What Being Gluten-Free Taught Me About Sin

I still remember first meeting my current doctor back in 2020. I came to him for more than just needing a new doctor, but to seek help for weight loss and figuring out how I can be healthier. One large blood test later, it came back I have a slight sensitivity to gluten and peanuts. The news shook me more than I’d like to admit, the idea I can’t eat normal bread, cake and pasta again. It didn’t settle in until I went through my pantry and fridge, and cleared out everything I had that had wheat or a hint of gluten. There was a pile that had more than half of my pantry filling up my studio apartment of things I couldn’t eat anymore. All I could do for everything was offer it to my congregation who could eat it. I rejoice in having brethren willing to take what I couldn’t eat because forbid I waste food. 

Being Gluten Free is more than just not being able to eat normal carbs, gluten is found in everything. Preservatives can be a hidden ingredient in a lot of foods bought by the supermarket. You know how people go through withdrawals when they haven’t had anything for a long while? I was going crazy without toast in the mornings. I wanted to cry each time I went grocery shopping because I couldn’t buy my favorite bread anymore: Orrowheat Buttermilk Bread. I also couldn’t get takeout from places I enjoyed anymore, and it’s surprising to find out how many places have hidden gluten in their food. I’m looking at you, Cafe Zupas, with your bisques and your salad dressings. This was when impulse buying got worse for me because I would bulk buy things to make sure I had them. The downside was they spoiled quickly, which was a large waste of food and money. It reminded me of a passage in Exodus when the children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness and were complaining about a lack of food. God then orders them to gather according to each one’s needs and according to the number of people per household (Exodus 16:16). 

Sometimes it feels like we are lost and unsure as where to go when faced with life changing events. It felt like I was wandering like the Children of Israel were.

It wasn’t just my diet that changed. My entire social life changed the moment I was forced to cut gluten and peanuts out. It’s now a burden to go out with friends because they must be aware I have a dietary restriction. Usually, it’s them not wanting to make plans at all, and that hurts more than anything. Now it’s a worry to make sure you don’t get sick, and they feel obligated to provide for that. Isolation hurts. I’m already apart from my family and friends and now I feel more distant from my own brethren.  

The devil started to get craftier with me. He knew I was feeling alone, and now I have this affliction that will damage my body over time. I'm faced with uncertainty, fear, and a lot of anger. I admit I didn’t go to God that much during this time. That was my regret. Without His guidance, I was suffering, complaining, and not eating that much at all. I felt forced to compromise myself just to get by. For those with worse dietary restrictions than I do, you know you cannot compromise yourself as your life depends on it. Temptations came at me at every angle. It was easy to disregard what the doctor recommended that I do to improve my quality of life and live how I wanted to. I could’ve kept eating Papa John’s, homemade milk bread, my favorite bread toasted in the morning and all the tortellini I could eat. What grounded me was remembering my purpose and why I sought out my doctor in the first place: to lose weight and to improve my health.  

What I learned from being tested was how to always seek God and His kingdom first (Matt 6:33) and to remember to check my heart if I really wanted to be healed from my infirmity or not. I was reminded of the man of many ailments who was by the healing pool, and Jesus found him during the Sabbath. Starting in John 5:7 through verse 9: “When Jesus saw him lying there, and knew that he already had been in that condition a long time, He said to him, “Do you want to be made well?” The sick man answered Him, “Sir, I have no man to put me into the pool when the water is stirred up; but while I am coming, another steps down before me.” Jesus said to him, “Rise, take up your bed and walk.” And immediately the man was made well, took up his bed, and walked. And that day was the Sabbath.” I know people that have infirmities but choose to complain about them or solve them alone. This is a reminder to always ask for help as God is our heavenly doctor too. Without Him, I wouldn’t have found the help I needed. 

There are those that dabble in sin sometimes. Maybe they’ve been good for a whole month they decide to go a club and get laid. It’s no different than someone who was recently diagnosed with celiac deciding to go to Chick Fil A for a whole chicken sandwich for being good and not eating anything with wheat or hidden gluten. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” It’s the same principle. By that logic I haven’t cut sin out of my life. I admit I have been doing this (still do) because those wraps from Spitz are delicious and because I love breakfast burritos. It’s hard to come by large gluten free tortillas and homemade ones are not flexible. Circling back to Exodus 14-17 when the Israelites were complaining about no food, no water and no home. They wanted to go back to at least have a place to be despite being enslaved, oppressed and miserable. I was missing the ease of life, but that would mean harming my body more. I'm already being checked for PCOS, and since cutting gluten and peanuts my body has felt a lot better and is still healing. Even my monthly cycle has become a bit more regular, and a better flow has been happening. 

Thats why the logical solution is to just go to God, and He will help you figure it out. There are hundreds of resources out there for those who can’t eat gluten. I've found cookbooks that help me understand a bit more about kitchen chemistry and safety, and it enabled me to be a more responsible and creative cook in the kitchen. That’s not me saying I’ve cut the carb addiction; I still love my bread goods. I am now able to bake them in a safe environment where I know I can eat it with less repercussions. I don’t eat on campus anymore when I go to class because it’s already a food desert. I don’t trust the minimal amount of food I would be able to eat on campus. I still struggle to do stuff with my brethren outside service group events, but there’s now a family here that is also gluten free. The wife and I support each other in protecting each other from gluten.  

I was reminded that having dietary restrictions in my life gave no changes to my life. I’m called to be different from the world (though not necessarily different from my brethren). I could still figure out how to have the cake I love, but it took a bit to figure out how to make it healthier and still have it be rich, moist and delicious.

This thorn in my side was once something I felt shame about. I couldn’t eat like a normal person anymore, and now I felt I had to be catered to for my sensitivity. It took a lot of time before I saw it as more of an affliction that I needed more support for. I'm also grateful to be blessed with my boyfriend’s mother, who also cannot eat gluten. We trade products we find, and I feel more supported than I do with my mom. This year will be my first Christmas with his family, and I plan to bake the gluten free version of my mother’s manicotti recipe (always something I look forward to every year). I’ve figured out now how to live with this affliction. What’s made it easier is remembering how my body is a temple for my spirit, and it’s my job to take care of this temple. My body is a vessel for the Holy Spirit which was bought by blood. It belongs to God, so it is a big responsibility to take care of my body (1 Corinthians 6:19-20). 

So, what have dietary restrictions taught me about sin? It’s given me a literal lesson on separation, and what happens when I make choices for myself rather than for the glory of God. If I don’t take care of my body, I will die sooner and remain dead. If I don’t take care of my spirit, well that’s a consequence that makes me shiver with fear.  

What health changes were you forced to make? How has that affected your faith? Feel free to comment, and I’d love to read your testimony on overcoming these trials with health changes. 

Fighting Burnout - Revisiting My Goals

I mentioned in my last post that I took the time to revisit my goals. Usually, I treat it haphazardly and combine it with something I’m hyped about at that present moment, but this time it was different. It’s a big decision to think about where you will go and what you will do next after college is finished. I had already decided I wasn’t going to stay in Utah; as beautiful as the state was, it just wasn’t for me with the seasons and how isolated I felt here. I even talked with my better half and prayed on this, and here is what I found. 

1. I Couldn’t Stay West 

I missed the heat, and I did miss the desert, but Arizona isn’t it for us either. Nate was happy to go wherever I wanted, but there is still an anchor I need to release. I can’t stay out west, not as the person I am now. I could never go back to California even if I wanted to, and my mother informed me that she is planning on moving out of the state with dad once I graduate. Nate is currently out in Alabama, and it makes more sense to move out east due to cheaper living costs, more job opportunities, and Nate and I will have an easier time purchasing a home. I’ve been reading a book about mortgages (which I can do another post for,) and it’s been getting us slowly ready for the prospect of a new home soon. 

I want to revisit the book I mentioned in my last post: Stay Hungry and Kick Burnout in the Butt, and reference something interesting. Dr Steve Berglas wrote that starting any job means you are presented with a number of intriguing options to explore and accomplish. Whether it’s learning new skills or technology, reading a new novel, meeting new people, whatever the case maybe it’s truly stimulating. 

I’ve been there done that out in the Pacific West, and I need to continue to grow up. It’s a stronger reason to move east for new opportunities, new adventures, new memories. It’s why I revised my goals to the following: 

• Graduate Fall 2024 with my Bachelor of Science in Strategic Communication 

• Find a home/apartment to live in within the area I designated in Tennessee next to the Smokey Mountains. 

• Identify a possible internship opportunity for Summer 2024 and Fall 2024 to achieve work experience so it will transfer to the new job. 

• Open my quilt shop by 2034 

It’s a start, they're not stellar goals but it’s a start. More specific goals always come out over time and experience. 

2. It’s Time I Dug Deeper

It’s not enough to simply say “I want a quilt shop” and “I want to work in advertising”. I have to think deeper as to what I want to accomplish in my life. To start, quilt shops are fun and wonderful, but the question is what will set me apart from other shops? I’ve been keeping a journal, and as much as I want to share what I wrote that would open me up to having my ideas stolen by others. All I can say is that I want to create and refine services to people that are as old as Nana that still craft and cater to their needs too. 

I also had to dig deeper into my career goals for when I finish college. We live in a wonderful world where we can message anyone in the world at any time. I connected with an alumnus from my university at a company I am interested in. It’s incredible to hear the experiences from someone and learning what is generally expected of people entering in the industry. My contact specializes in media, which means there is far more to simply marketing and advertising than I thought. I still don’t have anything concrete yet, but maybe that answer will arrive after my first internship.  

I’m not looking for more money, I’m looking for challenges. 

At the end of the day, sometimes the results of revisiting your goals aren’t a lot. I say that’s ok. Some next steps I need to take are internships, because that will be the iron boot into the door of the industry. More importantly it’s the iron boot in the door of my first job. 

I’d like to hear from you: How do you revisit your goals? What do you do to self-evaluate where you are now and where you’d like to be in 3 years' time? Let me know in the comments! 

“I’m Burnt Out!” A College Student’s Thorn

Sometimes life can feel like a plant cycle, at times you flourish and bloom, and at times you feel weak and withering. The latter is a progression of burnout.

What is burnout? It’s psychologically defined as a state of mental/physical/emotional exhaustion caused by excessive and prolonged stress. It usually happens when feeling overwhelmed, drained, and unable to meet demands. It can be hard to recognize, and it’s something I wish I recognized at the start of 2023. 

Burnout ruined my spring and summer semesters. I couldn’t do any of my work, I didn’t want to go to school, and all the instructions were foggy. It frustrated me, and my instructors. The only course I did well in over those two semesters was my Media Writing course, and the professor that taught it was the father of one of my mom’s coworkers. He, and the way he checked in and kept me engaged, were the only things that kept me going in his class. 

Burnout also severely affected this website development, as I would write out ideas, but I would never start them. Eventually this site became obsolete for me against my wishes. I couldn’t get myself to start any projects. The only thing I was doing was eating, sleeping, chores, and streaming games on Twitch. 

I found a book I had on my shelf called Stay Hungry & Kick Burnout In The Butt by Dr. Steven Berglas. It was a book I had forgotten I had ordered. I’ve been reading it, praying on it, and it’s led me to think about some things I needed to do to make sure I didn’t blow it this semester (even after the Academic Workshop since I’m now under an Academic Warning.)  

Today I want to share with you what I’ve learned from this book and some ideas I’ve come up with that helped me get through the first week and what I hope will help me get through the semester. I can do a follow-up on each and be more specific with what I’ve learned and want to learn. I also want to fully disclose I am not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, and if you think you need professional help I urge you to go get it.

1. Revisit Your Goals

I still wanted that quilt shop, and I still wanted to marry my best friend, but those are non-specific and something in the next 5 years. I had nothing for now until 2024-2025. All I had in my head was: graduate, get to Arizona, get married, establish his café, build my quilt shop. Do you see the problem? 

The first step I took was to reevaluate where I am right now, and how I can accomplish the first step of graduating. I decided that the fastest route, and most productive for me where I can stay engaged and not be forced to take classes I didn’t want to, was to pursue a Bachelor of Science in Communications rather than Bachelor of Arts. Thanks to the versatility of monday.com I was able to remap and relist all my classes I needed for what requirements (and start an electives list.) It allowed me to see what I had left and where I could designate classes for what semester. 

To borrow a quote from the introduction of the book: “Its advantageous to diagnose your professional situation and your role in it with insight, understanding, and precision,” (xix.) I was stuck, and I had a lot of hurdles that I both unknowingly set for myself and the hurdles that the program already had established. With the time frame I set, and with a lot of prerequisites, I had to question if this was worth it to me and if these were the courses I wanted to take. 

Right now, for Fall 2023, I'm taking classes that intrigue me, and that fulfill requirements. I'm excited for this Fall, and I’m even more pumped up for Spring 2024. In Dr. Berglas’ book, he writes that engaging in our passions is both emotionally and physically energizing. I need that more than ever if I want to meet my goals both short term and long term. I’ll do a follow-up explaining all the changes I’ve made to my goals. 

2. Make Time for Hobbies and Personal Projects

I remember feeling shut down, wanting to do what I wanted to do and either not doing it and not doing the work I needed to do, and doing it and just not doing anything else but it. I wasn’t even reading my Bible as much as I longed to do so but didn’t! missed being creative, being social, and being imaginative. The thing about me is I struggle with time-management. I’m unable to block time to do work, to study, and for how long.  

When I do something, I do it however long it takes, never being sure how long it takes. I think that’s what irritated my father so much: me never knowing how long it would take to complete my history homework. 

I started using this tool a couple months ago called Motion, an AI personal assistant where it arranges tasks and appointments your day for you. I have 3 calendars I operate on: business, personal, and school. Motion is good about reminding me when my homework is due and blocking in time to do the homework. It schedules my tasks around classes and appointments and shows me if I have any open time. If I miss my time block it will reschedule the task to a later time leading up to the due date. I’ll do another post about Motion. I can see what I need to do and it shows me where I can schedule free time. 

Thanks to me taking the time to make time for what I want, I can tick off all the things on my list: making a baby quilt, planning the shop, completing some professional development courses, even hanging out with friends. 

3. Talk to More People

This is the most obvious step, but it's also the hardest thing for me to do since I’m not very social. It’s been a bad habit since I was a child: I’ve always been afraid of asking for help. I had the belief that I had to be self-reliant, that no one will do it for me, and that it’s something I need to do myself. 

There’re several things wrong with that mindset. First off, I need to remember I’m not asking anyone to do it for me, I’m asking for help. It could be bouncing ideas, asking for advice, or just a reference to something I need or want.  

Second, you have no idea how toxic the idea of self-reliance is. While dependency is questionable, being reliant on self closes you off from others and it instills a habit of not talking to people. I’ve been talking to Nate a lot more on problems (and it usually devolves into him reassuring me of everything which makes me fear of the Aronson Principle,) but I need to talk to the important people in my life more too: my brethren, my parents, my elders, even my professors. It makes a huge difference, it forces a check in, and it allows others to help. 

More importantly, I need to talk to God more. He is always in control, and He is always listening. It's up to me to talk to Him and to listen for Him. He can do anything and make anything happen as long as I tell Him and ask Him for it. If it wasn’t for God, I would never have met Nate.

In Conclusion

There are numerous ways someone can go about fighting burnout, but for me I simply forgot where I wanted to go, who I have in my life, and what I wanted to change to be the person I wanted and needed to be. In the face of adversity, I think the world is eager to lie to you that you are alone when God says otherwise. In Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, Solomon writes that two is better than one, and that they will always have someone to lift them up when the other falls. Even he understands that we’re not alone nor were we ever meant to be alone. I think that’s what worsens the burnout. 

If you have any questions or comments for me, I’d love to hear them! I plan on following up on a lot of what I wrote here, but if you want a follow up on something else let me know! 

Having a Gluten-Free Birthday Without Losing an Arm and Leg

I want to apologize for a late posting, and I definitely learned a few lessons from this:

• Frequently save drafts

• Keep a draft that you’re actively updating in a document or a Google Doc

• Squarespace does log you out after a period of time though I’d like to know the frequency so I don’t have to try to remember what it was I wrote.

In the meantime, let’s talk about cake!

As I’m beginning to write, it is currently 6 days before my birthday. I will be baking a cake for my online birthday party and birthday stream on my RoseTheWolf36© Twitch channel. I thought about hiring a baker at the beginning of May to craft a small cake. One problem: It’s already pricey to customize a cake, but it’s another thing to customize a gluten-free chocolate cake with almond buttercream frosting. As tiring and tedious as it may sound: let’s make our own birthday cake for next week.

I did something like this before back in 2021 where I made my own gluten free cake. This was also not long after I discovered I needed to be gluten-free permanently. I winged a chocolate sponge cake recipe with some lucrative almond frosting.

For this year, for my 25 birthday, I decided to research an ideal frosting recipe. I was going to make a cake from scratch, but I managed to find one box cake mix from betterbatter that is chocolate in my pantry. Score! I can do a follow-up post about betterbatter, including how my mom sent me home from California with a 20 lb bag of gluten-free flour.

While the design may not be definite, it will help me practice my decorating skills. All that matters is the cake is delicious. I used Procreate on my iPad to draw out the initial design.

I didn’t start baking until the day of the birthday bash and quickly scrambled to have a cake before the party that night. The cake turned out beautifully, but I didn’t follow the directions fully. I replaced water with milk, oil for unsalted melted butter, and added an additional egg. I baked everything at 350 F for 35 minutes. I will also disclose I didn’t double the butter as listed in the hack I found on Pinterest. In the end, the cakes were baked to perfection and the cake in the end was moist, thick, and dare I say creamy.

I had my helper, Miss Mama, watch the cakes as they cooled. I tried to freeze them to help them cool faster but i should’ve wrapped them in foil to cool them faster and not saran wrap.

I began the buttercream frosting the moment the cakes came out of the oven, and I used this whipped almond buttercream frosting recipe I found. It was light, fluffy, and delicious. I used a little more almond extract and a little less vanilla, because I prefer a stronger almond taste in my frosting. I was happy with how it turned out, even though I aggressively whipped it in my mixer near the end to make it even fluffier than possible!

While I did create the purple frosting you see in the initial sketch, I went ahead and made 2 more colors: a light blue and a light green. It brought the cake together with this gorgeous cool color scheme that felt me.

A rose fell off so I forcibly smooshed it back into the cake. I had some cat candles, and I used one of them here.

I think in the end it was a great birthday, and I was happy to spend it with those that I love (and those that wanted to spend time with me.) The cake was delicious, and it brought a piece of nostalgia to me. It’s shocking to me that I am twenty-five now, but that doesn’t have to mean I can’t be excited about birthdays.

Simply put, it’s easy to have a gluten free birthday. It can be exhausting, but the thing to remember is you are working hard for something delicious, not spending a fortune for something half than decent. I recommend betterbatter, but make sure you read their ingredients and consult with your doctor if it’s safe for your gluten allergies or not. Otherwise there’s thousands of recipes online waiting for you to pick one and try it.

I am not affiliate with betterbatter in anyway, I just enjoy their products.

Track Your Academics with monday.com

A Free-To-Use Website with Tools to Help You Graduate

How do you track how you are doing in school? How do you plan what classes you will take in what semester, and see when classes are available? Let me tell you this, tracking your progress is messy. You have to consistently run audits to check credits and requirements, and not always are those audits PDF-compatible. You likely have messy, cross-over lists of courses that count for what requirements that you want to take versus what will be counted as elective. My fellow students, I want to introduce you to a tool I’ve been using to track my progress here at the University of Utah: Monday.com

The best way I can describe monday.com as a multi-use workflow tracker used to track progress, see who is online and working on what, and as a home base for work. If you want to learn more about monday.com, I recommend you read their About page.

I discovered monday.com on social media one day about 2 years ago, though I can’t remember if it was on Facebook or Instagram. I was already using Google Spreadsheets at the time to watch my progress on what classes I needed to take for what major, and let me tell you it was messy. Monday.com has a free student plan so I took a plunge and poked around. I discovered I could use monday.com for a lot more than simply tracking where I am at in my degree track. I still use Spreadsheet but for scheduling only since I can lay it out in blocks.

As I said above, there is a free student plan. You need to prove that you are a student at an accredited university to gain access to the free plan. I used my student email to show proof. Keep in mind you only get access to the minimal resources and not a lot of bells and whistles. For me, though, it’s all that I need to track my academic progress.

Additionally, I’ve noticed monday.com is a universal tool not just for tracking your degree progress. It’s open to setting up a workflow to track any personal projects you may have going, extracurriculars, even to manage any clubs you have leadership. There are so many templates you can choose from! For now, the only other projects I have been using monday.com to track are for managing my blog content here as well as tracking what videos I am working on for my youtube channel. I also use monday.com to track potential contacts, so if you’re looking to be an affiliate or apply for any sponsorships, monday.com is a good tool for tracking anything you apply for (see here for a similar internships template provided by monday.com)

Monday’s basic boards are where you can track items, and there are various different columns that can allow you to customize what you want to track with the homework. There are templates that are student-friendly including a student life tracker, an internship tracker, and I have my own academic requirements layout I use versus the template the site has built.

A Snapshot of how I organized my academic schedule with my current summer semester classes as well as fall semester. The important takeaway is figuring out what metrics are important to you that you want to track. I track how many credits I’m taking and what requirements are fulfilled, as well as when those classes are available.

If you’re looking for a tool to help you manage your homework, your academic progress, or even to track where you’ve applied for internships and jobs, monday.com is a useful and versatile tool for whatever you may need. Monday.com also has their own education program where you can learn how monday.com can be applied to your department or job called Monday-U. Remember that monday.com is free to students, but if you need a specific plan to help with your needs then they have different pricing plans that can be charged annually or monthly.

I am not affiliated or partnered with monday.com in anyway, I just love using this tool for not just managing my academics, but also my website and my RoseTheWolf36© brand.

The First Level

Who Is This Person?

Introducing the first ever post here on Amanda’s Aspirations. Jag är Amanda, I am currently 24 and I live in Utah with my two cats: Caboose and Miss Mama. I’m in school at the University of Utah studying Strategic Communications. I was originally from Silicon Valley, but I moved out in 2020 for better opportunity (and I do not have the brain or the gut for STEM.) Once I am finished with school, I am planning on moving to Phoenix, returning to the desert.

When creating a website like this, someone like me can be flooded with ideas and be overwhelmed on what kind of niche should be adopted. Someone could pursue to be a blog about eating gluten free, another could blog about their cats, and another could blog about their schooling. I want to lay out the expectations right here for you on Amanda’s Aspirations:

1. I Will Share Any Recipe I Find

I want to disclaim I am not an original chef, but I love trying new recipes and attempt to adapt my favorite recipes to be Gluten-free. I found out I have to be Gluten-free in 2021 which included a few appointments to the doctor, blood testing, and noticing how I wasn’t in anymore discomfort (though I will say go to a doctor/specialist if you suspect you are Celiac.) I will always link you to the original recipe I’ve found, or link you to the book/magazine where I found the recipe. I’m hoping one day I can start creating my own recipes with confidence, especially since my betrothed is planning his own coffee shop and wants to make it Gluten-free for me and his mom.

2. I Will Share Any Patterns I Attempt

I am a sewer/quilt-maker, and I love seeing all these wonderful patterns online. If I am to share what I’ve learned, then you need to know where I found the patterns at. I will always link you back to the original author of those patterns, so you can attempt to create those projects yourself. If I am affiliated/sponsored/partnered with them, that will always be disclaimed additionally.

3. Everything I Share Will Be in Truth

It’s part of my purpose to share the Good News to the world, and sharing any experiences I’ve learned from; that includes anything I study. It is ideal for us to be of one mind even when we interpret the same piece of scripture differently. If I have taken anything out of context, please let me know. It would be blasphemous of me to share something that I think is right when I am wrong, especially from any studies I do and share. I am not a professional Bible Scholar, but it is our responsibility as Christians to read God’s Word and to have time with Him.

This also goes for anything in the world in relation to life changes, health, and any reflections (but anything gaming related will go on my pending RoseTheWolf36© site.) This isn’t Facebook or Twitter, this a blog, and anything will be carefully researched, presented, and linked back with proper credit and hyperlinks.

4. I’m Not An Expert, Nor Am I A PhD. I Am A Human Like You

This goes back to the expectations listed above. I am to research everything before I post anything. I am not a doctor nor am I a field expert in anything. I am just a college student (at the moment) who is creating a blog about her journey on this earth with God.

Now that we have those expectations out of the way, one thing I can do right now is share something happening right now. In addition to creating a separate blog/website for my Twitch/Youtube brand RoseTheWolf36© I am going through summer classes as I transition to my fourth year at the University of Utah. The actuality is I’ve been in college for almost 10 years now because I did a concurrent enrollment program for 2 years while in high school. I can do a follow-up post talking about the benefits of concurrent enrollment programs, but I will disclaim that opportunities in California may or may not be available in any of the other 49 states here in the United States. The summer classes I am taking are about Argument and Debate, Demography, and Japanese. I can do a follow-up post about tracking academic progress and requirements, too.

I can only guess that you’re thinking: “Well, all that is great, but what do I get out of this?” That is a fair point, blogs are meant to inform and educate. Right here, I want to be able to share anything I’m going through and educate you on the wisdom I’ve learned. There is likely a better resource, but the thing to keep in mind is everyone is unique.

I invite you today to sign-up to receive notifications about each post I make here. It will be a varied schedule as I am tackling many projects, but my goal is a post every 1-2 weeks, and then after a few months to increase frequency.

Feel free to leave a comment if you have any questions or feedback!