after reading elsie's post on her new e-course...

i have decided to become more organized with my goals. for some reason i just can't handle a bunch of tasks being thrown at me at one time, but if i write them down i tend to tackle them a little better. goals are one of those things that society says we must have. why are you in college if you don't know what you are going for? they say you will be a failure if you don't know what you want to do in life by a certain age. well, i tend to agree with some of those assumptions, just due to the fact that for myself, if i don't know why i'm doing something i don't really care if i succeed at it. that being said, sometimes people can discover themselves while not having a plan or goals, and you know what i say?? more power to ya!!! i just am not one of those people. i have known what i want to do with my life since i was eleven years old. i want to be an ophthalmologist, and for those of you who don't know, that is an eye surgeon. not only can they diagnose diseases of the eye, prescribe glasses, but they can also treat diseases of the eye and perform surgeries of the eye. if you can't tell, the eye really intrigues me. most of the things i did in high school and even before were done with the thought in the background that somehow that would help me be successful for the next step in my goal. first, i took higher level science and math courses. that's kind of a no brainer. also, i started playing the violin in fifth grade, but orchestra has helped me a lot throughout school. not only is it now helping me pay for college, but i get paid to play for certain things. it's pretty cool. i would by no means want to be a musician fulltime, but i find a certain joy in playing/performing music. it is also highly therapeutic. also, i enrolled in dual credit classes in highschool because i knew i would have more course work i needed to take in college. although i had to borrow the money to pay for it (and literally paid it off a month ago) i would highly recommend taking dual credit. it's so beneficial. especially since it was through the college i wanted to attend. lastly, my senior year in high school i was always very aware of deadlines regarding my continuing education. now i am there and i am totally loving it. i love being able to choose the classes that i want to take for the major that i chose. as of right now i am a double major in biology/chemistry and a double minor in spanish/global studies and next semester i want to sign up for the drury pre-med program. i have a lot on my plate, but i have always liked it that way, but now as i am growing older (hah!) i see that for me to succeed i really do need to have actual, attainable goals in mind. that brings me to this:

first.  i really want to graduate on time. as of right now i think i'm on the right track to doing this, but i have to take a couple of summer classes throughout college to maintain this goal. because i am double majoring and double minoring, i have A LOT of classes to get rid of. also, on top of all my classes, i have to worry about the MCAT exam. this is like the ACT for medical school and it's HARD.

second. is the actual MCAT. i have already started kind of studying for this test which i don't have to take until my junior year, but it's going to sneak up on me fast. i have about 3/8 of the classes out of the way that i need to do well on the exam. i will have to book it junior year. golly :/

third. balance. as of right now i feel i am doing pretty good balancing school/work/church/social life/family. some areas i spend more on than others, but the ones most important to me (school/family/church) i always make time for. i can tell that i have grown closer to the Lord in just the last few weeks. I lean on him for everything because he truly is the only one i can count on.

fourth. money. let's just not even talk about this one :/ i'm just terrible at saving. that is all....

i guess that's all i can really think of right now. i have all this in my brain and i just needed to get it all out and it's much faster typing than writing. tonight is church (YAY!) and then applebee's, which i know i said i wasn't going to, but i probably will because this week i'm in much better spirits than last week. it's probably the weather. i hope everyone has a great second half of the week!!!! thanks for reading about my life story (literally!)