Hey
everyone,
I
know it's been awhile. Between coronavirus and the craziness from that, there
was also
the potential of my parents moving. I've been juggling school, decluttering, packing,
and making sure I'm set for the fall over these past 5 weeks.
General Declutter Update:
My
parents brought in my stuff out of the storage unit and I managed to go
from 5
containers down to 1. My mom has a good bit of stuff in a second. When
things
have
been in storage for 10 years, at least most everything is either trash or donations. I
did keep
the craft supplies that work BEAUTIFULLY, almost all of the books, all the CDs, and
my trophies. Unfortunately, as my school stuff got brought home, it went pretty much
straight to storage, so I don't have a good metric for how much stuff I
currently own.
I'm hoping to reasonably get all of my non-school/clothing related items
down to
3 containers of the same size. It might take until the end of the summer, if
not winter
break, but I'm very proud of the progress I've made.
As
of writing this post, I'm on my 5th bag of donations and 2nd trash bag. It's
very likely
I'll be starting donation bag #6 within a couple of days. With how many
times I've
moved in the past 6 years, most of my accumulated stuff was not located in
the house
(and that which was in the house was seasonal, so that also got moved to storage).
College
inspired a MAJOR downsize for me, but that did cause me to get more kitchen stuff,
since I was on my own. Moving again from an on campus apartment to another off campus once I graduate won't make it any easier. I
just don't
want to pay for someone to have to move my stuff and, possibly even more important,
I don't want to have to move stuff for no reason if I do it entirely on my own, like I do into and out of my dorms.
I have a bit of an odd goal, but if
my man
can get everything he owns to fit in two footlockers, I can reasonably use
3
containers,
a suitcase, and whatever on earth my school stuff needs to fit in. (STEM has
me needing lots of THICK notebooks and unfortunately large textbooks that I can't
do without.)
5
moves in 6 years is a lot for the military, even more so for a civilian. That
number doesn't
even account for move in/move out of my dorm or from my temporary
housing
from last year's summer job. Seeing those numbers written down gives me a
different perspective. Most people wind up collecting things over 5 years. It
seems to
me I'm always winding up with less every 5 years. I'm hesitant to call it
minimalism- I'm
anti consumerism, sure, and definitely think everything should have a
purpose (which
can and should include beauty)- but minimalism is often an extreme. True authentic
minimalism is what I'm going for, but there are more than enough gatekeepers
within the movement to make that feel unattainable. I want to be able to live simply, to not have to worry about the unavoidable expense of moving, and to not feel bound by things. By holding onto my why, I'm hoping that decluttering this time around will go much smoother.
School Update:
At the time of writing this, I still have one final remaining, however, by the time this is uploaded, my finals should be complete. I've been online since before spring break, over 6 weeks by the time this goes live. Luckily for me, labs were already mostly finished, so I just had to wrap up the reports I was already due to write, as well as write an introduction and abstract for the incomplete lab. My other classes have been interesting, to say the least.
Biology lecture was more or less the same, just a shorter time block on zoom. Recitation only met once, and it was just to go over the assignment we were given.
Linear algebra was done really well, in my opinion. My professor would record lectures for the week and release them on Monday. Our homework would be due on Fridays, and our third exam had two attempts. Our final only had one, sadly, but she provided ample bonus. This class had the most flexibility out of all of them, and I'm hoping I can take this professor again for my statistics courses.
Organic chemistry is a 300 level, so I'm not expecting too much give, but it took awhile for my professor to get the hang of things. I couldn't watch her videos because at first, I didn't have wifi (I did my homework by hotspot), and I had family obligations. This class barely changed from on campus to online, which, for a class like that, does not bode well. Luckily, our tests are open resource, but I still was unable to finish one of them. Oh well, at least it's over.
Quantitative analysis was an extremely fun class taught by a lovely professor. She kept things engaging and fun, and even though I KILLED my grade in the electrochemistry sections, I have to say it might have been my favorite class. It was definitely my favorite lab. This was another class with lots of bonus points, which helped me because my grade was on the line between two letters. Both would continue me on the path to my ACS degree, but the higher letter helps my GPA much more. It's extremely math heavy, but I honestly enjoyed the class and would recommend anyone thinking about chemistry to take it. It's far more real-world applications than anything else you'll take in undergrad.
General Life Update:
It's been almost 6 months since I've been engaged, yet it also feels like an eternity. Due to coronavirus, any plans we thought we had were upended and we were back at square one. Engagement pictures had to be rescheduled. We still don't have a new date yet. It'll be interesting to see how this all pans out, but I'm really not appreciating the extra stress!