After a long, seemingly never-ending break, it feels relieving to be back in Amherst. Reuniting with friends, getting back in the groove of living in your college home, and receiving the new syllabi from teachers. Entering this semester, I thought of some new goals that I wanted to achieve. Though I loved my first semester as a freshman, I certainly did have parts of my routine that I wanted to switch up.
Beginning with academics, I unfortunately am one of the world’s biggest procrastinators. All of last semester I spent avoiding my work, leaving it to the last possible second, and getting extremely overwhelmed. I established early on that second semester I would stop the destructive behavior of waiting till the last minute. Rather, I would start my work early in the week so that by the time it was due, I was ready to go and did not have to last-minute cram in an attempt to get every assignment turned in by approximately 11:59 p.m. This was a goal made by almost all of my friends as well, and I am determined to work on it as I begin new classes with a new workload.
In addition, I want to make more of an effort to take better notes in lectures. As a freshman, a majority of my classes thus far have been large lectures. In such big classes where there are over 200 students, it’s easy to get away with slacking off and working on something entirely not related to the class you are actually in. I have fallen victim to this, and it has left me struggling in the course as I do not pay attention to what the teacher says and miss out on valuable information. So, for this semester, I want to work on taking detailed notes in lectures that will benefit me for future assignments and tests. Already, two weeks in, I have seen improvement in my understanding of my courses as I intently take notes throughout the lecture and read them back after the class has finished.
Socially, I have one main goal I would like to focus on as I enter the second semester. I am specifically going to focus on getting more involved on campus, whether that be through clubs or events. Clubs are such a great tool to find people similar to you, with interests you can connect on and become friends with. The same goes with any events on campus, as they usually have themes centered around them that can help you connect with people.
So, these are my goals for the second semester. I am hoping to come back to this article at the end of the year and check off every one as completed. I urge everyone reading to also make a list of goals they would like to complete as they go through the second semester, whether that be a goal academically, socially, or both. This not only helps you begin to manifest it as you write it down, but it also motivates you to complete the goal and check it off.
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