Summer Aims...

By Lucy Harbron - 12:21


Today is exactly a month since my last exam, so technically I'm already a month into my summer. However what with recovering from surgery and friends being on holiday, it feels like my summer has really only just started. Also, if I'm honest I've been wasting my weeks so I thought I should write myself from aims and targets to work towards.

Exercise 3 times a week (but don't obsess)

I really need to get fit as (hopefully) in September I'll be car less in a city so I need to be fit enough to walk constantly. Also I think exercising regularly makes me feel so much more productive and better about myself. So I've started doing pilates several times a week following Blogilates videos which I love, I also want to try and start going for runs as I think people that run are the epitome of a functioning adult. So my aim for the end of the summer is to be able to confidently go for a run and feel healthier.

However, I struggle with exercise as I have a very obsessive personality. Often when I start doing regular exercise I begin to obsess about my body, what I'm eating, if I miss a day etc. But I'm determined to not do that and just enjoy the experience of exercise, so I'm only going to work out 3 times a week not everyday. But if anyone has any tips on how not to obsess over stuff, send them my way!

Keep my brain working

I think every student understand the feeling of going on summer break and watching your brain slowly die, you forget how to hold a pen, lose the ability to retain information and then when you return to education you have to learn to learn again. But not this summer! I've signed up to do some online literature courses to keep my brain in gear ready to dive right in to university in September. Also, i'm really worried about not being 'well-read' enough so doing courses on classic texts will hopefully but my mind at rest a little.

Sites like Futurelearn and Open University offer free courses on pretty much anything you could ever want to study and they're totally flexible around you but you get a certificate at the end! I've signed up to do a course on Shakespeare and I'm so excited about it (Shakespeare fan #1) but I also want to do one to learn the basics of coding.

Prepare practically and mentally for leaving

This summer is strange as I'm kind of in limbo waiting for results day. Leaving the place I've lived my whole life is going to be so so scary so I need to be prepared both practically with all the stuff and skills I'll need but also mentally to have the strength and confidence to enter a super intense, foreign situation. I'm so ready to move on from my college after a pretty awful two years and I'm so excited to enter the next stage but it doesn't make it any less terrifying and I'm sure a lot of you can relate this summer. But fingers crossed I've done enough to get in! 

I'm planning some posts based around choosing universities, personal statements etc to help out those going through what I did last year so stay tuned.

Be more proactive and productive

Last summer I was writing loads and finished so many pieces that I still love and am super proud of. However, the site I was working for shut down so I've been finding it hard this year to find motivation when I don't have an end goal or a deadline. But I'm slowly getting back into the swing of things. Last week a piece I'm so proud of got published on my favourite website and I couldn't be happier. That's What She Said is such an incredible website providing a platform for young girls to share and have a voice, something which is lacking in the media industry. I'm super excited to work with them again in the future, and please go over and give them some support.

I've also sent off a couple of other poems to some other magazines so fingers crossed I'll have some more published pieces by the end of summer. Also, issue 3 of my magazine KILORAN is set for release mid-august so that's something to work for!

Read 2 books a month

Studying English I'm going to have to read so so much so I'm trying to train myself to read a lot faster. I'm off to a good start as since finishing my last exam I'm read all of Lolita and I'm super close to finishing On The Road. But I've got a big pile of books to read and not a lot of time. I'm also trying to put aside sometime each day to read as it's so good for your mind to have time to relax and float away.

Learn to get ready in 15 minutes

I take far too long to get ready. Rolling out of bed to leaving the house takes me about an hour and a half and that NEEDS TO CHANGE. So I'm challenging to learn to do my makeup and hair in 15 minutes to speed the process along when I'm in a rush. Any tips for speedy getting ready, hit me up!

Learn to cook (properly)

I'm a great baker and I can cook the basics like pasta, paninis, oven chips...toast? But come September I'm going to have to be able to cook well enough to get through the year with killing myself or becoming the size of a whale. I've got a vegetarian student cookbook which is so useful but I really want to go away with a couple of meals that I know I can cook perfectly off by heart and have an idea about portion control and budgeting. I like to try and eat quite healthily so this summer I'm going to try and learn how to do that quickly, easily and cheaply.

What are you aims for this summer?

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2 comments

  1. I did a future learn course last summer and I might have to do another one because I am already starting to miss writing essays (I'm such a saddo)
    I have basically all the same goals as you (minus the exercise, I gotta be realistic!) Very nervous about not being well read enough for an english lit degree but it is reassuring that I am not alone there!
    Fab post as always lucy x

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    1. let me know what course you decide to do!x

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