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Better Days Ahead

The weather is warming up and it is seeming like spring may be here to stay. This week is the first week that my hope for returning to school next year has really materialized. Seeing the world start to open up, vaccination becoming more widespread, and seeing people out and about again gives me hope that next fall things will be able to return somewhat to normal. (This picture is mainly because I am excited about bonfire season and had my first one of the year this week)

Personal Life/Updates

I have not had too much going on this week. I worked a bit more than usual and had to attend a lot of meetings for school and football, but other than that nothing too serious took place. The most noteworthy thing was that I secured a thesis advisor which is something that I was somewhat nervous about given that I did not have the best experience with my JP advisor last year. I am hopeful that I can get the ball rolling in the next month or so and go into next year with a solid plan and hopefully get a jump start on my thesis and be able to enjoy the second half of my senior year once I am taking fewer classes, have fewer commitments, and am hopefully living in the club. Additionally, I was able to schedule a vaccine through a covid angel who has been crushing the game of finding available time slots, so I will have more on that next week.

Regarding my body, this week I was actually able to start benching again with no pain. My chest pain is not totally eliminated as I still feel pain when doing certain movements, but I was able to bench twice, once going up to a set of 5 at 275 and then 5 sets of 10 at 225, without pain. I am hopeful that if I continue to be cautious and take it slowly that I will be back on the road to improvement in the next few weeks. My hip on the other hand has not seen any progress. I have tried some different tactics and stretches but nothing seems to help that much. I will probably go and see a doctor in the coming weeks to try and figure out what exactly is wrong and how I can improve as quickly as possible.

Books/Podcasts

This week I have read Nudge, Enlightenment Now, and The Almanack of Naval Ravikant. I thought all 3 of these books were very interesting and have given me lessons to immediately apply to my life. I am excited when I read a book that recommends other books because it gives me a rabbit hole to go down so that I can use other people to filter choices for me. I think that moving forward now that I have hit the goal of 50 books this year, I may move to integrate some more classics into my reading list. I think by going back to the fundamentals of some of these different concepts I will be able to understand the origins of different ideas instead of interpretations of those ideas which can get twisted with time and distance from the source. 

As far as podcasts, I have not been listening to many this week, but I have added a few episodes to my list that I encountered on different platforms. Twitter, for example, is something that I have never been into, but through reading and some different sources, I have found that it can be a good source of information if you are able to filter through some of the nonsense. I think by only following a small number of people that are providing value to my life I can actually use the platform as a source of knowledge and further learning instead of the black holes of my free time that Snapchat, Instagram, Reddit, and Youtube have become. I am excited to find more interesting episodes and topics to further explore moving forward

Gratitude

For this week's gratitude post I have decided on reflection. This may be a weird thing to say that I am thankful for, but in the busyness of my life, I realize that not everyone is able to have the time to reflect on their life and make changes or question why they do the things that they do. I attribute a lot of the positive changes I have been able to make in my life over the past year to the ability to step back from life and reflect on my decisions and choices up to that point. I believe that I have expanded my mind, improved my health, strengthened relationships, and have an improved attitude towards life.

It is tough looking back at my life now and seeing all the time that I was wasting on unhelpful and unproductive tasks. I would come up with excuse after excuse as to why I didn't have time to read, or that I needed to watch TV or movies or play videogames as a way to destress. I am hopeful that I will not require those things next year and can turn to reading or some sort of reflection instead. Not that there is anything wrong with sitting around watching TV, but it was problematic that I felt like I couldn't do anything else to destress and relax.

In the past year, I think I have developed a very useful perspective on different areas of my life. In school, I am now excited to go back and take classes that I actually find interesting and useful instead of just what I heard was easiest or had the highest student ratings (although ratings are still very important). I have a new attitude towards football and training realizing how little time I may have left with the sport, and instead of looking at practice and workouts as a burden, appreciating the ability to participate in such a unique experience. So too in relationships, I feel that I will approach next year trying to take advantage of opportunities to forge meaningful connections because I have been in relative isolation for so long. I am excited for the ups and downs that this next year will bring, and more importantly how I will use my newly gained knowledge to interpret and learn from them.
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