{"id":2661,"date":"2018-08-03T02:51:13","date_gmt":"2018-08-03T02:51:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wagsfp.urop.lsa.umich.edu\/?p=2661"},"modified":"2020-08-28T14:10:54","modified_gmt":"2020-08-28T14:10:54","slug":"a-final-goodbye","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/2018\/08\/03\/a-final-goodbye\/","title":{"rendered":"A Final Goodbye"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear future Amira,<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Let\u2019s start off with the essentials: as of right now, I\u2019m doing a double major in Comparative Literature, and Gender and Health, although I think that Gender and Health major will have to drop down to a minor. Looks like Donna Ainsworth was right about how it would be difficult fitting in complit\/gender and health\/pre-med classes all in four years\u2026 It\u2019s not that theoretically I couldn\u2019t do it, but it would come at a very high, very stressful cost, and if there\u2019s two things I\u2019ve realized it\u2019s that I put myself in stressful situations for no reason\/I have to stop doing that if I really want to be successful. I\u2019ve been thinking a lot about my ideas of success actually (something about finishing up half of college has me in a reflective mood). Overall, a sense of success and achievement for me is being dedicated to the work I\u2019ve chosen to do and putting effort into it. In reality though, I don\u2019t think I\u2019ve fit my idea of success very well. Looking back, I\u2019ve just kinda been getting by, day by day, week by week, semester after semester\u2026I\u2019m sick of this routine, however, and this summer I\u2019m going to make the effort to find my sense of purpose again, both personally and academically, and realign my goals. This summer, I hope WAGSFP can help me do those things. I hope doing my research more intensively will be the start of my working more meticulously\/more thoughtfully in all aspects of my life.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Beyond that, I also want to make more time for the things I love this summer. I\u2019ve got around four or five books I want to read, and a whole lot of painting supplies in my room that are literally collecting dust. I don\u2019t want to just be taking naps in my freetime or looking at my phone! Maybe I can make use of that gym membership I got too, since I\u2019m also terrible at taking care of my body. My mom is convinced I will never go, but let\u2019s prove her wrong (for once).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Anyway, that\u2019s all for now. It\u2019s time I go study for my exam and stop procrastinating. Have fun this summer!!!<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~<\/p>\n

Hello there past Amira! <\/span><\/p>\n

Damn those ten weeks really flew by huh, and here I am, ten weeks older, ten weeks wiser. It\u2019s been quite the eventful summer. That exam I was studying for is long been done, the class was a disappointment but at least it is over. I had quite a long list of things I optimistically wanted to achieve so let\u2019s tally up the hits and misses of Summer 2018. <\/span><\/p>\n

The first part of my letter, I was thinking about my majors\/academic plan, i.e. whether I wanted to stick to my current double major or not. One important lesson I\u2019ve learned and really internalized this summer is <\/span>quality over quantity.<\/b> Packing on majors, research projects, etc, etc is useless, no matter how interesting the topics, if I don\u2019t have the capacity to devote myself thoroughly and in a meaningful way where I can actually absorb knowledge. This is especially how I am feeling about my research now; although I wasn\u2019t able to fulfill the required amount of hours for WAGSFP (sad face), I still did the required amount of work my mentor wanted me to do and I put effort into it. My coding has improved in my opinion, and I think I am a much more precise\/articulate qualitative researcher. Moving forward, I will be taking this attitude on into my studies as well. So, in a way, I am beginning to reach my idea of success.<\/span><\/p>\n

Did I find my sense of purpose again? Honestly, I think so? Maybe I\u2019m not fully there yet, but I have definitely had a shift in my life priorities and had many moments of clarity this summer which have made me more confident in what I want to do and in my abilities to do so. WAGSFP has been helpful in making me feel empowered to take on academia and make a space in it for myself in my own way! Not to sound corny and cliche, but I can definitively say I have grown as a person this summer, and WAGSFP has had a hand in that. I\u2019ve lost some friendships, met new people, tried new things (like vlogging for this blog :))) etc etc etc and all of these experiences have been a part of the journey of finding my purpose and sense of authenticity. <\/span><\/p>\n

As for the whole bit about finding time for the things I love, I\u2019m happy to say that yes, I was pretty successful in doing that! Watched quite a few movies (sometimes at the expense of my classwork oops), found some new music, and painted a little as well. Sadly, I was only able to completely finish one book, which is pretty pathetic, but I just started <\/span>Barracoon<\/span><\/i> by Zora Neale Hurston and think I\u2019ll finish it before the fall semester starts. As for that gym membership, I did, in fact, prove my mom wrong for once and was very consistent in going before my week-long vacation. Just got back from said vacation and I\u2019m ready to continue my little workout routine (and get those gainz). Hopefully I can keep this work-life balance going into the new school year. <\/span><\/p>\n

And yes, to respond to the enthusiastic phrase I ended my first letter with, I did have lots of fun this summer \ud83d\ude42 I\u2019ll miss the quiet community center shifts where I watched too many movies, the Ramadan nights in Alice Lloyd watching Bob\u2019s Burgers after praying, the treks up to North Campus for research, all the lovely people from WAGSFP and summer resstaff, and the time spent with family and friends. Here\u2019s to the wonderful summer that\u2019s past and for whatever else is to come!!! <\/span><\/p>\n

Love,<\/span><\/p>\n

Amira<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear future Amira, Let\u2019s start off with the essentials: as of right now, I\u2019m doing a double major in Comparative Literature, and Gender and Health, although I think that Gender and Health major will have to drop down to a minor. Looks like Donna Ainsworth was right about how it would be difficult fitting in… Continue reading A Final Goodbye<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1611,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2661","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-amira","entry"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1611"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2661"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2923,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2661\/revisions\/2923"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2661"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2661"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/courses.lsa.umich.edu\/wagsfp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2661"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}