Summer Reflections
3 min read

Summer Reflections

Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, everyone! I hope you can get your hands on some moon cakes today. If you’re like me, preferably some without egg yolk on the inside.

At my company, a common saying that gets thrown around (sometimes in earnest, sometimes jokingly) is reflection and revision. Although it sounds a little cliché, it is surprisingly relevant and applicable to a lot of areas of my life – not just in education and not just at work.

Since it’s the Mid-Autumn festival, I figured it was a good time to close the chapter on my summer goals and reflect and revise them for the upcoming season! I made these goals on a whim, but now I feel like as the year winds down, I should put my time to good use and finish out 2016 strong. It’s been a long year, full of a lot of firsts, and I think a good year? Ask me again in three and a half months. Wait – three and a half more months until 2017? Hmm…

ASHLEY’S 10 SUMMER GOALS AND REFLECTIONS

  1. Dance at least once a week.
    • I think mostly, I accomplished this. I didn’t wear pointe shoes this whole summer, and I’m beginning to wonder if I ever will put my pointe shoes back on, but staying in regular technique shoes this past summer has actually helped me improve my technique a little – more focus on the smaller details of my technique rather than worrying about actually getting up on my pointe shoes.
  2. Take a hip hop or jazz class at least once a month.
    • I didn’t really do this – but I did have rehearsals for the Alumni Dance piece I’m in, so I guess that sort of counts as a contemporary class. I should really get back into jazz class.
  3. Run at least 5 miles a week.
    • I started out well with this one (and even ran that 10k!) – but in the last two weeks I’ve actually switched to a different half marathon training plan that the one I was using and it actually has me running less than I expected to run – so… no more 5 miles a week. I’m surprised and a little concerned that I run so little in this plan, actually…
  4. Eat dinner at home at least once a week.
    • I actually cooked a lot more during the summer too! Exciting times ahead. Hopefully a post up soon about my latest cooking adventure roasting spaghetti squash.
  5. Cook for Jeremiah at least once a month.
    • Pretty sure I accomplished this as well, although the “cooking” was probably like, putting Costco chicken wings in the oven. Oh well.
  6. Drink less coffee.
    • Did not accomplish this. There were definitely like two or three weeks when work was getting really busy where I drank two cups every day. Trying to get back to coffee in the morning, tea in the afternoon, though…
  7. No laptop or extended phone time 30 minutes before bed time.
    • Mostly succeeded in this, but primarily because I did not accomplish #9. Ha! I’ve been trying not to text in bed as much, either, so if I don’t respond to texts late at night… it’s because I’m purposely ignoring you so I can sleep!
  8. Create something.
    • Although I meant for this to be something digital and online in code or design, I ended up making those coasters, so I think I can check this off.
  9. Blog twice a week.
    • Yeah, did not do that. But Photo Weeks still going strong! Next week is Week 37 – officially more than 2/3 of the way through the year…
  10. Read 3 books a month.
    • I fell back in love with reading this year and summer just deepened that love even more. I’m only one book away from my 24 new books this year, and although I’m not sure which of the books I read fell in that last three months time period, I’m pretty sure I read nine in the last three months. If I count from Game of Thrones book one, it’s nine, so there you go.

I’m glad that I did these goals and it’s been a pretty enjoyable summer. If I were to revise these goals, I think I would want to focus more on abstract things rather than tangible things that I feel pressured to check off a list – like the 5 miles thing. I ended up joining a gym and I’ve gotten into a work out schedule, but earlier in the summer, telling myself I had to run 5 miles a week felt like a burdensome constraint rather than just a reminder to exercise! I probably should add in goals that are more people-oriented as well – all of these summer ones were very selfish and directed towards myself. (Except for #5 – except I benefitted from that too.)

The Autumn equinox is on September 22 – so I shall think until then what I want my autumn and winter goals to be – stay tuned!