Valerie Chen, period 8, 9/28/21

 Valerie Chen 

8th period 

09/28/2021

Modern Mythology 2022

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

At this point in time, my goal is to start on my personal statement, common app essay, and supplements responses. There are so many factors to the college process that I feel unsure about and yet I never find the motivation or time to complete it. The idea of college always makes me uneasy because I know I am not doing enough and that can be detrimental in the long run. Most of my stress comes from college-related topics like scholarship deadlines and SAT scores. I really want to outperform those tasks and get over them so that I can peacefully enjoy my senior year without my parents pressuring me. Another goal I have is to get ahead of myself on long-term school projects, such as the portfolio and group presentations so that I don't have to rush it and produce poor-quality work.  When I am in this situation, I always feel overwhelmed and my quality of sleep greatly reduces as well. For the sake of my mental and physical health, I would like to achieve that goal.

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

I plan to achieve my goal of not procrastinating on my college work by creating a consistent agenda for myself. If I run into a problem while completing this goal, I would ask my mentor, who’s a junior in college, for advice. She gives me genuine advice that I can rely on depending on my situation. If I am ever under too much stress, or the schoolwork is overwhelming, I would take a day or two off from the college work so I can breathe. I plan to achieve a high SAT score by studying a minimum of four times a week for an hour. This can include reading a book or doing practice math problems. Sometimes, I feel no motivation because I get a lot of questions wrong and my score doesn’t improve. I overcame this mind block by taking short breaks and watching Netflix shows or talking to friends. I also feel extra motivated at night, so if I don’t complete it during the day, I would do it at night. For the school projects, I plan to start working on the portfolio checkpoint starting next week because I have an SAT this weekend so I will be spending most of my time studying. As for the group presentations, I would try to reach out to my teammates more often to make sure everyone is on the right track and to make sure that I am doing my part. If there ever is a problem, I would first contact my teammates to come up with a possible solution and ask other teams if they have the same problem. If I still don’t have an answer, then I would contact Mrs.Fusaro for further instructions.

  

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

The school environment motivates me to achieve all of my goals because there will always be people that are ahead of me or on the same boat as me. For example, one of my friends had finished their supplements for multiple colleges and was ready to submit, but at the same time, I didn’t really do much. This can go both positively and negatively because I would get motivated but also stressed out by comparing myself to them. There are a lot of resources online taking into account many people’s experiences and opinions on college. This was very helpful when I was choosing which college I plan to apply to. As for getting ahead of myself on school projects, our peers and teammates make the projects seem less intimidating because you know there are people in the same boat as you.