Year in Review: 2020 to 2021
Fall 2020. It’s my first semester of college. My classes are online. Everything is new. There was no retreating into the past and certainly no reason to rush towards an uncertain future. I had proudly estimated COVID would be completely over and done with by July and I didn’t want to tempt fate with any more hopeful, yet tragically unrealistic estimations. “This will be fine” I thought to myself, “I’ll just go with the flow, play it by ear, embrace the challenge of this ambiguous situation then come out on top. No reason to worry right?”. This plan failed horribly.
Whatever hippie, van-lifer part of my brain decided to “go with the flow” for the first few weeks was quickly dethroned after many wasted hours and quickly replaced with his routine loving cousin. After I began to follow a routine, I found myself doing things I had long been putting off. I started going to the gym regularly again, got back into reading, began to work on my short film again, began drawing more, and taught myself how to use Adobe After Effects. Those changes began to net me benefits after the first semester had ended. With the skills I learned with After Effects I was able to get a job with UHP creating video resources. I’m much healthier now and I’m able to find time in my day that doesn’t involve looking at a screen. When the second semester began, I did not repeat my mistake. After establishing a new routine, I was able to see progress each day instead of just hoping I would get to this or that. I am not afraid of ambiguous situations, but I do not adapt to them by becoming ambiguous myself. I create a rigid routine and slap it onto ambiguity to turn it into a lean, mean, productive fighting machine. This is my way of rising to the challenge.
Now that COVID restrictions are relaxing, and the world is returning back to a state of normalcy it is tempting to relax myself. It might seem that my life is improving without any internal effort, that I could take my foot off the gas and coast along. That would be a huge mistake. Just maintaining the progress you’ve made let alone improving on it requires continuous effort, an effort made easier by routines. Moving forward it is crucial I quickly adapt my routines during transition periods. For instance, when I moved home for the summer, I no longer had access to a gym, so I had to change, but not lose my exercise routine. It is also tempting for me to go it alone on task, but having a partner brings a myriad of long-term benefits. Working with other people helps with accountability, gives you healthy competition, and provides a constant source of inspiration. Looking back on the past year working with people or at least asking for outside feedback would had been immensely helpful.
Whatever hippie, van-lifer part of my brain decided to “go with the flow” for the first few weeks was quickly dethroned after many wasted hours and quickly replaced with his routine loving cousin. After I began to follow a routine, I found myself doing things I had long been putting off. I started going to the gym regularly again, got back into reading, began to work on my short film again, began drawing more, and taught myself how to use Adobe After Effects. Those changes began to net me benefits after the first semester had ended. With the skills I learned with After Effects I was able to get a job with UHP creating video resources. I’m much healthier now and I’m able to find time in my day that doesn’t involve looking at a screen. When the second semester began, I did not repeat my mistake. After establishing a new routine, I was able to see progress each day instead of just hoping I would get to this or that. I am not afraid of ambiguous situations, but I do not adapt to them by becoming ambiguous myself. I create a rigid routine and slap it onto ambiguity to turn it into a lean, mean, productive fighting machine. This is my way of rising to the challenge.
Now that COVID restrictions are relaxing, and the world is returning back to a state of normalcy it is tempting to relax myself. It might seem that my life is improving without any internal effort, that I could take my foot off the gas and coast along. That would be a huge mistake. Just maintaining the progress you’ve made let alone improving on it requires continuous effort, an effort made easier by routines. Moving forward it is crucial I quickly adapt my routines during transition periods. For instance, when I moved home for the summer, I no longer had access to a gym, so I had to change, but not lose my exercise routine. It is also tempting for me to go it alone on task, but having a partner brings a myriad of long-term benefits. Working with other people helps with accountability, gives you healthy competition, and provides a constant source of inspiration. Looking back on the past year working with people or at least asking for outside feedback would had been immensely helpful.