As a new school year dawns, I've found myself creating yet another mental checklist of goals I'd like to achieve over the course of the next nine months. Every year the checklist is a carbon copy of the list from the year prior, and every year I manage to check exactly ZERO items off it. Some say it's due to my unique brand of laziness; I'd like to believe it's all just part of the magical college experience.
1. Doing Homework Before Indulging in Netflix
I try to get my extreme binge-watching done over the summer so there won't be any unwatched television shows to tempt me during the school year, but somehow I always end up finding a random show with 37 seasons (22 episodes each, of course) as soon as my course work really kicks in. Which leaves me with the agonizing question: "Should I read The Scarlet Letter for the third time or watch Jim and Pam's wedding for the twelfth time?" My brain says to do my work, but my heart says to watch Netlix. Oh, who am I kidding? My brain wants to watch Netflix, too. Sorry, Hawthorne!
2. Getting Eight Solid Hours of Sleep A Night
I begin every school year promising myself that I'll nurture my body and give it the rest it deserves, but as soon as the school year begins, the hours of sleep I get each night dwindles to a measly three to four. I try. But then Netflix happens and then actually doing my homework comes along, and suddenly it's 4am and I'm just laying down to sleep. God bless cheap coffee in the cafeteria.
3. Eating A Healthy, Balanced Diet
This one has always been a beautiful figment of my overactive imagination because healthy, balanced diets are most definitely NOT a part of the college experience. I blame my mom's cooking and a wonderfully long break from cafeteria food for making me think eating healthy in college is an option. Hello, pizza, my old friend. Why yes, I'll have a huge slice of you every night for the rest of the year!
4. Working Out Every Other Day
Or working out in general. I thought buying a bunch of cute work-out clothes would make this goal easier to attain, but then I ended up just wearing them to bed every night. The clothes I bought for being active and fit were used to do the exact opposite of work-out. I like to blame my lack of running/moving/doing-anything-remotely-close-to-exercising on my busy schedule, but we all know it's a lie. I'm just gonna go help myself to another slice of pizza, okay...
5. Hanging Out With New People
I'm definitely one of those people who gives you a huge hug and a warm smile and tells you in a chipper voice, "Yeah, we totally have to spend a bunch of time together this year!" and then never follows through. It's not because I don't want to hang out with you; it's that I just really like being alone and spending my time with people who are already well-acquainted with my odd quirks and habits. Hopefully I'll eventually get the hang of making new friends, but that day is probably not this year, or the next, or the next. Or ever.
6. Taking Interesting Classes from Different Majors
Going into college, I was told by various people that I absolutely needed to take classes outside of my major because they would end up being some of the most interesting classes I'd take. Yeah, no. As previously mentioned, I barely have time to inhale, let alone to take a Meteorology class or a class on the Mating Habits of African Gazelle. Yet every year when I schedule, I hover over the interesting courses, hoping God will grant me some mercy and allow me a class that isn't a gen ed or a major requirement. Maybe someday...
7. Letting My Crazy, Wonderful College Experience Soak In
