The One Thing
Hey loves!
I haven't posted on here in a while and to be honest, I did not really feel like I had anything to say. I only write posts for this website when I have something I want to share, and for the past few weeks I did not really have anything. About two weeks ago, I finished my final exams. And it is hard to describe this feeling, but whenever I finish an exam period, I feel like I lose that one thing around which my entire life existed. Does that sound weird? Let me explain.
I don't feel like my life revolves around exams all the time. But once you enter your exam period, it kind of does. And when that period ends, it can feel like you have nothing else left. Once exams are over, so is the academic year. Which means so are extracurriculars and living in a dorm with your friends (both of these were over sooner this years thanks to corona). During my exam periods, I tend to focus only on my exams and so when they are over, it feels for a moment like losing purpose since the one purpose for the past few weeks (my exams) is gone.
It takes some time to adjust and find new things to do. Since this summer is going to be comparatively lonely due to social distancing, I set some summer goals for myself. These are my little projects:
Learning how to Code
I am not planning to write an app or anything like that, but coding is something which has fascinated me for a long time. This may sound silly, but ever since watching the German movie "Who Am I: No System Is Safe," I wanted to learn how to code. After reading up on which apps are recommended by people, I settled on the free app 'Swift Playgrounds' by Apple. So far, I am really enjoying the process of learning. The app teaches you the basics but also has more advanced courses. In the beginning, you get a little creature who needs help getting through a landscape and collecting gems and toggling switches on the way. It is a cute and fun way to learn and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good summer project!
Learning Chinese
If you have ever visited my bucket list page, you may know that I want to learn Chinese. I have wanted to learn Chinese since I moved to Hong Kong, but I somehow never got around to learning it. I am planning to change that this year: I signed up for an online language course and I might also do some revision on my own with Rosetta Stone. This is definitely my biggest project since the language is known to be difficult to learn but since I have many Chinese friends, I really want to learn their language. My course is scheduled for August, so I do not really have anything to say about the learning process yet, but please wish me luck!
Political Commentary Videos
Aside from my main YouTube channel, I have two side channels: Elena Makes Sense of Law and Elena Makes Sense of the World. Elena Makes Sense of Law has been around for a while and the channel is mainly an addition to my law blog for any content which does not really fit the format of a blog post or is simply better-suited for a video. An example of this is this recent video from my law channel:
But Elena Makes Sense of the World is relatively new and it is my political commentary channel. I have wanted to make a channel like that for a long time since I love debating political topics, but I always stuck to the rule which anyone gives you when talking about starting a YouTube channel: Stay away from politics. Politics is something inherently argumentative and you, whoever you are, and I probably disagree on at least one political issue. I was quite scared of uploading my first video, but also really excited. So far, there are only two videos on there, but I am planning to use my summer to create more content for that channel. Here is one fo the videos which is already up on my political commentary channel:
Reading List
Do you guys also have this page in your notes app where you collect books you want to read and somehow that list grew to over 100 books? Well, that is me. My friends always give me amazing reading recommendations and I note them down and then I often do not get around to reading them. Although I will definitely not get through my whole reading list, I hope to at least reduce it quite a bit because the books on it are really great.
If you still have exams going on, I wish you all the best! And if you already made it through the academic year, congratulations!
Lots of Love,
Elena
