Re-commitment

Now that I have been home from New York for a few days, I've started my life over in some ways. I've explained it to people recently as getting back to my "real life" but really it is starting over. I decided to recommit myself to living a certain way. And it's not that I was living a bad life or that I was unhappy. On the contrary, the two months I spent in New York were quite happy and fulfilling and though last semester was full of tough classes and the like, generally speaking I was still doing pretty well.

But it was time for a change and I'm completely stoked about it.

For one thing, I'm abiding by my Four-Fold Mission more than I ever have before. For those who haven't heard me spout off these four points before, I'll give them to you now:

1) Happiness is a choice.
2) Change happens when the pain of staying the same is greater than the pain of changing.
3) The secrets of life are hidden behind the word cliche.
4) Don't forget to be awesome.

Very recently, Eli McCann, who writes the It Just Gets Stranger blog, had this to say of choices and happiness:

 "There is so much more joy in this life to be had if we decide to be happy rather than let our happiness depend upon the decisions of other people." 

So after reading that I was 100% certain that Eli is a total genius. (His blog has become one of my absolute favorite reads because of both his incredible sense of humor and knack for profundity.)

Beyond my re-commitment to those four points, I'm also taking on a new fitness regimen. Phrasing it like that sounds totally pretentious so let's just say I'll be working out a lot more. And by "a lot more" I mean every day but Sunday. This is where the second point of my four-fold mission really comes in. It's not painful to be who I am right now but changing physically is something I really want to do. I've written countless times about ShayCarl and his weight loss and how he's made an incredible life for himself. It's not that Shay wasn't happy before but once he really started losing weight, the change in his attitude toward life was astounding. I can run a couple miles and be fine but I'm capable of more than that. I know I am. I have little to no upper body strength. But I know I'm capable of more than that.

On Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays I'm running. Just two days ago I started the Couch-to-5K running plan. Like I said already, I can run two miles, but I figure I might as well give myself a strict schedule to follow to work up to something more. On Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays I'm doing push-ups. Remember the time I started working toward doing 100 push-ups consecutively? I'm starting that plan again and this time I'll finish it. Last night I was talking to my friend Trent (of the Egg) about all this stuff I'm doing with my life and he brought up a good point about strength. He said it's not so important that I'm physically strong but that I feel strong. He's totally right. What I love about taking control of my life in this way is that I get to be both physically strong and, I guess, mentally strong.

The second to last thing I'm focusing on is cooking. This isn't really a thing I'm committing to again but rather something I'm just going to do again since I didn't get to cook at all in New York. Tonight I'll probably make a master list of ingredients I need to buy so I can start cooking all the Sorted Food recipes I put in a playlist.

And the final thing I'm working on is reading a bunch of typography and graphic design books. This is another thing that isn't a re-commitment but rather just a thing I can finally do now that I have the whole library at my disposal once again. I've already checked out four books on the aforementioned topics and read parts of two of them. It's the most interesting summer reading I've done in a long time. Typography is the coolest subject ever. I already love words so I figure it's a good idea to understand why people choose to make them look like they do.

Living life like I am now is very empowering, more so than I thought it would be. It's gearing up to be an absolutely fantastic summer. The weekends will be full of boating, camping, frisbee, reading, cooking, eating, movie-going and all sorts of other good stuff. Every night I've been back has been spent with my amazing friends and I know the rest of my summer nights will be just the same. From the first night I was back and Ben coming over at midnight to last night doing Taco Tuesday and seeing Monsters University with Badger & others, it's been wonderful. Tonight I'm supposed to see Phillip (also of the Egg) and get ice cream with Ben, and then tomorrow I'm getting dinner w/ Trent. Reuniting with all my friends makes me feel so alive.

100 Push Ups

On Monday I decided that was a thing I wanted to do. So about 9.5 weeks from now, I'll be able to do 100 push ups. How cool is that?

I've made goals in the past related to exercise, working out and improving my physical self. Some have stuck. Some have not. I've got a really good feeling about this one, though. I think it has something to do with my deep-seated desire to have nice looking arms/biceps. I'm sure it's not surprising that ShayCarl had a hand in this idea as well. (My exercise goals always seem to come back to him.) It also probably has to do with the fact that I can't do a full pull up. I figure I should be able to do at least one pull up in case I ever fall off a cliff and have to pull myself back up onto firm ground.

College has been a great time overall for improving myself as a person. A lot of it has happened, I believe, somewhat unintentionally and unnoticeably. That's just what happens when you have awesome roommates and a wonderful group of friends. Some things I've consciously worked on, but I think my favorite improvements have been the ones that really have come progressively over time.

So here's to 100 push ups and all the other lifestyle changes that undoubtedly will come with every new semester.

Speaking of new semesters, winter semester, in some ways, is just around the corner. There are only seven full days of classes left and after that only a few days of exams. I'm stoked to head home to Wisconsin in just two weeks from Saturday. And then I get THREE FULL WEEKS in the lovely Midwest. I almost took an early mini vacation to Iowa this weekend, though. BYU is playing Iowa State in basketball, and my best friend Kate happens to go to school there. I may or may not have checked for flights from Utah to Iowa . . . Had I found something for $250 or under, it's safe to say I very likely would have gone. But alas, the airline ticket gods were not so kind.

What I'm most excited for before heading back home is my apartment's Feliz Navidad Cheertastic Christmas Fiesta. It's going to be half salsa party, half Christmas cookie extravaganza. I think we're even going to make people take awkward family photos in front of our Christmas tree. Basically, it's going to be fantastic.

Have a great end of the semester, my friends.

Last YouTube video I watched: Disney Princess Leia

Goals & motivation (I need a little of both)

There's the biggest goal of the semester: 150 miles in 16 weeks. I made a little chart where I can fill in the miles. It's fun to color in little boxes, right? I'm counting on that to motivate me, as well as, of course, ShayCarl. (He seems to be at the root of so many of my goals.)

So basically he's made me believe I can run 150 miles in 16 weeks. Lorraine has too. (Stay tuned for a semester full of running 5ks and probably a half marathon, all thanks to here.) I titled my playlist for this semester "Shaytember/fall 2012" because the songs on it really need to motivate me, in more ways than just running too. This semester, the first of what is technically my senior year, I'm balancing a lot of things: 14 credits spread out between 5 classes; a job in the library I've already come to love; wonderful & hilarious roommates; plenty of loyal & caring friends; going to as many sporting events as posssible; time w/ Jordan split between studying, playing music, watching sports & just enjoying each other's company in general; the desire to make delicious food . . . The list goes on.

Here's to hoping it all turns out okay.

Not too shabby

Last YouTube video I watched: Evolution of Music Live

This is me

Since I got my orange laptop cover at Christmas, it's been my goal to make it look as me as possible. Thus far I seem to be succeeding.

As if a ridiculously orange cover wasn't me enough . . . It's a somewhat eclectic mix, one that I love quite a bit. Whenever I get new stickers, as I did yesterday, I get more excited than I probably should. Yesterday's additions include Rodeo Arcade & Maker.

By far the all-time favorite sticker though is my media pass from the Real Salt Lake home opener earlier this year. One other person on campus has one of those; her name is Taylor and we're journalism BFFs so we covered the game together. The day we went to that game was the day I finally knew without a shadow of a doubt that I wanted to write sports.

Every sticker on here means something to me and represents a little of who I am. Well, except for the random green one. I don't know where I found it even but I thought it looked cool. It's by no means a comprehensive representation of who I am but I like to think people can look at it and learn at least a little bit about my personality. Hopefully they wouldn't think that's all I am, though. When people fail to imagine each other complexly we get into all kinds of trouble.

As I mentioned yesterday I did indeed spend my evening reading The Fault In Our Stars. I read it all. Cover to cover. It was wonderful. I forgot how intense and thought-provoking it was. Though I knew exactly what was going to happen, some of it felt as raw and intriguing as the first time I read it back in January. My favorite part of reading again was probably annotating. I have this weird aversion to writing in books so I use Post-It notes instead. It was probably more brilliant this time around than it was before.

It probably makes things a little inconvenient for others if they borrow my books but such is life.

Last YouTube video I watched: On Leaving [I strongly encourage you watch this video. It's especially worth your time]

Meh

Today was not wonderful, nor was it terrible. It kind of just was, if that makes sense.

This morning I had orientation for my new job. It's going to be an interesting and busy semester, that's for sure, but I'm excited nonetheless.

The most exciting part of the day, by far, was checking the mail. I got two packages. One was from Amazon, a book for a class. The other was my ShayCarl Volcom tee. I found a way to get it 50% off so I really could not resist. They also stuffed two stickers in the envelope so now my laptop case has some new decoration; I couldn't be more pleased.

Well, I'm going to read The Fault In Our Stars now. I need some John Green in my life today, I can just tell it's one of those days. I'm feeling weird about life and decisions today, so I figure reading will help me put things in a different perspective and give me a way to think about what's been going on.

Last YouTube video I watched: Song For The Painfully Indie

Edit: I've decided for the rest of the afternoon I'm ditching my phone. So if you're in dire need of conversing w/ me, the best way to do so would probably be e-mail.