An Update On My Summer Bucket List // In Which I Watch Marvel Movies, Read, & See the Sunrise

Well, summer is over.

Part of me is sad about this, because my days spent reading and blogging as I pleased are over, and I’ve already returned to the routine of (online) school, dance, and with that comes stress. But I’m also very excited for fall to come soon and for the semblance of normalcy that’s already returned to my life with school and everything else. Summer being over means we’re making our way through 2020!

This summer will probably go down as one of the most abnormal summers of my life? Usually I would spend it reading, hanging out with my friends, possibly traveling- and yes, I did a lot of reading, but nothing else went the way it normally would have. I was able to spend time with friends outdoors occasionally, but I didn’t go anywhere and didn’t venture out of my house very often at all.

Despite the setbacks and social distancing measures, this summer was not without its highlights: my whole family was at home, so we got to spend quality time together. I also had (almost too much) free time, and got to spend more time relaxing and doing things that interest me than I normally would.

At the beginning of summer (when I was naive and thought COVID might actually get better instead of worse where I live) I made a summer bucket list, so this is going to be my follow-up to that! I looked back at these goals a little bit, but not a lot, so I’m actually very curious to see if I mostly achieved them or mostly failed.

Read 35 books.❌✅

I ended up reading 32 books this summer, so even though I didn’t entirely achieve this goal, I am giving myself a check in addition to the red X just because I…almost made it, and I feel like that counts for something.

I also ended up being able to read almost all the books I listed on my original post as wanting to read (Clap When You Land, Strange the Dreamer, Lucky Caller, and The Henna Wars– the only one I didn’t get to was The Fountains of Silence). I tried to read a wide variety of books this summer, and I’m excited that I was able to not only continue to read contemporaries, but I also read a lot more fantasy. My favorites of the summer include~

(The way these covers fit together in a nice color scheme is my favorite.) I also had a goal to read at least 5 classics, and I only ended up reading one (Northanger Abbey), but that’s okay! I think I knew I probably wasn’t going to achieve that one because I have no self-control when it comes to reading contemporaries and I’m also a mood reader.

I wish I had been able to read 35 books because it would have been more satisfying to check it off without an X, but I’m still happy with the amount of books I read and hopefully I got ahead enough on my Goodreads challenge to make up for whatever disaster is about to come its way during the school year.

Watch more Marvel movies.✅

I actually did this! Watching the Marvel movies was one of my biggest goals for last summer, and I failed on it majorly. However, this summer I watched nearly all of them- as you can see on my Marvel watching log, I have way more checked off now (and it’s fine, I’ll just pretend like the lighting isn’t slightly off in the pictures and that they’re framed the same).

I managed to get my whole family in on it with me, since we were all at home all the time this summer, and they got really into the movies too! It was really fun to watch with them and I know I’ll look back fondly on the many July nights spent watching a Marvel movie after dinner.

I have four more, and one of those is Avengers: Endgame so I’m not quite done, but I think I’ll be able to finish all of them in the next month or so. I feel so invested in the characters and the storylines, and as Annie stated in this post of hers, I love the feeling of knowing that so many other people also love these movies and that they’re so widely watched and enjoyed by the general public and now I can be a part of that.

My favorite superheroes and movies aren’t solidified yet, but as of now, I think my favorite movies are Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Iron Man 3, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and Captain Marvel.

Have a book and movie Harry Potter marathon.❌

I didn’t do this this summer, half because I was busier reading other books and watching other movies, but half because it just didn’t feel right.

In the past, I’ve written many posts about Harry Potter and practically made it my brand, but due to the continuous harmful words of J.K. Rowling, I will no longer be recommending or promoting Harry Potter on my blog. Although my love for the world of Harry Potter and the nostalgia I feel in regards to this series will always stay with me, I don’t see any reason that I should continue to talk about a series written by an author who has hurt so many people (great posts on this topic by Kay, Chana, and Margaret).

In the future, I’ll only be mentioning Harry Potter if I do a reread and include it in my monthly wrap-up or in passing references to the characters or plot, but won’t be explicitly recommending the series.

Wake up to see the sunrise.✅

Did I wake up at 6:20 am on my last day of summer vacation just because I wanted to achieve this goal and had run out of time to do so? Yes, I did. Was it worth it? I’m not sure, but at least I can check this off now, so that’s exciting.

I forgot about this goal until I started working on this update post (at the time of which, I still had a couple days of vacation left), but luckily it wasn’t too hard to wake up early. It probably would have been a prettier sunrise experience if I had gone to a park or somewhere where I could see it super clearly, but I pretty much just got out of bed and stood in the street in front of my house to watch it.

I could kind of see the colors but not really? I also drove around my neighborhood a little bit to try to see it better, but after I circled around the same morning walkers three times I went back home because I didn’t want to seem suspicious, haha.

Even though I wish I had done this earlier in the summer and gotten to see a more beautiful sunrise, I’m still really glad I did this! I’m glad I followed through on the goal, and I also liked getting up early and starting my day hours before I normally would.

Start writing again.❌

I’m disappointed in myself for not doing this- while I did look back at some of the stories in my Google drive from three-ish years ago (the last time I was really writing), I didn’t write anything new. However, I’ve realized that I…really miss writing??

This is a recent revelation, so I didn’t have enough summer to explore it, but I think I’m going to start implementing some kind of writing into my daily or weekly routine, even if it’s something small, like journaling or poetry. I don’t have any ideas for what I want want to write as far as longer stories go, I just know that I genuinely miss writing and want to dedicate time to it again.

Make a whole meal for my family.✅

I surprised myself by doing this…and it was so much fun! I did a little bit of cooking in July, and when I say a little bit, I mean very little. I started off by making pancakes by myself, although that wasn’t too complicated because most of it was already pre-made. (Baby steps though.)

My next step was to actually make a meal! I will say that my mom helped me out with this, but I’m still counting it because you can’t go from zero to operating multiple pots on the stove by yourself, so I definitely needed some assistance. However, I was the one who found the recipe online and I tried to do as much of it as possible by myself.

I ended up making beef and broccoli noodles and it was SO GOOD!! (I used this recipe.) I give the it-tasting-good credits to this recipe and my mom for making sure I didn’t burn anything down but still, I’m glad I wrote down this goal because I never would have made it otherwise and it ended up being really fun and very tasty. I would highly recommend cooking a meal for your family!

Do college research.✅

There isn’t much to say for this one, except I did spend time researching colleges and working on writing essays and yet I still have so much to do. If you have any advice for the college admissions process, or if you’re going through the same thing right now, I would gladly take any advice or comments or commiserate with anyone.

Make my room cozier.✅

I did a few things around my room this summer to make it ~cozy~, including hanging up my ukulele next to my bookshelf and creating a photo cloud on my closet door.

I can’t show the photo cloud because it’s full of pictures of me with my friends, but here’s my uke! I used to be much more musical than I am now, but I did start learning how to play betty on it this summer and that’s been so nice.

I was going to paint my desk white again, because the paint has started coming off over the past few years, but I didn’t end up doing that. But I’m going to count this goal as a success because I did the photo cloud and ukulele as I planned. :’)

Watch The Hunger Games movies.❌

I’m majorly disappointed that I did *not* accomplish this goal. When I included it on my original bucket list post, half of the comments were people surprised that I had never watched The Hunger Games movies and here we are two months later and I still haven’t watched them.

I will use the argument that a) I was busy watching the Marvel movies, b) I didn’t know where to watch them, and c) I am bad at watching movies anyway, so the fact that I watched about 20 Marvel movies (plus Lady Bird and Pride & Prejudice) was kind of my max for movies. I’m still sad I didn’t watch them though, because I actually am really interested in it, so I promise I will be trying to watch them as soon as possible.

I definitely didn’t achieve all of these goals, but that’s okay. This summer was a very strange one to live through, but as everyone has been saying lately: we’re living through history. I hope you all had a wonderful summer, if you’re in the Northern hemisphere, or a wonderful winter if you live in the Southern hemisphere.

Thank you very much for reading my rambles about what I did this summer, and I hope you’re all doing well and staying healthy and safe!✨

Is your summer over, and if so, how was it? What do you like to cook? Have you seen any Marvel movies? I would love to talk with you in the comments.

Photo by Taisiia Stupak on Unsplash >> Credits for the image in my featured image