Looking Forward
Lucas looks ahead to his final two years at Carleton.
Lucas looks ahead to his final two years at Carleton.
So. Last post of this first half of college.
Looking ahead, there’s so much left that I want to do, experience, and accomplish. Being fair to myself, I know that it won’t all happen. There’s too much here for the little time I have. But half because of how much these past two years have changed my life for the better, half because of how honestly terrified I am of how quickly these final two years will pass by my life as well, I want to lay out some plans for myself. I want to make the absolute most of this.
As a student, I’ve really had to up my game here. It’s been quite a humbling experience going from someone who more or less considered school His Specialty to being in a pretty perpetual state of holy crap am I really gonna be able to do this. Although I’ve certainly made strides addressing my procrastination issues (avoiding your work simply is not an option on a trimester schedule), there’s still progress I want to make. Working in smaller, more regular chunks of time really does go more smoothly; it’s just going to be a matter of more consistently following my habit of working in thirty minute chunks with five minute chore breaks in between, as timed by the Forest app on my phone. I’ve learned so much at Carleton, and have gotten a taste of how incredible gaining knowledge like this can be. So I can’t help but feel inspired by how much I could really take advantage of my learning opportunities if I spent even more of my time even more efficiently, and frustrated that I haven’t gotten there already.
In short: I want to more fully embrace the little-bits-of-work-throughout-the-day technique.
But no matter. Again, the plan is to use this mid-college-life crisis as a zap to my system to make all this happen. On another note of consistency, I hope to revise my work and study schedule a bit. So far, I’ve gotten much better about doing my readings over reasonable amounts of time before coming in to class to discuss them. However, I’d also like to add a follow-up component to this: read and take notes before class as I’ve been doing, and then add to my in-class notes and review the reading after class as well. I think this will help me synthesize the material and more fully absorb the additional filled-in-gaps that class discussion provides.
Finally, I still have so much exploring to do.
As I patted myself on the back for this past term, I’ve already learned from a few different departments:
However, there are still so many departments and programs to check off my list:
In other words, way too many! It’s sad to look at this and realize I am absolutely not going to get to dabble in every single area I would like to.
“Finally” meant finally in terms of academic goals, of course.
More generally, I need to get out of my room more.
Ha, I know, but it’s true. I really haven’t attended many on-campus events, even though the ones I have have proven to me how enriching extracurricular life at Carleton can be. In the coming two years, I truly hope to attend and participate in more extracurricular events and activities.
I also want to spend more time walking. Taking in the campus. Taking real pictures with my real camera.
I want to get to know more of my amazing classmates and professors. Spend more time exploring more obscure buildings. Get to know my new hometown of Northfield better.
So yeah, there’s a lot. I have many goals, and I need to simultaneously accept what’s realistic while embracing the newfound urgency this halfway point in this chapter of my life has brought. Overall, though, I think these goals all boil down to the same thing.
Somehow, I want to make the time slow down.
When he wrote this, Lucas was sheltering in place for the remainder of his sophomore year. He fought his pandemic anxiety with a passion for all things nerdy and a talent for overthinking and awkwardness (and self-deprecation). He hails from Pasadena, California, and hopes everyone is okay back there. He saw himself majoring in Physics, while hoping to explore Cinema and Media Studies, Chemistry, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Computer Science, and pretty much every other department at Carleton as well. He misses everyone and sends his love. Meet the other bloggers!