3 Goals/ Resolutions I'd like to accomplish this school year!

Another Summer vacation has flied by. Once again I am back in school, this time as a Junior. Last year, i would say, was a pretty successful year. I finished sophomore year with fairly good grades, received a 4 on my AP U.S. History exam, and managed to keep my swim practices consistent. I guess i can say that i accomplished nearly everything i wanted to do. 

But It's a new year, so enough about the past!

Although I have a lot of goals for this year (Good Grades, Successful AP exams, getting super rich and famous with minimal amounts of work) I have 3 goals that i don't normally think about too much.

A photo of the pool I swam in Barcelona

First Off, I want to get better at swimming. Out of all my goals this one will be the most simple to achieve. It’ll be a lot of work, hard practices, watching what I eat, being careful when playing other sports, but I know I can do it. I just want to get faster, more powerful, more efficient.  Hopefully, if I work hard enough I can make to the 2014 DOHA Swimming Championships. After being in Barcelona for the World Championships, I want nothing more than to return to the world of international swim meets. The experience is awesome! BUT it takes a whole lot of work to make it to these kinds of events, and although the swimming isn’t very popular in the CNMI, there are a lot of eligible swimmers who work just as hard as I do. So, in order for me to be able to go to DOHA, I’ll have to drop some time and intensify my swimming. Fortunately (like I said earlier) this goal is totally achievable, it just requires some self- discipline.

On the flip side, my next goal doesn’t really require much discipline. It’s more of a courage- based thing. CLIFF DIVING.

CLIFF DIVING LOOKS SO AWESOME!

While in Barcelona (Hmm… it seems Barcelona really inspired me over the summer) I watched Men’s 27 meter platform diving. It is the first time FINA has sponsored this event, and it’s pretty crazy. Most of the guys who were doing these freakishly high dives are “extreme cliff divers.” I got to meet some of the athletes and watch videos of the jumping of tall cliffs and I fell in love with the idea of trying it. UNFORTUNATELY I am a chicken. So I would probably have to start off with a really small cliff. Being able to cliff dive would not only make me feel like I did something extreme and awesome, but it would also sort of help me prove to myself that I’m not a coward, and that I can do anything.  Cliff diving would be an awesome, mind-blowing and a somewhat educational experience. And, if I could just find a good- not to high- cliff this would be a pretty easy goal to achieve too.

This last goal isn’t very difficult, but it is slightly complicated (does that make sense?) I want to volunteer to work with unfortunate kids.

Just one of the many children's charities from
 around the world (this one helps with kid's vision )

Either a “big sister” /mentor program , or maybe assisting a children’s psychologist. I don’t really know why I want to do this. I guess helping out kids would just make me feel good about m self (I sound like an angel, don’t i? Haha, I wish!) I mean, working with kids has always been something I’m interested in. And although I’m not sure about what I want to study when I go off to college, I’m definitely considering children’s psychology or just general health.  I guess working with kids who are not in the best situations would make me happy because I could get to see the joy on a child’s face when they see that they are being cared for. It would also be nice to have some experience in the field before going off to college. Unfortunately for me, in Saipan we don’t really have homes or orphans. We do have a women’s and children’s shelter, but I have no idea how to get in contact with them. But it’s okay, where there is a will there is a way… right?

Well that’s it for now, i need to move on and get some other homework done (WHY DO TEACHERS GIVE US HOMEWORK ON THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL… WHY?)

-V