Midterm season is officially over–for my classes, anyway–and I have officially regained the rare, precious luxury known as “free time.” In honor of this momentous occasion, I have composed two lists: things I plan to do with my spare time for the rest of my pre-finals semester and things that I will actually do.
Plan!
- Exercise more. That’s right. No more sitting in my dorm room scrolling through Twitter for me! This is the moment that I actually make use of the free, state-of-the-art gym that’s less than a ten minute walk from my dorm. Totally going to go one of those free fitness classes I keep getting emails about. Yeah!
- Stay in closer touch with my high school friends. I will definitely not let a long period go by without contact then meet up and frantically, joyfully, eagerly catch up on everything that’s happened in the last three months. No, I will responsibly check in over FaceTime on a regular basis.
- Eat healthier. So long, breakfast sandwich virtually every morning! Hello, oatmeal with, I don’t know, fruit or nuts or something. Hummus. IDK.
- Never do anything at the last minute. All my assignments will be completed at least three days in advance. I will never again mutter to myself at two in the morning that I thought this was supposed to be a short assignment!
- Become a fundamentally different and better person, with improved priorities and a new outlook on life. I will emerge from midterm season like a butterfly from a cocoon. 30 years from now I shall look back upon this as the moment I finally transformed into Rory Gilmore.
Reality!
- Take more walks around the lake. Walking counts as exercise! It’s two miles, which is practically a hike! The lake, as established in my last blog post, is extremely pretty this time of year!
- Text my high school friends more frequently. Touch base occasionally so when I see them over Winter Break, I won’t be surprised when they suddenly have green hair or are married or something.
- If I’m going to have pizza for dinner, I will resentfully consume a side salad afterward, even if all salad greens taste like leaves (BECAUSE THEY ARE). Maintain a minimum of one piece of fruit a day.
- Try to get most things done at least a day or two in advance. Leave myself time to properly edit things, not resentfully edit them right before turning them in. Estimate how much time it will take me to complete a short story and then double it.
- Become a slightly improved person who goes for lots of walks, texts old friends on birthdays and major holidays at a minimum, eats an apple most days, gets to bed in time for seven-ish hours of sleep, and doesn’t stress if these plans don’t always go perfectly.