2016 Resolutions Update - November 30

Here is my November update for my 2016 resolutions.

1. Start learning Italian - (300 day streak on DuoLingo)
I have slowly but surely been making progress on this front. While I don't feel that I am full grasping the language, and I am most definitely not as confident in Italian as I would consider myself to be in German, I do stil have one month left to go. Right now my main focus is on studying for my exams, so I hope to be able to spend much more time working towards Italian during the month of December when I am home for the holidays.

2. Keep at least a 10.5 GPA across all courses
The semester has gone well so far, and at this point all I have left are my final exams. I find that there is quite a big difference between courses at Laurier and courses at Waterloo when it comes to final exams. At Waterloo, most of my exams are worth between 40% and 65% of my final grade, while at Laurier my exams are often worth only between 20% and 40%. While this is a large percentage regardless, what it means is that, especially for my Waterloo courses, performing well overall in the course is almost impossible without performing well on the final exam. Going into my final exams, it is so important that I am setting myself up for success, and I hope that I can do this. My exams are relatively well spread out, so I should have sufficient time prior to each exam to study.

3. Write an ebook
Goal was officially abandoned at the end of September

4. Spend semesters 2 & 3 at university getting more involved with everything Laurier offers
Laurier had their Fall Open House during the first weekend of November, and I was able to help out as a volunteer tour guide as well as boothing to promote the Emergency Response Team. I found this to be a great experience to help out future Laurier students, although I found the process behind the scenes to be incredibly inefficient and as such will likely not volunteer as a tour guide in the future. I also was in meetings almost every week as an executive for the Double Degree Club and also as a member on the Emergency Response Team. Combined with shifting almost every weekend for ERT and playing on the intramural inner tube water polo team every Sunday evening, I definitely had a lot less free time than some other months. On the bright side, the inner tube water polo season is coming to a close, and we are currently undefeated in our division. Hopefully the playoffs go our way and we are able to end the season with winner's t-shirts.