In high school, I would create a summer notebook the first week of summer to fill with stories of all the adventures I hoped to have and check off each item on my summer bucket list. I would spend all afternoon cutting out interesting photographs from old magazines and sort through the pile of glossy paper clippings until I found just the right images to plaster and display on the front of the notebook.

Once it dried, it was ready to be used. However, as much fun as it was decorating the front of my journal and thumbing through the first few pages, I couldn't wait until the last week of summer and I finally got to the last page of the notebook.

It was there that I would write my hopes and goals for the upcoming school year.

This page was always written in a bright color of some sort, usually hot pink or electric blue. Although it was a list, I wanted it to be as visually appealing as possible. It needed to be something that I wanted to look at and be reminded of each day for the upcoming year.

Go to prom, join a club, decorate my locker for once, make a new friend, get all As, and go to all the football games were just a few of the goals on the list that was now taped over my desk wall.

Surprisingly, I did everything on that list one year: my junior year in high school.

Junior year of high school was easily the best year of high school for me. I felt a newfound confidence and purpose. I was enjoying my art classes, I was applying for colleges, taking standardized tests, and looking forward to the future. I remember being genuinely happy in my school endeavors, and I miss that feeling.

Fast forward four years from then. I haven't created a summer journal or list of goals since then. I am now a junior in college working to earn my bachelor's degree, but I'm missing that excitement and sense of direction. Maybe I had idolized junior year as being "the year" that I've been working towards all this time.

Granted, I'm done with my gen eds from freshman and sophomore year, and I know where things are on campus now, but I still don't know what I want to do or what I'm doing half the time. Junior year is supposed to be the best year. It's the last year before being thrust into adulthood and graduation that senior year entails. I'd be lying if I wasn't a little anxious about this upcoming year.

I know I shouldn't worry, but I do. And yes, I'm all for living in the moment, but I like to make lists and have a plan too.

Either out of frustration from not having the feeling I wish I had before my first week of junior year, or superstition, I decided to create a list of goals for the upcoming school year like I used to each summer before.

Who knows, I may check off everything on this list, or I might even add more to it. All I know is that I am determined to make my junior year of college the best year yet.

So, reader, whether you are in school or not, I challenge you to pick up a pen, grab a few old magazines, and create your own list of goals for this upcoming season. You'll be surprised what you can accomplish if you put it on paper.