New Year Updates

It's funny, now that I've re-read some of my older posts to see where I'm at now and how much different it is than the plans I had. My very last post from this past summer involved me talking about how I was going to switch into Microbiology. Well, as it turns out, I did end up going the English route. It treated me pretty well for the most part, though a little tedious at times. But it should be known by now how much I enjoy literature and writing.

The problem I have is that I'm often kind of indecisive, perhaps because I am really flexible and I can stake out the best points of different sides of a situation, so it really doesn't bother me much one way or the other how things end up going. It's a hard sentiment for me to describe, but sometimes it is problematic because it gets to the point where I tend to undermine myself and any real progress (especially in the realms of future planning and school). Part of the issue, I believe, is that I have so many different interests academically, and now that I'm at university I see so many opportunities, that I have a sense of wanting to "do it all". Obviously, that doesn't work out so well for a number of reasons.

Case in point: planning for this spring semester, the same thing happened to me. Well, in Fall, I took French, Russian, and two English classes. Well, I decided I wanted to switch it up. For quite a while I intended to switch over and do pre-physical therapy, which is a program leading to a career that definitely has it's perks: more active lifestyle, good pay, and being involved with helping people in an absolutely quantifiable way. Well, now I'm back on track so to speak, and I've honed in on a similar-but-different path for myself (once again, in the end, passion has won out for me over the promise of money). I am now planning on a double major in Comparative Literature and French for my undergrad. Again, to re-iterate, I love languages, literature, and writing. So I feel like it will be a great fit. Now, for time reasons, it is possible that I may not complete the French major unless I complete a study abroad experience. It is do-able, but if in the end I'm ready to graduate with complit, I probably will not restrain myself just to finish the French. Besides, more than having a piece of paper, I am interested in my abilities in the language. I figure when I go on to grad school I can always further my education in languages (maybe I will even pick up Russian again--I really did enjoy it, but it was such a huge work load on a day to day basis that I couldn't handle it for this semester). I owe a lot to my couple of instructors, friends, and girlfriend for dealing with my continual debate over which path I am going to, or should take. I know it can be a lot to bear at times.

So, in other news, I've been working out again pretty steadily for a bit over two months now. One of my resolutions is to ensure that I don't give up on it at all this year, and make sure I'm at least doing something every week to stay up on it. I'm happy with my results thus far, and really trying to make an effort to push to 170 now. I want to be in top condition before we make our 2nd annual road trip to the Arnold Expo in early March, a kind of Midwestern Mecca for fitness enthusiasts. Hopefully I can reach my weight goal by the end of this month, and I intend to push myself to do so, but like always my mindset is that of having an overall healthy lifestyle (more of a holistic view than any one specific thing). Naturally there has been quite a boost in attendance at my local gym over this past week or so, but sadly a lot of people don't end up keeping up with their new-found (or newly rediscovered) gym-going habit. I think the problem a lot of people have is that they look at the whole gym situation and fitness generally in a poor way; in such a negative light, in fact, that it makes it impossible to maintain. I try and look at the gym in an optimistic, easy-going, thankful kind of way... yes, it's hard, and it requires commitment, but the payoff is huge. If you just jump in, sweat off a few pounds, and then take off, what good is that really doing you in the long run?

I would like to do another post, perhaps later today, describing in more detail my New Years Resolutions, and a re-visiting of the 30/60/90 plan that I embraced last year. I will try and make it work again this time with added efficiency. I think now I try and look at goals less as "absolutes" and more as something that we strive toward with our best effort and a continual desire to keep improving ourselves. Of course we have shortcomings, and at times we are going to blatantly fail, but as long as we don't give up, we will always be going in a positive direction.