{"id":8056,"date":"2017-01-11T01:30:59","date_gmt":"2017-01-11T05:30:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/?p=8056"},"modified":"2017-01-11T01:30:59","modified_gmt":"2017-01-11T05:30:59","slug":"taking-advantage-of-my-free-time-this-semester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/2017\/01\/11\/taking-advantage-of-my-free-time-this-semester\/","title":{"rendered":"Taking Advantage of My Free Time This Semester"},"content":{"rendered":"

Well, it\u2019s my last semester here at the University of Michigan, and I\u2019m lucky to be only taking six credits. It\u2019s a huge change in terms of how much time I actually have on my hands; suddenly, I have class only on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, leaving me more days without class than with<\/em> class.<\/p>\n

This was probably a good choice. For one, why take an excessive number of credits when each class costs a lot of money and I\u2019ve taken almost every class I need to graduate? It\u2019s also a welcome break after 2016, which I spent as a Senior Arts Editor for The Michigan Daily. It was a position that seemed to sap almost every night of free time, even though it\u2019s a relatively small time commitment compared to an editorial position on the news section, for example.<\/p>\n

The thing about the Daily was even if it could be a pain to spend so much time there when I had so much studying to do all the time, it was rarely not fun being there. I worked closely with many of my best friends there, and it was a comforting place to go to each night I worked, not an unwelcome one. So even though the end of my editor position means a lot of nice free time, it also means spending less time in that fun environment surrounded by the people I laugh around the most. As a result, I think, I\u2019ve felt a little despondent in the week since we came back from winter break\u2026a little unmotivated, unproductive, with too<\/em> much time to just sit in my room. I\u2019ve felt a little lonely, to be honest.<\/p>\n

And we all know what the best thing is for feeling lonely: art!<\/p>\n

So I\u2019m determined to start taking in a lot more art this semester, and not feel guilty about it. To start, of course, I\u2019m watching a lot of TV and movies, and listening to a lot of music, as usual. I recently finished watching The Leftovers<\/em>, and I just started Bates Motel<\/em> tonight. I also have The Americans<\/em> and Twin Peaks<\/em> on my agenda for this semester. I have an endless list of movies to watch, and I\u2019m going to enjoy watching them.<\/p>\n

The most notable things, though are these:<\/p>\n

First, I\u2019m going to read more. I feel like I haven\u2019t really read for pleasure that much since at least the summer, but more realistically farther back\u2014you could even extend that to high school. I\u2019m finally finishing Goodbye, Columbus<\/em> by Philip Roth after starting it over the summer and promptly stopping when school started. I also have Super Sad True Love Story<\/em> checked out, and plan to read The Handmaid\u2019s Tale<\/em> and some other good stuff soon.<\/p>\n

Second, I\u2019m going to journal consistently. My journal is massively important to me\u2014I still have to write a longer post about that sometime\u2014and I always inevitably fall behind because I spend so much time on it, imbuing every entry with so many details. When I fall behind, it takes the emotional power out of some of the entries, because I\u2019m recalling events long after the fact, so I\u2019m going to make sure to catch up once and for all and journal consistently this semester.<\/p>\n

Third, I\u2019m going to start writing fiction again. I haven\u2019t done this in a while, either, and I really need to just write a novel already. It\u2019s not good to take huge breaks from writing, and I need to learn to really discipline myself when it comes to that.<\/p>\n

Anyways, yeah, that\u2019s it! I\u2019m also, obviously, applying to jobs for after graduation and trying to spend time with friends, but sometimes it seems like I am the single least busy person this semester, so I\u2019ll have plenty of extra time, and art is the best way to fill that.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Well, it\u2019s my last semester here at the University of Michigan, and I\u2019m lucky to be only taking six credits. It\u2019s a huge change in terms of how much time I actually have on my hands; suddenly, I have class only on Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday, leaving me more days without class than with class. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2178,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1049,499,420],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2178"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8056"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8057,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8056\/revisions\/8057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/artsatmichigan.umich.edu\/ink\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}