

All of these are short term goals that focus on school and college. However, they have also inspired me to make long-term goals for myself such as being patient with myself and being calmer and more free about everything that's going on now and what will be going on years from now. I have always been a very controlling person because I've had a clear path in my mind of everything I needed to accomplish. With the pandemic hitting and life changing so quickly, I realized that to a certain extent I don't have control over everything and I need to let life take over more than I do. Additionally, constantly demanding perfection from myself has been difficult on me and being more patient with myself will help with the stress that that mindset causes.

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

        One of my goals actually encourages resilience: patience with myself. So when it comes to staying on top of my workload, I usually have a couple things on my to-do list that are assignments I need to get done over time (such as college applications and writing a paper for SERP). One of the ways I have stayed resilient is forgiving myself if I needed to take some time for myself and take a break and this got in the way of me working on one of these assignments. Of course I don't get carried away with pushing assignments to the next day because then I get overwhelmed with the work I need to get done. One of the things that has kept me doing assignments is the checklist I make. Checking something off of the list brings relief for a while and so that feeling has definitely kept me working rather than procrastinating. Also, many of the universities I'm applying to are extremely selective and while I am keeping a positive mind for the outcome and manifesting acceptance letters, I have also made sure that I am prepared in case things don't work out for certain universities. I'm still working on trying not to think about the outcomes since at this point they're out of my control, but distracting myself with other things has been a way to stay resilient about this goal.

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

        The world around me definitely impacts my perception of my goal because of the pressure that is put on seniors in high school everyday, by schools and by parents. For example, getting into a good university is constantly spoken about because the right university can help you for the rest of your career. Thus, getting applications done and doing them as well as possible is on everybody's mind. While this pressure could help accomplish the goal of applying and getting into universities, that pressure adds stress and makes me want to be as in control of my future as I can, which makes it harder to work on the goal of taking breaks and being more patient. Additionally, with teachers constantly assigning work, which I understand they have to, it feels as though as soon as I've checked something off of my to-do list there's already a new assignment to add to it. This makes staying on top of the work harder. However, I try to use this pressure to my advantage because it helps me get things done on time and it also tests my ability to let go of my controlling nature for a bit and let the world and life take over. The world also shows me how important my goals are because if I keep succeeding academically and work on listening to myself and self-care, I can lead a better, more stress-free and successful life. This is a difficult goal but one that many people around me encourage. I constantly see people on social media encouraging good mental health and taking time for yourself and it make me feel like I deserve to accomplish these goals.