Thursday, January 31, 2013

February Challenge: In Which Blogger Won't Let Me Use Symbols


I’m calling my February challenge "Heart/Love Symbol" Strong. Besides it being completely adorable, it’s timely and appropriate considering it’ll be Valentine’s Day, however commercialized that is. But before I go into details about what "Heart/Love Symbol" Strong entails, here’s a recap.

 January was a mixed bag. I could have been nicer to baristas. I could have exercised more. (I didn’t even go to the gym once!) Surprisingly, I’m not beating myself up over not meeting or starting certain goals as much as I normally would have. As long as I keep trying and never give up, then I know I’ll be fine!

For the Triumphant moments, there were a couple of stand out moments. I cooked a real Filipino meal for a houseful of people and no one got sick! I also started attending a monthly Writers Group! It was nice to have a rough draft of a complete short story!

My Commitment to Literacy is going well. Volunteering at the Children’s Book Bank has been, for the most part, rewarding especially when the people are incredibly passionate about books. Working at Green Bean Books has been great even if I do feel exhausted sometimes. A little girl said “Thank you, Mr. Book Man” to me after I rang her up the other day. It’s those little moments that remind me why I love books and why I want to promote reading as much as possible. My other blog, “Chronicles”, has gotten 34 replies so far this year which means that almost 3 dozen books will be donated!

And, now, for "Heart/Love Symbol" Strong.

The first aspect is Relationships. While I’ve decided to not to be so closed off (as in, for the longest time, my mindset was to be single forever), the real focus here is still Family and Friends. I’m looking forward to hanging out- and making plans to do so. I’ll be buying my plane tickets to Vegas once I cash my paycheck! “29 Again” will be Festive!

The second aspect is to be Heart Healthy. I’ve asked my friend for an easy-to-prepare Vegetarian meal I can make. I’ll eat more fruits and vegetables (at least one serving of either one every day) and less fast food (probably, no fast food at all February 10-28). For my monthly cooking challenge, I was thinking of baking some sort of chocolaty dessert but perhaps I’ll make carrot zucchini muffins instead.

Of course, I’ll have to make of an effort to exercise more. While I probably can’t afford a gym membership again, I can exercise in the comfort of my room everyday. Goals aren’t effective without specific, quantitative points so I’ll have to figure this out more.

The third aspect is to Do What You Love. I’m excited about writing again. I love being a bookseller and I just want to keep getting better at it. I just have to manage my time better to do everything I want! Plus, if I’m serious about going back to school to be a teacher, I need to look into that more. (Of course, I also need to do something about finding an additional job!)

And, I just want to say thank you to everyone who takes time out of their busy lives to read this and replies to my Facebook or Twitter pages or any of my blogs. Like when I was feeling bleh, and you guys shared the goals you were working on and the books you were reading. That made my "Heart/Love Symbol" "Happy Face Symbol."

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