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Quick Timeout

This last week has offered me a brief respite from the somewhat monotonous routine of lifting Monday through Friday early in the mornings at school with my teammates. I had my last day Monday, and then worked out at the school gym on Tuesday and came home Wednesday.

Personal Updates

Lifting-wise I am happy that I am coming out of the last month and a half without any injuries. My biggest goal for camp and for this season is to stay healthy and be able to actually play in all 10 of my last games because all of those other goals do not happen if I am not able to show up. My last lifts have been pretty solid, and I have been able to lift decently heavy at home, getting over 400 on squat, and hitting 340 on bench. 

This week is also the first week that I have been seriously considering my chances of going to the NFL. Our team isolated several of the rising seniors in order to start doing some prospect background work and I was included in that group. I personally feel like I am not really at that level right now, but if I train the right way and really excel this season, then there might be a chance. Regardless, I am going to give this season my all, because the best-case scenario can give me the opportunity to play at the next level, and worst-case scenario I end my 13-year football career on a high note. 

Books/Podcasts

This week I only got through an additional two books. The first book was recommended to me by an alum and is something that could potentially help me with the writing of my thesis. This book is called Apollo's Arrow and talks about how people have reacted and behaved in previous pandemics in comparison to Covid, and I found it to be very interesting and informative. The second book that I read this week was When by Daniel Pink. I had read another book of Pink's, Drive, earlier this year and this book kept coming up on my library app. It was super interesting and I feel like I learned a lot of interesting facts and aspects of human psychology, neuroscience, and behavior which I foresee being helpful in a number of ways.

With respect to Podcasts, I have continued to stay up to date on The Daily Stoic, We Study Billionaires, Bitcoin Fundamentals, and also have been able to sprinkle in some episodes of Huberman Lab's podcasts which are incredibly informative. I still have nothing in my repertoire which keeps me up to date on current events but I do not really mind. I still get morning brew in my inbox so I suppose I could read those more closely if I wanted to, but I do not feel like I am really missing out. I get some of the major notifications from WSJ or Winno of breaking news and updates, and even that sometimes I feel like is unnecessary. 

Gratitude

For this week's gratitude post, I would like to say that I am thankful for our cars. Initially, when I set out on my journey to figure out what college I wanted to go to, I did not really think that distance would be much of a factor considering that I was not really thinking about leaving the East Coast anyway. I am really happy that I chose Princeton because it is so close and I am able to commute back and forth in a day quite easily. This has been especially helpful over the summers when I am doing football workouts during the week and can either return home that same day or come home on weekends.

This summer I was especially grateful to have a car that worked that helped to get me to and from school, groceries, and other outings with relative ease. It is very easy to get frustrated with the slew of problems that our vehicles usually have, but at the end of the day, they have helped me get from A to B, and that is all I really need them for. I feel like throughout my life I have seen just about every problem that a car can have, and it makes me much more appreciative of when things actually work in cars. I would much rather have grown up in that way than the reverse because I feel like whatever car I end up getting as my first car will be a major upgrade considering anything made after 2005 will feel like a luxury. Although in the short-term I often get frustrated and annoyed, in the long run, I think that this whole experience has and will make me a better-adjusted person. 
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