August 12

Perception plays a vital role in society, even more so in my life. Being someone who dedicates most outside school activities to "the arts," I always need to look at things from different angles. It is what motivated me to write about perspective. By "the arts," I mean I spend my time on Bharatanatyam (Indian classical dance), Sangeetham (Indian classical music), painting/drawing, and other forms of dance. I balanced these hobbies well last year without feeling too stressed out. I predict that this year will go even smoother now that it is my second time taking EMC and because I am not doing Cross Country or Track. EMC will fit into my schedule even better this time around with the help of the vital time management skills I learned last year. I'm hopeful that regardless of the challenges of being a junior in high school, I will continue to be able to pursue my passions since I see EMC as more of a passion project than a class at school.

That said, I know that however confident I may go into this year, I will face ups and downs, just like I did before. I hope those difficulties won't reoccur since I have learned and grown from them. The key thing I want to remember going into this year is that, especially when it comes to monthly assignments, you must set accomplishable goals. That doesn't mean you can't do what you want or aim high, but it does insinuate that what you seek to achieve may need to be broken down across several assignments- something I intend to put into practice. I have also learned that I prefer to do assignments where I do something creative, which is one of the reasons I've decided to write this school year. I anticipate facing new challenges since my SDAs will be structured differently, but I look forward to persisting through them.