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Silver Lining

Although my body is not back to 100%, I have made some progress in this past week and it is important to look at the bright side instead of focusing on the bad. It can be easy to get wrapped up in the negatives of life, especially if it is something that can always be on your mind. I have been trying to make a habit of appreciating all the things that don't hurt, instead of focusing on the parts that do.

Personal Updates

The main part of my body that is still hurting is my hip. I am still not exactly sure what the cause of the injury was, it seems that maybe my form on squatting was a little bit off and it has set me back for a few weeks now. I have been working for it to get better, but unfortunately, it has not improved much. I am able to move forward, just not laterally, and it is attached to moving my quad. I am able to run straight, in fact, this past week I ran a 6 minute mile on the treadmill for the first time. I am taking it slow for my lower body for the time being and researching different ways to help heal faster

In better news, part of the reason I delayed this post until Monday vs. Sunday was because I was planning on benching for the first time in a while today and wanted to wait for the results. I had been in a cycle of healing and re-hurting myself for a month or two and finally decided to slow it down. I did two weeks of 100 pushups a day and did 200 a day last week in preparation before I wanted to try again. Today I was able to bench pain-free and got up to 275 for 5 on my last set. I am waiting to declare myself healed as previously I was able to bench and the pain didn't come back until the next day. I am hoping that I can put this injury behind me and start working towards getting back to where I was strength-wise.

A few other things, this week I finally got around to watching The Last Dance on Netflix. I had watched bits and pieces as it was coming out but wanted to wait until all the episodes came out so I could watch it all the way through. My boss had recommended watching a specific episode, and also I had read Eleven Rings, Phil Jackson's book about coaching the team during these championship runs, and it was interesting to get the full story from the players' and media's perspective. 

Books/Podcasts

I did slightly slow down on books this past week having surpassed my year goal of 50 in just two and a half months, but also because I decided to read Letters From a Stoic which took me a bit longer than anticipated to get through as the language is less easily digestible than much of what I have been reading so far which requires me to take it slowly and read passages multiple times to understand. That being said, I was still able to get through some interesting titles, completing the last (I believe) of Gladwell's books, all of which I have enjoyed, and getting through Taleb's Black Swan and Antifragile after already having read Fooled by Randomness and Skin in the Game. I have enjoyed the work of both of these authors and I am excited for some other books I have on my list that I will begin soon.

This week I was also able to catch up on podcasts. I am back to being caught up on the main podcast, TIP's We Study Billionaires, as well as their Bitcoin Fundamentals, show that was created a few months back. I am enjoying that podcast and have found that the episodes were especially related to what I have been reading and doing elsewhere in my life which was very interesting. I was also able to listen to a few that I had saved for later that were recommended elsewhere. I am still looking for another podcast or two to listen to more regularly.

Gratitude

This week I am thankful for the weather. Here in NJ, the weather is finally starting to improve and the last bit of snow is just about melted. The ability to go outside and walk around without having to dress warmly, and having no snow on the nearby fields is something I have been looking forward to for a while. Additionally, I love that I am seeing more people out at parks, on walks, and just generally getting back to more of a normal life. It was easy to forget how people used to gather and actually do things outside with the pandemic and cold keeping people indoors. Hopefully, as people get vaccinated and the weather keeps improving the world will start to open up and things will go back to somewhat of a normal, even if it is a bit different than it was a year ago.

I took the opportunity of the beautiful day yesterday to go and play some pickup basketball with some friends and hit a driving range. I am absolutely horrendous at golf, and also got pretty badly sunburnt, but at the end of the day, I was really happy to go outside again and spend some time with some friends I hadn't seen in a while. I am excited as it warms up to spend more time outside and connect with friends outside whether it be at parks or having bonfires. I think that this year, more than a normal year, I am happy to see the weather start to warm up because it gives me hope that the world will maybe get back to where it was, and perhaps next school year I will be able to have a season and some semblance of what I was hoping to experience for my senior year. 

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