Summer Goals

I am officially halfway through my exams and I have my eyes on summer break. What does that mean to a stressed out college student? It means I'm ignoring my exams today while I drink a milkshake and eat an entire small pizza from Domino's. Hashtag Beach Body?

But in all reality, I really do have a few summer goals for myself. I don't necessarily have to achieve them all, but I'd like to make some decent progress on each of them!

Summer Job & Loans As any college student these days, I have more than my fair share of loans. Unfortunately, I have to defer the next couple of years of loans. Because of that, I want to try and pay off as much of my current loans as possible. I've been really lucky the past two years, my parents have helped me a lot with the payments, but it's time for me to help out too. I want to make as much money as possible over the summer and go with the 50-30-20 plan for saving and spending: 50% goes towards college loans, 30% goes into my savings account, and 20% is for spending on shopping or going out or whatever. 50% seems like a lot, but while I'm home, I don't have any significant costs, so it's not really as much for me. 30% for savings is the money I want to keep for an emergency, should I have to get home quickly or something. I don't know what I'd use it for, but it's always good to have the just-in-case funds. That last 20% is just enough for me to pick up a couple books, go out with friends for half apps, or if I want to go anywhere while I'm home. I don't plan on doing much, but can't hurt to have a little cash on hand for fun!

The Blog Like I mentioned in my Birthday Wishlist, I want to start self-hosting over the summer and I want to find a new design for the blog. Aside from that, I want to dedicate more time to writing engaging content, reaching out to viewers, and trying some new stuff. I feel like my writing on these posts has really increased over the past few months, my personal voice has been coming out and it's really great. I want to try to move towards a lifestyle-niche with a broader span of posts to engage as many readers as possible. I want to use Facebook groups, Twitter, Pinterest boards, anything I can to try to not just bring in more readers, but start a conversation with my readers too, finding out what you all like and want to read more of! As for new stuff, I've got a few ideas for new projects and new features that I want to try out for the near future. 

Voice and Video Speaking of new projects! I've recruited the help of my sister to experiment with some new options this summer including a podcast and videos. Preliminary thoughts? The videos won't happen for a while. It's a big thing to jump into on a lot of fronts. First of all, creating content, filming, and editing requires a lot of dedication, time, and effort. While I am certainly dedicated to the process, I have to put my time and efforts towards school first. Though, I think O would be great for YouTube (hint, hint sister!). As for voice, I've been on a big podcast kick, especially the SourceFed Podcast. Inspired by that and the Philip DeFranco Show, I've been tossing around the idea of making a 30-50 minute podcast, talking about current events and my opinions on them. Why? Because I really struggle putting into into words in a concise manner for the blog. And I really like to talk/debate in an informal manner. O and I have very differing views, so I think it'd be fun to try out a regular discussion-type podcast on all types of current events. Sort of a replacement for the short-lived weekly SOTU posts.

Fitness I know, I know, I say this every time, but I really want to work on my fitness this summer. I was doing so well this semester! Not so much towards the end, but progress! I was losing the fat and for the first time in years I was happy with my body. Thanks to allergies and finals and me, that progress hit a bit of a plateau/roadblock and stopped for a while. I'm slowly getting back into it, and I'm super determined this summer! I've been setting more realistic goals, which you'll hear about in an upcoming fitness post, but the Marine Corps 10K in October is definitely top of the list!

Freelance Writing Those of you who know me know that I've recently become an avid follower of Jim Chapman. I love his daily vlogs more than his main channel videos, and I've started reading his blog more and more often. Between that and his GQ series, I've become more enamored with freelance writing. I've always loved writing, I mean obviously, I do it for fun here. Getting paid to write would be pretty amazing to me. I don't quite have the creative chops to be a fiction writer like I wanted to be when I was a kid, but the idea of freelancing like Jim does a bit really piqued my interest. So this summer, I want to take a few online courses, brush up on the more profesh writing skills, and try my hand at a little bit of freelance!

Closet This one's going to be short, since I've got a post coming up about it soon. But I've been trying to redo my closet, simplifying my wardrobe, and maximizing each item, all on a super tight budget. It's going to be a work in progress for a long time, but I'm excited to revamp it all. I'll be buying and selling on Poshmark, my new window shopping obsession. It'll be a super fun challenge with plenty of blog posts along the way!

So with all that, and then a ton more, I have one busy summer ahead of me. What about you, any big exciting plans coming up?

I've got to get back to studying now, I'm so close to done!! Until next time,

Writing to you from M, Personally