Reflecting and Making Plans

I attended my first semester of college over the summer of 2015 but it felt more like a summer camp than it did the next step of my life.  Granted, I learned a lot of things but this isn't what I want to discuss tonight.  Over the past week, I have been thinking a lot about my Fall Semester in college.  

First:  I am more than satisfied with my academic work this past semester and therefore do not have much to comment on in that department.  

Second: I didn't work during the entire semester but I did work for a solid two months of it and I must say that I am proud of myself for the way I balanced my work, school, and social life.  Therefore, again I have nothing else to mention on this topic.

Third:  This is where I fell short this past semester.  Community Involvment.  Oh dear, what a mess I made of that.  I was that freshman who got involved in too many clubs all at once before I had even figured out what my new limits were as a college student.  Long story short, I ended up dropping out of all but one of those clubs because I realized that I had taken on way too many responsibilities all at once.  Worse yet, nearly all the clubs I had entered I had absolutely no interest in except that they might look good on a resume.  

Halfway through the semester, I realized that I needed to make some life choices.  First off, I didn't do this alone.  I had the support of my boyfriend who was worried about how stressed I was getting about all of my responsibilities.  Secondly, I didn't make these decisions in one night.  It took me about a whole month to get stressed out enough for me to realize that I needed to change something in my life and about another two weeks for me to get the guts to quit the clubs I was in.  I want to say something now - I was not a quitter.  If I started something then no matter how much I hated it I would stick with it until it was over.  However, I realized that this was unhealthy when taken to the extent that I had.  I needed to start over and that is exactly what I did.  I stayed in my Ballroom Dancing club and dropped the others.  As a result, I was able to focus better on my classwork and get a job.  I was finally able to calm down a little and focus on the things that were most important to me and to get my priorities straight.  

Looking ahead:

Now that I have learned what I have (knowing that my knowledge is still a work in progress), I can make plans for the future.  For this next semester, I plan to become more involved in community activities but this time I'm going to do it right.  I am going to join clubs and events that I am passionate about.  I still stay in my Ballroom Dancing club because it is fun and I would like to join the Athletic Training club so that I am better connected to the people in my major and can help the community alongside them.  I would also like to join one more community based program but I have yet to decide which one.  I was thinking of joining the Community Table but if I could I would love to join a program that focuses its efforts on local children in need.  In my hometown, we have an organization called CareNet that provides meals for low-income children whose families can't afford to send them to school with a meal.  They have scheduled days every month where volunteers can come to help package those meals.  I hope to find something like that around my new home.