With summer here, I have done some serious self-reflecting over the past school year and now have some summer aspirations.

I couldn’t be happier with how my third year of college went, but I am eager to accomplish more. In the past, I used a timeline for events in my life that should have or will happen at certain ages. For example, I expected to know exactly what I wanted to do with my major/career by the time I was a sophomore, but now I am going into my senior year and I still debate changing my major at least once a month. It’s not too practical to live your life on a time line, so now I just like to set different goals for myself! Therefore, I thought this summer would be the perfect time to set and accomplish some personal goals!

First and foremost, my number one goal is work full time.

As an extremely broke college student, this will really benefit my wallet. I’m currently in the fourth and final stage of interviewing for an internship, so if I get it I will be accomplishing this goal! If not, it’s not the end of the world but I really need to pick the slack and work a job or two. Since I am going into my senior year and being 21, I would like to not worry about expenses like going out or going to concerts. Besides having extra cash for fun spending, I want to have enough saving to be able to afford rent right out of college. I don’t know what is going to happen in a year, and I really don’t want to have to move back home to Chicago. I am just trying to look out for my future self!

A second goal I have is to travel more!

If I am working full time it might be hard to travel, but I am positive I can work something out. I’m not necessarily trying to go out on international rendezvous’, but I would like to see more of the West Coast. I have never been to the Grand Canyon and its not that far away! I would to do more fun weekend trips even if it’s to places near San Diego like Julian, CA. However, I do want to go back to New York at some point in early June, so hopefully I can come up with enough money for that!

Lastly, I just want to have a ton of fun!

This will be my last summer ever as an undergrad, and I want to have as much fun as possible before I’m in the real world. In my seed about New York I stated that I lived in an atrocious, filthy, and cockroach infested apartment this past summer. I lived with 6 girls in a tiny two-bedroom apartment. All of our twin beds touched because we didn’t have much room, but that wasn’t really a problem compared to all the others. Besides it being filled with cockroaches, it was abnormally hot (sometimes I would sleep outside by the pool because there were less bugs and it was cooler there). Anything and everything that you think could go wrong did. Even though the living situation wasn’t ideal, I had the time of my life! It was the most fun summer I have ever had given that I had cockroaches for roommates. I met so many incredible people and explored. I hope to do that again, but without the bugs of course!

All in all I think it is good to motivate yourself and have different goals. Mine really come down to making money, traveling, and fun! That’s not too much to ask for and they all relate to one and another, so I’m sure ill accomplish them. Weather your goals are big or small you really can accomplish them if you put your mind to it!

Written by: Nina Capuani