gap year blog

[ldseitz]

Goals and Other Thoughts:

Work towards minimalism —> declutter (just step no.1)

Work towards a zero-waste lifestyle

Learn how to use my camera

Play piano (take lessons at Hunter or GHMS)

Explore NYC more

REST: DO NOT OVERLOAD SELF; DO NOT BE BUSY JUST TO BE BUSY

Perform a song at an open mic?

Cook for self more often

Exercise

Read 30minutes a day (at least, can me more)

Scribble ideas for a musical? opera? songs?

Budget and save!

Go to therapy (both solo and family)

Figure out insurance plan

Watch PBS News Hour or read articles (2 hours a week)

Chinese lessons (if it works out)

Reach out to “mentors” in my life (meet up with them once in a while)

Try to not buy anything for 1 month

^This is essentially my first list of goals with a few tweaks here and there.

From when I first wrote those goals to now I have managed to read more often (not every day, but a lot more frequently), I am composting at home, I have reached out to the people I look to for advice, I have talked in Chinese more (this was pretty unexpected), and I have been exploring more of NYC.

Before college, I had never been fond of setting goals for myself. They always felt rather pointless to me. Fortunately, I now see how goals can help me because I am setting concrete and measurable goals—it’s no longer this random thing.

[ldseitz]

It’s always easier for me to start writing on paper rather than on a Google document. Maybe it has something to do with the kinetic act of writing—it’s more personal. I was already feeling unmotivated to write just moments ago when I tried to type my thoughts out first before physically writing them. My words didn’t flow the way I wanted them to. As a perfectionist, I wanted to start over.

I already journal nearly every single day (I’ve done so since June 28, 2017 over the summer between high school and college). So why do I want to share this publicly? One reason is to hold myself accountable. I have various goals and projects I want to work on throughout my gap term and I am more likely to follow through on them if I set a weekly deadline. One of my goals is to not overload myself nor make myself “busy just to be busy” but I also want to make sure that I do not end up wasting my time by spending literally days watching things on Netflix of YouTube. I want to make sure that I get out of the house and live a little. In addition to keeping myself accountable, I think this will force me to organize my thoughts and curate highlights worthy of sharing in contrast to my thought dump in my day-to-day journal. And finally, it would make me feel incredibly happy if someone can look at my posts and find something they can resonate with. I don’t hear many stories about students who take gaps in the middle of college—most of the stories I’ve heard are of those who took a break between high school and college.