summer goals

Oh, it's summer again. Last summer, I started this blog. How time flies.

I'll be really busy this summer compared to all the summers in the past. I'm going back to my home country of Singapore for the first time in ages (I was still in elementary school when I last visited, I believe). Since I'm kind of pooped from traveling, I've asked to just chill for a day at least. And so I'm sitting in the neighborhood public library, typing out this blog. I would like to be reading some math textbook, but there's a password to the public wifi, I don't see any information about it from my seat, and I can't leave my stuff here to look for it. There's so many people here, and it's way too crowded for my Americanized ass. Yes, there are still spots to sit and work, but it's not like there are entire tables that are empty. Apparently you can book seats at these tables. That should say something about how frequented the library is.

After finals, I've been whisked away to Seattle, then Vancouver, and I flew out from Seattle again to Japan for a long layover, enough time for me to buy some skincare that I didn't bring with me and eat some national award-winning udon. I'm in Singapore for a couple days before visiting my grandmother and extended family in China, and then coming back to Singapore again. It's cheaper to fly out from Singapore to America than from China because of politics.

So I'll be back home for approximately two weeks before I return to PROMYS as a counselor (yay!!!!!! I luva promys <3) and then after that I'll have two weeks before I have to go back to school.

That makes approximately a month of free time? And I have so much I need/want to do lowkey lmao. It's always good to write out a plan so you have a clear direction in how to proceed, and I'm putting it out here so you will keep me accountable, alright? hehe

Study for 7.01 and 18.03 ASE

To test out of intro bio and diffeq. This is the first and most concrete goal that I've had for a while now. I don't want to waste my time taking these classes during the semester, so I'm going to learn them over the summer. I hear that the bio ASE is pretty straightforward, and I rather enjoyed AP Bio, which was the only AP test that I took. I had to self-study for that since my school didn't do AP's. I think it won't be hard to ASE it. I can pretend that I'm an aesthetic cute little premed, like all the studygrams I watch on reels. As for diffeq, the people that I talk to at promys have told me that diffeq is boring and useless, very skippable. It's a math major requirement here. Believe me, if I didn't have to take it, I would not be.

Run a sub 30 minute 5k

I'm signing up for the Cambridge 5k (which runs with the Cambridge half marathon, but I'm not ever going to do a half marathon. Jesus Christ that's a long distance.), and I would like to run it sub 30. Originally, that was my goal for the event itself, but I accidentally said that I would do that by the end of the summer. When I commit, I commit hard, so I'm tied to that now fr.

I don't really know much about training for anything physical, but as of right now, I'm just trying to run about 2 miles every day. I've been slacking near the end of the school year because I've been busy and whatnot. Historically, I've apparently run 2.5 miles at a 10 minute mile pace, but I have not been doing that the last couple times I've gone running oops. I suppose my issue is that I always get tired halfway through and then kind of give up for the rest of the run, so I should work on pacing myself (though I suspect that most of it is a mental willpower thing).

This is more of a general health and partially an aesthetics goal than out of any actual wish to be faster. There are many reasons why I run: I like how distances that used to feel so long to walk now feel easy. I feel more mentally stable (lmao) after I run in the morning, and if nothing that day goes my way, at least I ran and got that done. I want to be able to climb stairs while holding a conversation without having to breathe harder. Notably, none of these reasons are because I care about running itself, and so I have no genuine interest in getting faster. That's probably why this might be a harder goal to work for, but I suppose it's good to set these goals so I'm gaining a bit more from my morning runs.

Hot girl summer

The running plays a part in this. Very loosely, I want to "glow up" over the summer. In the past, I've never been interested in dressing well and looking better, but that's going to change now. I will admit that some part of this desire is because this is the first time in my teenage life that I've been single for an extended period of time. Perhaps all of the desire stems from this. Besides, it's good to invest in yourself or whatnot.

As for concrete things to do, I do want to experiment with different clothes when I'm in Asia. I like streetwear, and I also like cuter styles, though my body is built more athletic than petite so maybe I won't be able to pull off the bows and the frills (or maybe it's all in my head). I did purchase some Japanese skincare items and my sister gifted me some Korean sunscreen. I have pretty good skin naturally, so there's really not much else I need. I also just got my hair cut at a hair salon, rather than by myself. This coupled with exercise takes care of the aesthetics side of things.

Putting this on paper really makes me sound like a basic white girl, but at least those Stanley-wielders are happy with their life, and I want to be happy with my life. I've been trying yoga and it's been pretty helpful so far for starting my day with a calm mind. Also, the yoga poses are very nontrivial. My body literally shakes near the end of each session as I'm trying to hold each pose, and I thought I had pretty good core strength. Journaling too, of course.

get good at go?

Very vague, I don't have a set goal for what rating I'd like to be at the end of the semester precisely because I'm not fully committed to all the work that it's going to take me to get that good at Go. I do want to do my tsumegos every day, but I haven't been doing that very consistently either.

I've definitely put it on pause as of right now since I'm traveling, though I do want to visit a Go club (or whatever they call it) in China. Once I get back home, I'll probably fall into a more stable routine of playing everyday. Playing is a lot of work. You have to commit yourself to thinking critically for more than an hour. Sometimes, halfway through the game, I'll just subconsciously stop wanting to think and I make REALLY BAD moves. They're actually SO BAD. I kid you not. Then, I have to intentionally lock back into the game and salvage the stones or territory that so should have been mine.

GET TO GOLD ON VALORANT

ahem. This one speaks for itself. I've been Silver for quite some time, but I did hit gold on my alt (and maybe my main? I'm not too sure). The thing is, I don't really intentionally practice in my game, but rather I play for fun most of the time. The same goes for Overwatch. I just passively get better at aiming and game sense. I think that's fine with me.

Not only is competitive multiplayer video games a great time sink, it's also a happy distraction from my work, or lack thereof. These last couple days chilling in Singapore, I was very anxious and itching to get out of my seat. Then, I started playing a competitive mobile game again, and time flies faster than ever. Maybe this is truly where my passions lie.

Preview classes for next semester

I vaguely want to prepare myself for the math classes that I'm taking next semester (commutative algebra and complex analysis), but I'm pretty sure I won't have the motivation to do so. As you might recall from many months ago, I signed up as a listener for commutative algebra in the fall, and I have all the course resources (notably all the pset and final answers) from there. At one point in the fall, I solved the problems on the first pset.

It's kinda crazy how it's hard to find motivation to read textbooks and do problems when you're doing it yourself, but if you're taking a class, then suddenly by the end of the semester, you've done like 50 problems and read 2/3 of the textbook along with all of the lecture notes to prep for your final exam. Meanwhile, it takes me the entire summer to read like 10 pages lmao.

I mean it really comes down to intent and putting aside time to force yourself to work on the subject. I don't know if I have that kind of discipline over the summer. Besides, it's good to relax.

I know at one point in the summer, I'll get bored and/or feel guilty that I'm spending half of my waking hours on first person shooters, and I'll end up looking at some of the math momentarily.

next summer's internship applications

ugh. I hate applying to anything. I have to make my resume, and probably make a website with all of my projects, and leetcode (though I don't have that much of a problem with this one), and research jobs, and ughhhhhhhhh. I hate it all. But I have to do it, because I told my mom I'd try for an internship next summer to check out cs and make some money.

I want to vomit.

Conclusion

Notably, the goals that I'm less dedicated to are less precise and I'll probably not accomplish them very well. Oh well, I'm fine with that (as evident with me making them vague in the first place). This is probably the last summer that I have to relax, since the next summers will involve me pursuing some type of work that advances my future career (yucky). It's okay to relax this summer.

I've also been doing some STEM (mostly math) tutoring on the side, and now I've been asked to be a productivity/time management coach as well, so I'll also be investing some time into that endeavor. It's for a college admissions counseling team, and so I'm making big bucks doing it, since people pay big bucks for college admissions counseling. Thankfully, I had a phase where my YouTube home page was full of content creators big and small touting their method for staying on top of things and how to study more efficiently, so I've picked up on plenty of tips along the way. I'm not opposed to doing some more research so I can offer more advice to my clients. That will be fun, and relatively not mind-intensive. Also, I get to coach some high schoolers, and mentorship is something that I really enjoy.

I suppose I'll have to get home safely first. My sister, who I'm staying with in Singapore, has covid so I hope I don't get downed. In the meantime, I'll be doing plenty of writing, because I've already seen all the tourist spots here. Look out for more long, thought-out posts by yours truly!