Summer goals.

There comes a time in life when you need to reassess and re-evaluate what exactly you're doing. Not in a Facebook status of way, but rather in a way that poses the question "What the heck am I doing with my life right now that makes me happy to wake up every day?"

I am a goal-setter, so I've gotten pretty good at developing personal and professional (teaching) goals for myself. I've also gotten pretty good at forming "realistic" versus "never in your wildest dreams" goals. With that said, I really think I could achieve the following goals this summer.

• Read at least 2 books. May seem easy to most people. But you don't understand me and books. For three straight summers now I have tried to motivate myself to read over the summer. Does it happen? Well, the first summer attempt I read and stopped halfway through two books. That's the thing, I start then get distracted by shiny things and don't pick it back up again. I've gotten so good at it that I haven't even attempted to try it in a while. Currently, I have started (AND IS DETERMINED TO FINISH) Bicycle Diaries by David Byrne. It's the perfect book for the traveler in me. So laugh if you want to at my puny 2-book goal, but know that I wouldn't make it a goal if it was so darn easy for me.
• Make and eat healthy food consistently. I have eaten so crap-tastically in the past year. Seriously, let's recap:
•  Fall-Spring '11: Internship stressed me out. The fact that I had no job meant I needed to be frugal... frugal on ramen noodles, frozen chicken nuggets, and cheap frozen pizzas.
• Summer '11- Sonic every other day plus frozen dinners because I was so broke but not broke enough to not enjoy fast food.
•  Fall '11- Ate great living with my aunt, until school started up and I was trying to not drown. Then I moved into a new place with an awesome kitchen, which helped...for a while. But with more stress of school came more runs to Sonic/Chick-fil-a/McDonalds/any awesome Mexican restaurant. In fact (I hate admitting this but it's true) I "rewarded" myself for getting through another week by going to Mickey D's on some Friday mornings. Did I mention it is NOT on the way to school, but rather going in the other direction?
• Spring '11: Well I've screwed up eating great for this school year, so why not continue the restaurants and artificially produced food streak? Plus, I went to Chicago and HAD to eat their awesome food. Just had to. Plus, tcap stress. Enough said there. 

 So there you have it. I've really reached my motivational point with this particular goal. I'm done with you, fast food. I know I can do better with my self-discipline when it comes to food. Furthermore, have you checked out the awesome Pinterest recipes that look amazing and actually are amazing for you? No, well you should. And these are some of my favorite eating healthy websites: Eat Yourself Skinny, Out of The Box,  The Kate Chronicles, Skinny Taste, and The Yummy Life.

• Work out at least 5 days a week. For reals. Let's be honest. This was a goal I was awesome at keeping my freshman year of college. I lost weight in comparison to falling to the "freshman 15." Where is that fitness-motivated 18-year old today?? Since my summer is free of being at school from 6-6 on a daily basis, I am going to do my best to keep this up. Whether it's 15 minutes or 2 hours, I want to do some sort of exercise to make my body hate me temporarily. I started this week. I don't know why I never realized this, but there are other ways to get a work out in besides going to the gym. I've always like going to the gym if I have to force myself to exercise, but my latest fitness discoveries that motivate me are 1)You Tube work out videos, 2) the Nike Training Club app, and 3) doing jumping jacks and squats in my living room. Numero 3 might seem boring, but the inner competitor in me comes out; I compete against myself to see how much more I can do than the last time. Then, I practically collapse on the carpet. :)
• Road trip somewhere. I can't remember the last summer I had that didn't involve a road trip of some sort. I guess technically I've already accomplished this one this past weekend at an Atlanta wedding. But there's always time for another one! I love to travel-- the further and more city-like, the better!
• Make a "house" a home. I am moving from my two-BR to a one-BR in a few days. It's technically an apartment, but it'll be my first I can call "my own." And I do not plan on moving for at least a year after this one. I could compare how much I love packing/moving/unpacking to how much a baby loves getting vaccinated with needles. Nevertheless, it has to be done. Looking at the glass half full, P/M/U gives me a chance to throw away dumb things/trash I've hoarded, reminisce great memories, and recreate a new living space! I bought my living room furniture already, and I plan to slowly but surely add more of my own furniture. Not the kind that's carried down from your great-aunt's neighbor or anything like that. I want furniture that represents me, whether I get it from Craigslist or Rooms-to-Go. It won't be a temporary piece in my home, otherwise it would just represent one of my many temporary living spaces I've had in the past six-ish years. There will be challenges, as I'm sure I'll get frustrated with myself. But I want this new place to be a home. Not in the sense of me living there for 20 years or in a family sort of way. In a "home sweet home" sort of way!
• Create teaching/classroom goals for the new school year. This school year was awesome. I've had my share of ups and downs and sharp turns with the many hats a teacher wears. I am pleased with my first year, but I know there's always room for improvement. I want to get better at organizing. I want to have better observations. I want to improve when it comes to parent-teacher conferences. I want to have more answers to questions than I did last year. I want to have a plan and "wing it" at the same time. Don't get me wrong, these are not things I failed at this year. Do you ever have the same goal on your list for years? Not because you didn't reach it, but because you want to achieve it again or even better than you did before? I compare it to a marathon runner-- you may have ran your marathon in under 4 hours, and who says you can't train and run another one for maybe under 3 and a half hours this time? In another metaphor, a school year is like a marathon. I'm very glad to have crossed the finish line, but I'm definitely excited to see more finish lines!
• Research and be more informed about Common Core. Our grade level is switching to Common Core in August for math. I know standards, opinions, and lessons about Common Core, but I want to know the research! My college professors would hug me right now if they saw this since they loved to have us research every education topic under the sun. In all seriousness though, I would love to start the next school year more informed and confident in what Common Core standards are and how they'll affect third grade students in our school, our state, and our nation.

 That's it for now. I am hopeful and confident I'll be achieving these summer goals. Do you have any goals for yourself? Or are you just goal-less? I recommend that even if you don't have that "What the heck am I doing with my life" realization, you should still write down your goals. Whether they be for two months like me or a bucket list of goals, I think you'll feel better about yourself. :)