#4... Strong start!

I am proud to report that, upon the end of month #1, I've plowed through book #4. Although I still have many months to stay on this track, I'm glad I've found time for leisure reading. Which is no small feat considering the fact that I'm two weeks into my LAST semester at the University of Minnesota.

Anyway, the fourth book I've read in 2013 is one that most people have read for school, but I never did.

Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer

It was pretty good. I didn't realize how long Christopher McCandless spent "living off the land." Pretty impressive and I could/would never do it. I hate nature. Also the cold. It wasn't amazing or my favorite book of all time by no means, but it was definitely worth reading.

Other things I have impressively accomplished in the past two weeks:

1. Actually completing all the assigned textbook readings on schedule. The classes in my major are notorious for useless required textbooks that never actually help you when it comes to the tests. The professors literally say that they will not test you on the information in the textbook and that all questions will be based solely on lecture. Is this a motivator for taking the time to read the textbooks? No way. I still don't think it's necessary. But I guess I decided that it can't actually HURT and that one extra repetition of the intake of information might actually cause a small boost when it comes to testing time. And let's face it, I don't always give lectures my undivided attention anyway. We'll see if I follow through.

2. Discovering my own speech coaching strategies. No matter how involved you've been with high school speech/debate, there's always a learning curve involved when you start coaching. It takes a couple years to figure out what works for you and what makes the kids better. I've come to a place where every practice seems really productive and it's showing in their performances, which is cool to see.

3. Getting a gym membership and GOING TO THE GYM. This is probably my best recent accomplishment. I went three days in a row this week! I hate running... hate it. But I've actually come to enjoy going to the gym because it's the one part of the day that I get to have "me time." Also, I'm totally doing the Color Run, so I clearly need to get in shape.