Hello, lovelies! June was really just a month of nothing. I completed a bunch of my goals, but most of my nights ended with me trying to remember what I did that day. Yeah…it was one of those months. July has already been much more productive, which you’ve probably noticed since this is the fourth post I’ve written in the span of two weeks. Anyway, let’s get into it.
Last Month’s Goals – My June Goals & May Reflection | 2020
//How I Did On My June Goals//
Vote!– I did it. Y’all probably saw the voting debacle in Georgia on the news. I’m glad that this is finally coming to light because I’ve known that areas with people of color experience a lot of voter suppression. I definitely experienced in 2018 where I had to go to multiple polling places that were closed before finding one with a two hour wait line. When I told people, they thought I was being over dramatic, but now they know. Anyway, I applied for a mail in ballot and didn’t get mine until the very last minute. I had to call a bunch of people. Apparently this was a problem for a lot of people. My cousin didn’t get hers and had to go vote in person. I thankfully received mine and drove to the polling place to drop it off to make sure it didn’t arrive too late or get lost in the mail.Complete RBT Training– Complete.- Add Google Adsense To Blog – Nope. I applied and have to fix something before getting approved, so I made a little progress.
- Go Through And Post Europe Photos – Nope. It’s been over a year. There’s something wrong with me.
Unpack & Organize Room– Complete. I unpacked all of my college stuff and put everything where they need to be. My next step is to declutter.- Publish 2 Blog Posts Per Week – Nope. I only wrote four blog posts last month. I just haven’t been in a blogging mood these past few months and am slowly getting out of that funk.
Read 5 Books– Complete. I’m going to write a “Books I’ve Read During Quarantine” blog post talking about the books I’ve read from April to July.Learn A Dance– Complete. I just copied a YouTube video and learned it for one of my daily workouts.
//My July Goals//
//Fix Your Sleep Schedule
Guys, it’s gotten so bad. My sleep schedule is worse than it was during Ramadan. There are a few days where I’m out of bed before noon, but there are other days where I don’t get ready for sleep till 4 AM. I’m a lot more productive at night (most of my recent blog posts were written in the middle of the night), but I miss daylight guys. I super need to get my act together. My goal is to go to sleep before 2 AM and be out of bed by 10 AM. I realize that this is waking up late for most people, but waking up before 8 AM seems like torture right now. I’m going to enjoy this flexible schedule while I can.
//Organize Blog Menu
I’ve written 280 blog posts in the last four years, including this one. I try to keep my blog posts organized and within the correct categories, but I’m sure some have slipped through the cracks these past few years. I want to reorganize them and add a few tags so that little things like monthly goals and my years in review can be gathered together without needing their own category.
//Inbox Zero
I have about 3, 500 emails in my inbox. I know that people have tens of thousands more, but I would really like to empty my inbox and consistently keep it that way. I’ll probably just make a day of organizing and deleting old emails because it’s gotten out of hand.
//Do The Reading Rush
If you don’t know what the Reading Rush is, it’s a week long read-a-thon where you try to read seven books in seven days. Technically, there are seven prompts and you can use one book to fulfill multiple prompts, but I’m going to try to finish seven books in the span of a week. I’ve never done a read-a-thon before, but quarantine seems to be a good time to try one. I’ll post my TBR later this week.
//Declutter Your Bedroom
I really need to get rid of stuff because my drawers are filled to the brim. I elaborated more on this when I updated my 2020 goals, but basically, I have double of a lot of things after unpacking my college stuff and I’ve been wearing the same clothes since high school. It’s time.
Related – The Complete Guide To Decluttering Your Room Before College
//No Spend Month
I don’t feel guilty about the money I’ve spent during quarantine. I’ve bought craft supplies, 2 bullet journals (I finished the first one), paint, a book, a Sudoku and word search book, and even paid to stream a show on YouTube (something I never do). My spending hasn’t been excessive, and I have been donating money and paying for things like my health insurance and renewing my blog domain, but I’ve realized that I don’t need to buy anything anymore. I bought everything I need to indulge in hobbies, so this is a good time to have a no spend month. I’m all about doing things in moderation, so I’d never do something like this if circumstances were normal (because I’d go to the movies and eat out from time to time), but now is the perfect time to do one.
This goal has honestly been pretty easy. I thought online shopping was becoming a vice of mine, but it’s not. The only hiccup I ran into was that my calendar ended in June because I bought academic calendars every school year (July-June), so I drew a calendar to put on my bulletin board instead of buying one. I only use it to keep track of what day it is now, so I’m fine with waiting to buy a new one in August when I have actual things to write on it.
//Relax
I plan to start working in August and hopefully start graduate school. I’m just going to try to relax this month instead of letting my day go by without me noticing. This is more about relaxing with intention in that I want to be present when watching movies, reading, playing with my brother, taking walks, etc. because there were so many weeks in June where I couldn’t remember what happened that week.
//Get A 3-Star Island On Animal Crossing
I started playing Animal Crossing mid-June. My brother already had the game, so he lets me play it. He bought it to play it with his girlfriend, so I can do whatever I want with the island. The first thing I did was pay off his house, which is the most me thing I could do. My friends Stellah and Cindy laughed out loud because of how me that was.
Zidan didn’t do much with his island. He had collected stuff and built the museum and other buildings, but he mostly just dumped everything everywhere. It was a complete mess. After he taught me how to play, I started cleaning up the island and got the island it’s first star. I like the game. It’s a lot of fun, but it’s one of those games where you should play it every day to make progress. I have not been doing that, so I thought my progress would be slow going.
Then I checked last weekend and it jumped from one star to three stars, which means that I’ve unlocked terraforming. I don’t know how this happened. I built the campsite, one bridge, four houses, and planted flowers. If you don’t play, getting 3-stars basically means that I can build rivers, cliffs and pathways to fix up my island more. It’s been a fun form of escapism.
//June Recap & Reflection//
June was fine. It wasn’t like May where I frequently felt down, but I don’t have much to say about it. I honestly thought I would be sad because I was supposed to be in South America that month, but I didn’t think about it very often. I’m happy about that because I wasn’t dwelling on what could have been. I’m sure the rest of the year will be better because I didn’t have many big plans past June. My cousin Leya was supposed to have her Sweet 16 in June and one of our family friends was supposed to have her wedding a few weeks ago. Both are postponed for now.
I saw my best friends for the first time in person since March. My friend Stellah and I had been watching the Avatar series every week since August and we had just reached The Day of Black Sun episode before the quarantine started. I had been building it up to her as the final battle, so she assumed that it was the last episode. Our plan was to watch it on her balcony on my tablet. Now that it’s on Netflix, we didn’t need to use my DVDs anymore. When the episode ended, she yelled, “That’s it!” then started ranting. I legit fell out of my chair laughing (we were sitting in folding chairs away from each other and wore masks). It was hands down one of the greatest moments of my life. I straight up said, “And they never renewed it for Book 4: Air” because her reaction was so perfect and I was being evil.
After that, I showed her the Comic Con Trailer reaction from 2008 because we had to wait eight or nine months before we could watch the second half of the final season back when it first came out in 2007.
It was the best. We were out of breath for laughing so much. She said, “Thank you [for doing that]. I hate you. That was f*cking amazing. I get why you said you can’t get the full effect of the show by binge watching.” And then we discussed the episode.
Then the next day, my best friends and I had a social distancing picnic in my friend’s yard. We brought our own food, wore masks, and hung out outside on a very hot, humid, Georgia day. It was wonderful to see my friends again, but I was super nervous those two days. Even though we were safe and practiced social distancing, the state of this pandemic in America makes me very afraid of catching it. I’m lucky that my family takes it very seriously (even if my brother wasn’t at risk, we’d likely approach it the same way), so I’ve never had to convince them to wear masks and not go out. I know that not everyone has it that easy, so even the idea of catching Covid was very stressful. We stopped going to the park because now that Georgia has opened up, people are going out without masks and there are honestly more people at the park than during a typical summer.
Despite my nervousness, that was hands down my favorite day in June. I talk to my friends multiple times a week, but it’s different when it’s not through a screen.
June was also a politically heavy month. I donated money, signed petitions, and emailed government officials, but it still kills me that I can’t protest. I can’t even remember all the things that happened last month. The international student thing is what pisses me off the most because even the people who came here “the right way” so to speak are still being fucked over by ICE. I could rant about this all day, but I think I do enough of that with my friends and on Instagram. I just can’t do it anymore. I have officially reached the level of anger where I almost feel apathy. The Supreme Court ruling on birth control is what got me there. Out of everything going on in the U.S. right now, you had to add this into the mix. I just can’t do it anymore. They gave the same companies that don’t grant maternity leave the right to not provide their female employees birth control. I can’t anymore. I had to set a lot of social media boundaries for myself in June because it was becoming too much. I still keep up with the news, but it was taking up too much of my head space. (Especially since somehow science and caring about people has somehow become a political issue!)
Anyway, June was filled with a lot of weeks where every weekend, I couldn’t remember what happened that week. Like, I didn’t finish a book, didn’t binge watch a show or movie, or publish any blog posts. What did I actually do? What happened? It was a lot of that. Whenever I talked on the phone with someone and they asked me what I did that week, I said, “I have no idea,” almost every time. It was kind of comical.
I got my act together near the end of the month and July has been going a lot better. I was too busy with school in April to think about anything, and my mental health wasn’t great in May. I was sad, worried, and stressed about everything, but I let myself feel that way because I was not okay. I allowed myself to wallow a bit. June was definitely a step forward, but I didn’t really do anything. Minor apathy kept me from doing so, but I think July will go better.
Well, that’s it for now. I didn’t share my more “adulting” goals here, but I generally don’t share all of my monthly goals anyway. I’ll post my Reading Rush TBR later this week, so stay tuned for that. I hope you enjoyed! Until next time!
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How was June for you? What are some of your goals for this month?