“Make a list of what you want to do, what you want to achieve, and every few weeks check that list and ask am I closer to these goals?” That was the advice a former student in my graduate program gave us at orientation yesterday.

My university’s master’s program in Community Journalism is a one-year program. That mean’s it’s Intense™. More hours than normal grad students which means more readings and more writing assignments. According to the former student, the fall semester is stressful, packed with work, and limit pushing. The spring semester is apparently far calmer and easier.

So, since I’m apparently going to be questioning why I’m here and if I can make it this semester, I think I’m going to take his advice. I’ve been thinking about my list since yesterday afternoon (in between being amazed at the news coming out about the presidential administration). What do I want out of this? What am I hoping for professionally, personally? What am I expecting? I’ve come up with a list of vague goals and specific ones. Some academic and some personal.

1. I want to become a better journalist and a better writer – I want to know that I’ve improved over where I was when I graduated from undergrad in May. This goal might be hard to measure, but it’s more or less the goal of the whole program. It’s the big Why I’m Here. I love what I do. I want to be as good as I can at it.
2.  I want to stay on top of things – Lord, is this my Achilles’ Heel. I’m terrible at staying on top of things. My stress response is to Avoid Avoid Avoid but that means things don’t get done and then I stress more. So this semester, I’m going to try and hold myself accountable and stay on top of readings, writing assignments and projects. The goal is not to leave things until the last minute and make sure I have enough to write AND rewrite papers before turning them in. Staying focused is the priority this year. For as accelerated as this program is, falling behind means failure. And I refuse to fail.
3. Stay up to date – I’m a journalist. I need to stay on top of the news. This one’s fairly easy. New York Times’ Daily Briefings, The Skimm and BuzzFeed News’ morning email give me the basics but a deep dive into important news stories is necessary. But I also want to keep up with culture news. What are people talking about in terms of popular culture and the world? Both are indicative of what people find important.
4.  Take care of myself – I’m going to be pushing my limits. I need to set aside time for myself to shut out the world and relax. Time to watch a movie, read a book and scroll through social media.
5. Be healthier – @myself cut back on the cookies girl and eat more fruit. Also, cook your own meals and plan ahead. Also, side goal, coupon more. Take the stairs when reasonable and walk to class when it’s not blazing hot or freezing cold.
6.  Dress better – This one I’ve already started on. A personal dress code that bans wearing an outfit consisting of t-shirts and running shorts to class. There are ways to be casual, yet more put together than that. I’m a grad student, a more adultish academic now. T-shirts are for days at home or lazy Saturdays where the only thing on the itinerary is a trip to Publix.
7. Communicate with my peers more – This is a small program. There are five students and we’re all in the same classes together. I’m shy and introverted, but I need to get to know these people. I’ll be spending a whole year with them. I also need to be good about communicating with professors and advisors.

I’m confident I can accomplish these goals or, at the very least, make good headway towards them. They’re purposefully vague because they need to be flexible. If I have a lot of assignments due one week, staying up to date on the news may mean catching up on Friday night once it’s all said and done. Me time may be 10 minutes one day and then 20 minutes one week. If undergrad taught me anything it’s that academic life can be unpredictable and inconsistent. Scheduling and looking ahead are key. But, as our program coordinator reminded us today, the only way to eat an elephant is one bite at a time.