May 2015.

Summing up May

1. Waking up early

Let’s admit it, every single teenager claims to not have enough sleep. But do we do anything about it? Frankly, no.

Most of us sleep in until noon and that sees our entire morning flying by without having accomplished anything. One would be surprised by the amount of things they can accomplish simply by waking up a couple of hours earlier.

2. Learning and trying new things

I make it a point to learn at least something new during each holiday. For me, this holiday was about cooking. Focusing more on the various types of traditional Chinese dishes that I enjoy eating and would certainly miss when I leave home. Simultaneously, I also learnt how to bake and experimented with several new recipes.

3. Balance

This has been my ultimate goal for the entire month of May. I wanted to enjoy a summer break that was both responsible and productive. I didn’t want to wake up and realize I wasted an entire month playing and idling my time away.

So I came up with a brief plan to incorporate a sense of balance into my daily and weekly routines. I wanted to work as much as I played and enjoy every single minute of it. This, I worked particularly hard to achieve.

And achieve it, I did. I partied hard once (or twice) a week, I worked out hard, experimented with arts and crafts, devoted an equal amount of time to reading and self-improvement, my hobbies (and I have plenty of hobbies). At the same time, I studied maps and picked up basics of a new language, read up on various cultures of the world, as well as worked on several pet projects.

4. Films

I am a huge movie buff. Every day, I watch at least one show. And the holidays are a great time to catch up with all the movies one misses during their hectic academic semester.

For me, that means at least a film a day. I go on trailer runs (basically watching the shit out of trailers on Youtube) and movie marathons.

This break, I finished the entire Season 1 of Fresh Off the Boat and have been catching up with Season 5 of Games of Thrones and Season 2 of Hannibal.

5.Read

For a self-proclaimed voracious reader, I have not been reading as much as I would like to. This holiday however, I made it a point to read as many books as I could before the drive fled me.

I picked up Elizabeth Gilbert’s ‘Eat, Pray, Love’, Haruki Murakami’s ‘1Q84’ that has been sitting on my shelf since November, 2014.

I have a list of other books on my list as well, but I have yet to get started on it. I guess it shall wait until I’ve finally tackled these two. 

6. Socializing

Sometimes, I get annoyed with myself when I realize I put a hold on my social life during my academic term, but I didn't fare too bad this time round. Balance came quite easy. 

This time, I managed to balance an active social life with an expanding network. Meeting up with old friends, spending more time with my close friends and best friends as well as making some time for new friends.