Senior year is a state of limbo. You’re very conscious of the fact that in a few months you’re going to be living in a tiny room on your own, halfway across the world. With each application I submitted, this fact became clearer and clearer to me.
I remember how much my sister struggled with her first few months of college, the transition from high school to college was extremely tough for her. Talking to her, I realized that what she struggled with the most was having all this newfound independence and not understanding how to manage it. With this independence came a bucketload of responsibilities, little things like cleaning your room and going grocery shopping took a lot of time, time that we we were not accustomed to dealing with. However, these all contributed to the ethics of choice and actions, especially those which would help my family during a difficult time.
With this in mind, I decided to start to get into the habit of exercising my independence responsibly to work towards the outcome of initiative and planning. I sat down with my parents and discussed this idea with them so that the transition to college would be just a little bit easier for me. I wanted to clean my own room, do my own dishes, and start doing grocery shopping for the family as well. My parents were ecstatic at this prospect and were more than happy to give me these responsibilities.
Every morning when I woke up, I made my bed and cleaned my room keeping in mind the learning outcome of commitment and perseverance. It was important for me to create a safe and clean working environment so that I would feel comfortable and be able to produce the best work. I wanted to embed this habit into me so that when I went to college, it would be second nature for me to make my bed. Cleaning my room was also extra important this year given the coronavirus pandemic, I was well aware of the fact that I may have to be confined into my dorm room (or even my room at home) for long periods of time. For me to have a clear mindset, my working environment needed to be calming.
Grocery shopping was a two-fold learning experience. The most obvious being I needed to learn how to select food (i.e things like looking at the expiry date, price, and nutritional value). However, it also served to teach me the importance of budgeting. I didn’t want to burden my parents and I also wanted to make sure I didn’t spend recklessly and irresponsibly. I talked to my parents about giving me a certain allowance per week and I decided to stick rigorously to that. This discipline was essential as, during college, budgeting and saving are crucial aspects.
The past month, I stuck to this rigid college-like schedule and I noticed the benefit it had in my life. With my room a constantly clean space without having to depend on anyone to help me with it and the fact that I was able to do my own grocery shopping made me feel confident in my independence. It reassured me that I was able to function on my own and made the prospect of college a little less daunting.