Add short for 2023-01-19 - bored

content/shorts/2024-01-11-old.md

@@ -2,7 +2,7 @@
 title: What Does it Mean to be Old?
 date: 2024-01-11
 slug: what-does-mean-old
-caption: Image courtesy of Riccardo Annandale (unsplash)
+caption: Image courtesy of Riccardo Annandale (Unsplash)
 image: old.jpg
 images:
     - images/old.jpg

content/shorts/2024-01-19-bored.md

@@ -0,0 +1,19 @@
+---
+title: I'm so Bored
+date: 2024-01-19
+slug: bored
+caption: Image courtesy of Kanashi (Unsplash)
+image: bored.jpg
+images:
+    - images/bored.jpg
+---
+
+It's been almost a month since my winter break began, and I can concretely say that I have accomplished absolutely nothing of substance. I have never been at a point in my life where I've had nothing solid to work toward, and I have no idea what to do. In middle school and high school, I was driven by competition and the desire to get into a good college. I wanted to win debate competitions, perform well in math competitions, and win the national Science Bowl. I wanted good grades to have a high GPA. In my free time, I could focus my time on improving in these areas. 
+
+Now that I am in college, the same no longer applies. I no longer participating in competitions, which are much sparser in the collegiate level anyway. My activities only provide short-term motivation and are relatively inconsequential in the long term. My main driver over freshman and sophomore year--landing a summer internship--has already been completed. Now, I'm only left with obscure goals like preparing for a career, managing my financials, or planning my future--none of which provide a crystallized image of what I should be doing.
+
+For the first time in my life, I feel like I have nothing to do. I have a ton of options--learning new career skills, playing violin, doing more art-related activities--but none of them seem particularly attractive. Moreover, I wouldn't consider any of them to be priorities. However, I also don't know what my priorities should be. I've put myself in a limbo, where I have options that are better than what I have been doing--nothing--but I don't particularly want to pick any of the options I have either. 
+
+This thought has also sparked more about what lies ahead. Once I've graduated from university, I no longer have to worry about grades. I'll have a job which becomes more routine and longer-term than anything I have partaken in before, and I wonder my ambitions might look like then. I know my priorities will shift as I age, from school and grades to a career and family, but there will be an in-between period (including now) where I am unclear about the path forward. During school, I was anxious about school. During break where I have nothing to be anxious about, I'm anxious about nothing.
+
+There isn't a takeaway here. I literally have no idea what I'm doing. I'm hoping that once I do know what I'm doing, that I'll back on this piece and learn how I got pointed back in the right direction. In the meantime, I guess I'll just have to roam around in my thoughts and look within.