My Personal Autumn Curriculum

Giving my curiosity structure and building an archive of knowledge

Aug 31, 2025

The air has become colder as the leaves fall so elegantly to the ground. The green tops of trees slowly change to beautiful shades of yellow, orange, and red. The warmth of a fire becomes ever so apparent as we reach the end of August. I thought this would be the most appropriate time to share the structure to my curiosity. This is my Autumn Curriculum.

The Special Areas of Study

It’s taken me a while to think about the subjects or topics I’d like to study. As in a while, I mean at least two weeks before, I’ve finally settled down with my current curriculum. It’s taken a lot of convincing myself to not try and cram everything into this curriculum, as I am still learning to slow down while I navigate this world of fast-paced productivity, dwindling attention span, and the slow and agonizing death of creativity.

But without further ado, I present to you the areas of study for my curriculum:

Art - As a natural-born creative (as we all are), I have what I like to call The Artist’s Eye. Every moment is a chance to take a photo, get an idea, or paint a piece. For this area, I’d like to learn more about photography, film, and editing.
Literature - I think literature should be part of everyone’s curriculum. Classic literature, to be specific. For this area of study, I will explore romantic entanglement. I went to Book A Million today just to buy one of Jane Austin’s novels, and ended up getting a 2-in-1 for $20 (a total steal).
Writing - As a writer, I will always strive to improve it, even by 1% every day. That is why I will be studying storytelling and prose. Captivating my dearest readers with a great story and words that keep you hanging on through to the end is important to me. But, I would also like to be prepared for when I am to start writing my novel that I have abandoned for two years.
Science - Most of you are familiar with my series on this blog, Quantum Musings. There is still much learning to be done, but I think it’s time to take a break from learning quantum mechanics and learn something. For this autumn season, I will be pivoting to learning about time, relativity, and the great and vast cosmos.
Culture - And for my final area of study, I will be learning about West African Folklore. After getting the result from my DNA test a few weeks ago and learning that my ancestors did indeed originate from West Africa, I want to learn as much about the culture as I possibly can. Perhaps learn the language of the lands in another curriculum.

Those are the areas of study I’ve settled for—a few among many. As for me, being who I am and always planning, I’ve already started mapping out what I want to learn about for the next season. Which will be revealed in late November, early December.

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Assignments to Solidify My Learning

The assignments I’ve curated are simple. My primary goal is to avoid burnout and overwhelm while doing something I enjoy: studying. So, I’ve kept my list of assignments small for that exact reason, but also to solidify what I’d learn during the season. Here is my list of assignments:

Build a photography portfolio.
Film, edit, and post my first vlog to my YouTube channel. Write 2-3 short stories.
Write a detailed book review about Pride & Prejudice and Emma by Jane Austin.
Write a personal research essay about time, relativity, and the cosmos.
Write about my favorite West African Folk Tale and why I liked it.
Complete the activities inside The Artist’s Way.

See, simple right? Similar to the amount of assignments you’d get in a traditional curriculum at a university. The only difference is that this is more affordable compared to owing up to $20k in student loans, paying for room and board, food, course materials, etc.

Goals for this Curriculum

The goals I’ve written are pretty lengthy and word-heavy, so I will try my best to simplify them as much as I can without leaving too much detail out.

During the season of Autumn, I will learn how to take beautiful photos with both a DSLR camera and my iPhone 12 (old, I know.)
I will learn as much as I can about West African Folk tales from books, articles, videos, and firsthand accounts if I can.
By the end of September, I will be equipped with the basics of filming and editing videos in a vlogging style to romanticize my life a little bit.
During the next month, I will learn and understand the fundamentals of storytelling to improve my writing and to give an interesting element to my vlogs and photos.
For next month and the month after, I will practice close reading techniques while reading Jane Austin’s Pride & Prejudice and Emma.
After this season, I would like to be more conversationally fluent in topics such as time, relativity, and cosmos, and be able to curate my own theories.
As a creative, I will understand what it means to be a creative person and how to navigate the world by reading and completing The Artist’s Way.

This post was a little long, yes. But I feel the image alone wouldn’t do any justice on its own. Maybe at the surface level, if that. During this season, I will be posting in a new series, Fall 2025, my progress as I traverse through my wonderfully made curriculum. And I hope you guys will join me too. The will be a couple of announcements made come Sept. 1st regarding the future of this blog, and potentially the creation of another. So, do stay tuned!

If you have enjoyed reading about my tri-monthly curriculum as much as I enjoyed sharing it, share it with your friends who might be looking for a bit of inspiration. Or if you are looking for inspiration before the “academic year” begins. I look forward to seeing the curricula others create.