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MIT blogger Cami M. '23

2021 Reflections & 2022 Resolutions by Cami M. '23

View my 2020 resolutions and 2021 resolutions.

There were some 2020 resolutions I couldn’t accomplish due to the pandemic, but since the world has adapted since then, I was able to do them! I’ll be including the 2020 resolutions I accomplished in this list, as well.

2021 Resolutions

Go to a coding conference (2020) – Accomplished. I had the great fortune of getting free tickets from MIT Course 6 department to go to the Grace Hopper Celebration, a three-day conference for women in computer science. It was so great connecting and networking with so many different companies and really getting a feel for what is out there for me in the computer science world.

Try a hackathon/coding competition (2020) – Accomplished. I did the PearlHacks hackathon with Crista F. ’23 and Caroline B. ’23 and ended up getting an honorable mention for our work with aligned.space.

Go to at least 3 museums (2020) – Accomplished. This year, I went to many museums! I went to New York this past April and visited the Intrepid Museum, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the American Museum of Natural History. In Chicago, I visited the Field Museum and the Museum of Science and Industry. And finally, in Seattle, I visited Museum of Pop Culture and the Chihuly Garden and Glass Museum.

Go to at least 3 concerts (2020) – Accomplished. I saw twenty one pilots, Harry Styles, and Beach Bunny in concert this year! I’ve already written extensively about my relationship with concerts so I’ll just say I’m really, really happy I got to go to these concerts.

Squat my weight – Incomplete. I found out I’ve been squatting incorrectly/in bad form so I started from square one recently and haven’t been able to build up strength, but I feel I’ll get it by mid next year.

Do a handstand – Incomplete. I didn’t focus that much on core stability this year and I hope to focus on that more.

Maintain a 4.5/5.0 GPA – Accomplished. Once again, grades don’t mean anything but I really found a rejuvenation and love for school again this past fall. It was definitely looking rough, though, this past spring. I’m glad I was able to bounce back.

Read 5 books – Accomplished. This year I read way more books than I thought I would! I read:

  • The Hating Game by Sally Thorne – I am a sucker for romance novels and I LOVE enemies to lovers so this was great.
  • Red, White, and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston – LOVED LOVED LOVED the banter and everything about this book. I want a movie adaptation of this now.
  • The Song of Achilles by Madeline Miller – I sobbed uncontrollably when I read this book. My heart hurt SO MUCH during some parts of this book that I just had to put the book down. When I finished it, I felt empty for days. One of my favorite books.
  • From Blood and Ash by Jennifer L. Armentrout – Okay this book is just incredibly horny but it was like okay for what it was.
  • The Heart Rate of a Mouse (Vol. 1, 2, and 3) by Anna green – I’ve already blogged about this extensively as well so I won’t say anything aside from great, great books.

I also read a couple boring books like things for research and interview prep like Cracking the PM Interview, Decode and Conquer, and some other PM books.

Bench at least 80 lbs – Accomplished. I checked my max in late November and I was able to do one rep of 80 lbs!!!

Do the splits – Incomplete. Unsure if I will ever be able to do this but maybe next year I’ll focus a lot more on flexibility.

Get a summer 2022 internship – Accomplished. 

Journal more often – Accomplished..kinda? I’ve been using Notion a lot more for goal setting, note taking, and just overall thought compilation. Nothing too formal, but something nonetheless.

Continue media tracking – Accomplished..kinda? I’ve been keeping up my letterboxd so you can see the movies I watched there as well as my Spotify.

2022 Resolutions

Professional

  1. Get a return offer. – Really just searching for job security here.
  2. Get a starting salary of $xk total compensation. – It’s kinda weird for me to put my total compensation goals so publicly on the blogs so I will not do that but this kind of just helps me gauge my offers and remember my goals.
  3. Blog every week. – Typical. This means that I should usually go for about 50 blogs a year.
  4. Maintain x GPA. – Okay felt weird again like typing in my GPA since I don’t want this to become fixated on numbers. Once again, GPA means nothing but it’s nice to just motivate myself to actually go to class, pay attention, and work hard on retaining information.
  5. End the year with a positive net worth of at least $1500. – I just need to save more money. In 2021 I traveled to New York City, Chicago, San Francisco, and Seattle and spent a WHOLE bunch of money on traveling. This year, I plan on saving and maxing my Roth IRA contributions, which, speaking of…
  6. Max out Roth IRA contributions for the year.

Physical

  1. Bench a plate (135lb). – I don’t know if this is…realistic? I currently max at around 80 or 85ish pounds so I don’t know what this year will look like. If not 135, then at least 100lbs.
  2. Squat my weight (125lb). – I think this is super realistic now that my squat form is improving.
  3. Hip thrust 200lbs. – Absolutely doable.
  4. Deadlift 150lbs. – Okay maybe less doable, I think I can do this but I’m just too scared of fucking up my form.
  5. Consistently eat enough in the day. – I won’t be tracking this or anything but I plan to use my meal plan a lot more this semester so I can consistently eat enough.
  6. Gym 4-6 times a week. – This is doable since I did this last year, too. It’s just mainly here for accountability reasons.
  7. Walk 10,000 steps a day for at least 300/365 days. – This is also doable seeing as I walk across the bridge every day. But maybe the summer will be a little harder.

Personal

  1. Read 10 books. – Fun fact, I’ve already read 2 so far this year.
  2. Throw a successful spring formal (COVID Willing). – This will be my sorority’s first spring formal in almost 2 years so I want to make it a good one.
  3. Throw a successful SpringFest. – SpringFest is MIT’s annual concert where we bring in a super cool guest (in the past we’ve had Lupe Fiasco, 6lack, Capital Cities, etc.) to perform and it’s really cool. In 2020 we were supposed to have Doja Cat which…obviously did not work out so now I’m on the committee that plans SpringFest! Exciting.
  4. Make a YouTube video at least once a week. – This is mainly so I don’t forget my video editing skills since I really like learning Adobe Premiere Pro and Photoshop.
  5. Crossword puzzle every day. – Self explanatory, I love crosswords.