Sarah Vafiadis, Period 1, 1/18/22

Sarah Vafiadis, Period 1, 1/18/22

Goal Setting & Growth

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

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

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

Right now, my primary goal is to persevere through the end of the semester. Most of my college applications were due about a week ago, so that has been the focus of nearly all my energy up until now. I was focused on finishing all the writing that was needed for college applications, and I’m quite happy with how everything turned out. I tend to “laser-focus” (as my mom calls it) when I have a specific goal that needs to be achieved in a short period of time. This meant that from the end of December until last week, I was focused solely on submitting applications. Now that they are complete, I can shift my attention back to schoolwork. I want to build good habits now so that I can avoid senioritis in the upcoming semester. Of course, I still plan on enjoying my last semester of high school, but I would like to finish on a high note. Maintaining good grades through the end of this current semester will help set the stage for a high GPA as I graduate. 

In terms of personal goals, I have been working on my overall happiness. I almost feel like I’m in a time crunch as the thought of leaving for college approaches, so this has served as my primary motivator for accomplishing all the small tasks that I have been meaning to do for quite some time. I have been in the ongoing process of decorating the walls in my room and cleaning out my closet whenever I have spare time. It is unlikely that I will be staying in New York City for college, so I have been trying to enjoy the city as much as I can before I leave. I haven’t achieved this yet due to the surge in the Omicron variant, but it is something that I plan on doing in the future. I also want to lessen the time that I spend on social media and focus that time on reading instead – my bookshelf is filled with books waiting to be read. I have been setting screen time limits on my phone which have greatly helped me keep track of the time I spend online. In general, I have been attempting to step back and take a deep breath whenever I feel myself becoming overwhelmed with stress. These are all fairly long-term goals, but I feel like I have made progress in all of them.

Between recuperating from the past two years spent at home and my current course load, this school year has been particularly challenging, but I have been able to keep my head afloat. Right now, that means making up missing assignments and maintaining high class averages through the end of the semester. I find that it’s extremely difficult to catch up on work once I begin to fall behind, so I have been employing various strategies to make sure I submit all my assignments before their respective deadlines. The most useful tool has been keeping a planner – I am a highly organized person (a.k.a. I become very stressed when things are chaotic) and I have used a planner to keep track of my assignments since elementary school. However, I have recently begun to jot down assignments as soon as I see them on Google Classroom so that nothing is bypassed. I find that breaking down large assignments into smaller tasks makes them much less overwhelming and thus much easier to begin. I had developed a bad habit during quarantine where I easily became overwhelmed by the size of assignments and put off starting them as a result, but writing down individual tasks in my planner is helping me overcome this.

Looking at the people around me has made me feel much more normal in my current struggles. If it were a typical year, I would be berating myself for slipping behind in school, even a little bit. However, everyone is struggling right now. The transition to in-person learning combined with college applications has been exhausting for nearly everyone that I have spoken to. It’s comforting to know that I’m not the only one having a difficult time adjusting right now. It also makes me feel like my goals are realistic rather than abnormally low.  I hold myself to very high standards, so this feels quite strange, but if there is anything that I have learned during quarantine, it is to be kinder to myself. Of course, that doesn’t mean letting missing assignments pile up or neglecting to study for exams, but one bad grade, or even a few, don’t define me. As long as I strive to stay on top of my work and put my best foot forward, I will be achieving my goal.