Introduction
In this project the objective was to identify the types of daily thinking I do that contributes to my success as a student. I took the time to record my thoughts and imagine myself five years from now based on my goals. The following will be a letter of observations from my 2020 self to my current 2015 self.
Thinking in Writing
Looking at my list of thoughts I find that I think a lot about being on time and managing my time from the morning to afternoon and less frequently in the afternoon. My first priority is waking up on time even if I’m tired; in order to get to a bus and train on time to be in my classes in the morning with extra time to possibly get breakfast and coffee. From the time I wake up to the time I exit the train at Jay Street a common thought is sleep and coffee. From there I find myself making a “to do” list on my iPad or phone so that I can prioritize the rest of my day or next couple of days. Lastly after my classes are done I rush to work in order to clock in on time. Another common thought that stood out was managing my school work for the night because I’m a tad bit of a procrastinator when I have a heavy workload and long work day. Besides those main patterns my mind focuses on taking in information at school and making ways to remember it.
If I had the option of focusing on something more is would definitely be schoolwork. When I’m in class I no doubt take on full attention to my work but once I leave my mind rushes off to the next part of the day which most in most cases is my job. I think if I started to focus on school more often then I wouldn’t be so stressed before class due dates.
Thinking Visually
This picture represents my daily thoughts about work. I think about being on time/early. While at work I at Teavana I constantly think of the tasks that need to be taken care of and what’s the best way to go about them.
The train station closest to my school. This represents my thoughts because every morning my objective is to get this stop on time for class.
Food is so important in my life yet I rarely eat any good meals. I realized that in my thoughts so here’s a slightly healthy, slightly fattening meal.
My Brain Rules and Storytelling Animal books are representation of the things I would like to focus on more. I noticed that I often wait until the last minute to put effort into my school work.
From the time I wake up to the time I get to school my thoughts are on getting a soy toffee nut latte and making it to class on time. I feel like I need coffee to make it through the day.
Whether it’s on my phone or in my planner I’m always trying to manage my time so that I don’t forget things. This photo of my planner represents managing my time better.
Thinking Reflectively
Today I’m an advertising account manager at an advertising agency I interned at about 6 years ago. I absolutely love my job! Life is pretty great for the most part. I just got engaged and we have started planning the wedding. Seven years later and we’re still together. Anyhow, after I graduated from LIM I had a contact from a place I interned at my senior year of high school, and she still happened to remember me and offered to set up an interview. If I had the opportunity to go back change some things 5 years ago back in college I definitely would have. Although everything is great now I really wish I would’ve focused on school way harder, less on pleasing my family and more on loving them as well as and working on being less lazy all around.
See, during my freshman year of college I was kind of slacking off all around. In my first semester I was doing great, all of my time was focused on school and school work. But my second semester was something completely different. I landed a job at a tea shop that began to take up a lot of my time. I would go to school and work then not get home until 11pm or even midnight some days. I found myself with barely any time to do my work, study or rest. I recall thinking “I need to focus on school” because I really wanted to succeed in order to gain the life I imagined myself having. But even when I did try harder, I kept telling myself I could do better with test and the effort I put into my work at school. I still don’t know why I was so tough on myself until this day. I wasn’t a horrible student but I just felt so much pressure to be successful from everyone around me including my family to my current fiancĂ©.
It’s interesting to look back and realize that I was motivated by my family to be so great in school. The idea of making them proud was always in the back of my mind pushing me forward, but I didn’t actually spend much time with them. My mom and I were, and still are very close which will hopefully never change. But as far as half siblings, aunts, uncles and cousins that’s make up my huge family tree, I never built that big relationship with. I lived 3,000 miles away from all of my family and it was so hard to keep close contact unless it was through watching every move on social media. We never kept close ties and I felt I was just the family member everyone would call or text when they wanted to take a flight out to “The Big Apple”. So somehow I felt that if I could “win” in life that I would be able to offer them more. It took 18 years for me to realize that I had to live my life for me in order to gain real approval. Once I started setting personal goals and doing the things I believed would map out my future like working for all the things I wanted, going to school and leaving laziness in the past I was so much happier. My family even began to notice it and before I knew it, they were proud of me. Since then I realized that making everyone else happy shouldn’t be my focus.
On the other hand though, I wish that family was the main part of my growing up. I put so much thought into satisfying my family that I wasn’t really loving them. Sure all family members yell “love you” over the phone or before you head to the airport on a 6 hour flight back to New York. But I found myself questioning if they meant it. I had such a large family and I was the outcast. If I could turn back the years I would have picked up the phone and called more often or saved money to visit home more frequently. Joyce Brothers says that “When you look back at your life, the greatness happiness are family happiness”. Yet when I looked back at mine they weren’t.
During my family centric to self centric transition I realized that I was extremely lazy. I found myself not doing much to benefit myself at all. When I did homework, it was the bare minimum and it was the same with work at my job. When I first got hired at the tea shop I was so motivated and as time went on I slacked off and didn’t give as much genuine attention to it. I was also lazy at home. My mom would always get on me about chores. Especially in my freshman year of college when I barely spent any time in the house. “Why didn’t you do the dishes?!”, “Your room looks a HOT mess Symone.”
My mother really helped me see that I needed a turning point in my college career if I wanted success. So slow but surely I tried to change. In high school, my History teacher taught me that crossing out things on a list made you feel happier when you completed the task. I never paid him any mind until my first time completing a whole list of tasks. Sitting in class knowing I was on top of my work felt great! I would daily write out lists for myself of tasks that I needed to complete for school arranged in order of class and importance. Later, I found myself doing this at work. I created the same type of list for myself during my last hours on my shift in order to close the store soon became one of the top sellers and got home quickly to sleep. Sleep then became a part of my prioritizing.
In my Introduction to English class during the spring semester of my freshman year I read John Medina’s “Brain Rules”. The author explained that the more sleep you get the better your brain can function effectively. Each night I would aim to get at least 8 hours of sleep. For the most part I was successful except for those times I slipped into the trap of procrastination and stayed awake until 1 and 2 in the morning.
All of these things have made me into the successful woman that I am today. Although I would have changed some things I don’t regret much at all. My suggestion to you is to stay focused. Take these words and reflections to heart and make us better!
