Dear Future Me,
We’ve been thinking a lot about what we’ve been wanting to get done within this year. When it comes to academics/career factors, we want to have learned JavaScript along with other backend and front end technologies such as React, Bootstrap, Node.js, Firebase, PHP, etc. It’s a lot but we really want to get a step ahead here. we also want to learn Arabic and Japanese to some extent. Since we’re taking the Arabic course, we hope that we become somewhat fluent by the end of the year. For Japanese, it might be a stretch but we would hope that we at least learn the alphabet for katakana and hiragana. An especially important priority is that we do well in my classes this semester. we know that it’ll probably be really tough but compared to last semester, we should have fewer commitments to worry about, and hopefully, this translates into more dedication and focus into current classes. As for my personal goals, we want to regularly establish a schedule where we engage in physical activity. We have the soccer ball and cleats. We just have to put them to use. We tried memorizing the Quran last semester but because of all the different clusters of classes and commitments, we didn’t get too far. Let’s focus on memorizing at least two or three Juz and maintaining Tahajjud prayers at night. Above all, though, we hope that we can be satisfied with what we’re doing throughout the semester.
Sincerely, Present Me (to soon be Past You)
—–Capstone Piece 2020-2021——————————————-
This may be more of a reflection response to Semester one, but I think gives an overall perspective for the year. Starting with moreso the “bad news”, I didn’t exactly learn any of those programming technologies nearly as thoroughly as I wanted to. I only got to a few in the first place. I had some extra time second semester, but a lot of it went towards focusing still on my classes, and even that was difficult. Near the end of this past semester, I thought about why I wanted to learn Japanese and figured that I didn’t have quite the motivation I needed to go fully embrace it. I really like the beauty of the language, but I’m still hesitant of whether it’s something I want to fully pursue right now. Arabic is going well so I think I may just put more of my attention on trying to master that instead. As for my personal goals, I was able to get a solid month or so in of daily running in the morning and that was a really beneficial part of each day. I felt productive and ready to start hustling academically. I also found wonderful people to play soccer with so that was definitely something I looked forward to each weekend. I didn’t memorize that 2 or 3 Juz but I’ve started to finally the last 2 so I think by the final end of this semester, I’ll be able to start the 28th.
I wish that perhaps this semester was more useful in terms of me getting a practical grasp on certain subjects/topics/goals, but I will continue to try and work on them. I had a schedule going for a good period for my workouts and I think the exact same productivity can be achieved if I can just get one going for academics (which I kind of did).
Looking into the future, I’ve decided that I want to head into the cybersecurity direction. For the summer, I plan to get a good grasp on algorithms, cybersecurity in more detail, and get better at data analysis in general. There’s a lot of opportunities I think and I just need to take whatever I can to improve myself.
