May marked the end of the spring semester and the start of summer break. Bring on the fun! The last few months have mainly been focused on both work and school, so it’s been nice to get out of my routine. In May, I went hiking with one of my friends to Staunton State Park. It’s about a thirty-minute drive from Denver. We spent most of the day hiking through the mountains and before heading home grabbed a bite to eat. Hiking is something I love doing, but haven’t done a lot of lately. When I live in Kansas City there weren’t a lot of nearby hiking spots. If you wanted to get out and good for a good hike you had to drive out a few hours to do so. May was also a month of self-reflection.
Burnout
After the spring semester ended, I took a couple of days to recharge. I was burnt out from juggling both school and work. My energy levels had hit a low and my interest not longer excited. I found it hard to get started on projects and struggled with focusing on things. When I took my break, I used it as a time to reflect and look deep inside to figure out what was going on. Through journaling, I realized I lacked balance. I had overloaded myself with work and school, so I didn’t have a lot of free time to do what I loved. The things that brought me joy like working on cosplays, art, and blogging.
As result, I burnt myself being all work and no play. I’m working on developing a plan to balance things out, so this doesn’t continue to happen. I’ve got a few more semesters to go until I graduate. In the meantime, I’m focusing more on myself and what I need to feel happy. This means no more picking up extra shifts at work, setting time aside to rest, and doing more of what makes me happy.
Goodbye Twitter
Some of you might have noticed that I deleted my Twitter. I’ve never been a big fan of social, it’s something that never really appealed to me. When I started blogging I created my accounts as a way to promote my blog. I’ve always struggled to keep up with them, so to lighten my workload, I started to keep track of what platforms were bringing in traffic and which platforms. Twitter was at the top of the list, so I decided to delete it. I didn’t see the point in investing my time into a platform that wasn’t growing my blog. With other platforms, it’s a hit or miss. It depends on the type of content, so for now I felt like it’s worth keeping around.
I don’t miss it, and out of all the social media platforms, it was the one that was the most triggering. There’s no difference in my blog traffic and without it, I have one less platform to try and maintain. Later on, I’ll do another social media audit, to see if anything has changed with my other social media platforms.
Fun fun fun!
After my self-reflection, I planned some fun activities for my free time. I went hiking, visited the City Park Farmer’s Market, and stuffed my face full of donuts. Hiking was a blast I went with one of my friends, we didn’t get an early start on the trail because we both had errands to run before. We hiked about 7 miles through the Staunton State Park. Then got sushi afterward, The hike wore me out, but the view was worth it.
The City Park Farmer’s Market was a spare of the moment thing. I woke up early on Saturday, which is something that doesn’t happen often. While I was scrolling through Instagram when I saw an ad for it, and it looked like fun. I got there before the crowds and grabbed a donut from Pandemic Donuts and a Breakfast Spud from The Easy Vegan. It’s right across the street from City Park, so after walking the City Park Farmer’s Market I sat by the lake and enjoyed my food. Both were delicious, and it’s inspired me to weaker up earlier on Saturdays during the summer.
I love a good donut. I’ve made it my mission in life to taste them all. When I lived in Kansas City there was an incident that turned me off to donuts. I was enjoying an apple fritter when I bite into a metal spring. It was disgusting, and when I looked at donuts my mind went back to that moment. Time has passed, and I’m over the incident now and ready to stuff my face full of donuts again. I have a list of places I want to try in the Denver area and was able to cross 4 of my list. This summer I’m planning on cross off more.
Pandemic Donuts | Winchell’s Donut House | Voodoo Donuts | The Doughnut Club
June Plans
June is my birthday month so I have lots of fun and exciting things plan. I’ll be going down to Colorado Springs to do some hiking and I’m going whitewater rafting. I created a summer bucket list of things I want to do before returning to school in the fall.
Summer Bucket List
- Climb the Manitou Incline
- Go whitewater rafting
- Hike the Boulder Flat Irons
- Visit my family and friends in Michigan
- Hike the Rocky Moutain National Park
- Build 3 new cosplays
- Go to a Rockies game
- Stargaze in the mountains
- Get a tattoo
May was both an ending and a beginning. Moving forward I have a better understanding of myself, and what’s important. If I want to be successful, I need to have balance. I can push myself all I want, but I’m not going to get very far if I am running on an empty tank. I’m ready to let of old habits and create new ones.
I hope you all have a fun and exciting summer full of adventure.
Related post: Spring Semester is over!
Twitter is one of the most toxic forms of social media there is.
I agree.