Rachel Yang, Period 7, 6/2/22

 Rachel Yang Period 7 6/2/22

Goal Setting and Growth 

    The end of high school is approaching a lot quicker than I thought it would be. At this time, I’m filled with mixed emotions. Feelings of happiness arise from the fact that I’ll be moving into the bigger world, full of more opportunities for exploration. However, feelings of sentiment also arise as reality hits that each one of my friends will soon be leaving for their own adventures miles away. Though this moment is bittersweet, I’ve decided to focus on the positives by setting goals that I’ve always wanted to achieve. Specifically, my biggest goal is to become more independent and live a healthier lifestyle than I’ve lived during the past 4 years.

    I’ve always had an interest in living a healthy, productive lifestyle (though it may not seem like it due to my terrible habits while in high school). As I move forward with more free time, I aim to exercise daily, eat healthier meals, and most importantly - sleep a lot earlier than usual. As for why this is a goal, we can say that the reason is simply because I’ve noticed that these activities make me feel much happier and motivated throughout the day. It is also better for my physical health in general. As I can now say “I ran track in high school” rather than “I run high school track”, I hope to keep my daily exercise routine without having other people holding me accountable. In fact, one of my goals is to run a half marathon one day. Obviously this cannot be achieved without a healthy routine. I’m also aiming to become more independent so that I can pursue more of my own passions and interests. 

    Like most goals, this is easier said than done. One of my biggest challenges with this goal is that I’ll be staying at home rathering than dorming in college. In my opinion, dorming pushes students to become less dependent on their caregivers, which would be really beneficial. However, since I am staying at home, I can subconsciously be dependent on my family with small tasks. Coming from an Asian household, my grandma loves to do things for me. For instance, she often does my laundry, cooks meals for me, or even cleans my room out of  love because she notices how busy I tend to be. Even if  I had planned to cook myself breakfast sometimes, I would wake up to breakfast already made for me. Though I am definitely extremely grateful for my grandma, it tends to be very challenging to do these chores on my own. In an effort to combat this, I have started to let my family know in advance that I plan on cooking a meal for myself  or doing xyz chore later on in the day so that they’ll know to leave everything for me to do. 

    Living at home has also been a plus for my journey as I aim to achieve my goal. Living at home means I have the constant support from my family to guide me through adulthood. For instance, since senior year had started, my mom has constantly promoted the idea of me moving out for college so that I can learn to become less dependent on my family. Though that idea is not coming true next year, she has continued to support me as I find other ways to become independent. Wether it’s by giving me tips or just supporting me as I try to find a part time job to start financially supporting myself, my family has motivated me to continue to achieve a more independent, healthy lifestyle as I leave highschool.