The Diary of an Autodidact

Autodidact | Early 20s | It/Its , Xey/Xem/Xeir, They/Them | Artist, Writer, and Aspiring Curator

Hello, I am currently unnamed. This will be my space to show my journey of learning, curiosity, and knowledge seeking as well as skill building.

This blog will contain personal reflections on my learning process, educational quotes and excerpts, and studying tips.

Pillars of Interest

These are broad categories of what I want to study that more subjects will fall under.

Art, Media, Culture, & Creativity 👩‍🎨| My main passion is art and all things creative as well as media studies. This will include application and craft, history, and theory.

Social Justice 🌍 | Anything that is important to know as a global citizen; Politics, history, anthropology, critical theory, and so on. May also include subjects such as language learning since it connects me to more people.

Life Skills 🛠 | Despite being in my early 20s, I still find I struggle with many tasks that a functional adult should be able to do. Homemaking, maintenance, finance, social skills, etc.

Career Skills 💼| Anything that will get me a job!

Electives 🚀| Subjects which peak my curiosity, but aren't central to my main aspirations. This will definitely be a lot of astrophysics, theoretical mathematics, and other novelties

Metacognition 🧠| As the name suggests, this is a meta skill about understanding and refining my process of learning

02:03 PM (EDT) Hello... progress has been little. I had a dilemma at 1:00 AM to either sleep or to get my work done. Of course, I choose sleep. I always choose sleep. That being said, this essay needs to get done today! I am giving myself 6 hours to write. Then 30-60 minutes to edit. This essay needs to be done by 10:00 PM.

01:05 AM (EDT) I completed another set of notes. Two more to go! Then I will review the note and complete the written examination. Focus became a challenge, especially since this batch was based off of audio-only lectures. When I did not have to write down notes, I found myself getting restless and bored. Eventually settled upon playing a web browser game when no typing was necessary. I may now take a short rest. After this project, the next task will be creating a presentation.

05:03 AM (EDT) Took about a 2 hour rest, which was just lying in bed. Unfortunately, no sleep. It's as though I'm tired, but is it genuine need to sleep or more of a mental fatigue from taking so many notes? Progress is steady on the third batch of notes, this one will take a bit longer than the others. Honestly, there is not much to report because it is such a repetitive process in the beginning. Notes, notes, notes... Now once the actual writing process begins, it may get more interesting (aka dreadful).

06:56 AM (EDT) Finished this batch! Only one more to go, woohoo! I am beat, time to try to sleep for real. Once I wake up, hopefully I can knock out this paper in a day.

11:54 AM (EDT) Took a good long nap. Then fussed about for another hour, but as the clock slowly shifts to noon. It would be good to get started on my work again. As an aside, I am watching a HTML / CSS website layout tutorial when I have a break period. It's all starting to make sense to me! I wanna start experimenting, but that work is not going anywhere. July 31st will be freedom!

04:18 PM (EDT) All of the notes are finally done. Now I have to actually... write! AH! I'll see how it goes. If I can somehow manage to turn this out in a day, maybe I can actually pass.

04:41 PM (EDT) I ACTUALLY HAVE TO DO WORK NOW 🤢🤮

12:00 PM (EDT) - Currently, four written projects / presentations are due before the end of the month. Yet, I have not even gone through the preliminary process for any of these projects. That makes 4-5 days to do the necessary research, planning, drafting, and editing for FOUR projects! Thus far I have done two written projects and those both took 3 days each. Somehow, I will have to essentially double maybe quadruple my workload.

Can I do it? Well, let's find out. First course of action: catch up on notes.

This blog is dedicated to my self-learning journey, so I will not be going into the specifics of these projects they are related to traditional academia. Still I will share and liveblog my journey. LET'S GO!!