Practice

Woke up to a foggy, drizzly morning today, complete with humidity and a runny nose. With school computer gone, I can't offer more specific details, because with computer also went Weatherbug. So hopefully it suffices to say that the weather is wet, wet, and perhaps a little more wet. But that is okay.

Today I wish to start a little challenge for the week--writing a short story everyday for seven days. The story needs to be original and have a beginning, middle, and an end. It needn't be very good. That's all I'm looking to do. The challenge begins when I wake up each day, and ends when I go to bed in the evening. I hope thereby to practice the art of story-telling, and perhaps improve the craft in me through repetition and considered reflection. My idea for today centers on a "barbarian" entering the "civilized" world, and a "civilized" man entering a "barbarian" world. Not sure how it will work (or if it will for that matter), but I am excited to give it a go.

I've also begun, now that college is finished, looking for books on German history. I can say there are far too many, but I think if I am to study the history of that country professionally someday, it would be wise to do a little reading in the field. I should also like to travel there in the next year, but such things require much money and time, and it is unclear how much of either I shall have in the coming months. Save your dough ol' boy :).

So that is that. The season of practice has begun. The peak seasons will invariably come, with the marathon in November, the GRE's sometime in the next few months, and the application to graduate school sometime before December. Of course, the real academic peak will need to occur should I ever find my way to graduate school and have to write a dissertation. That is a peak one should bear in mind, though it be several years off at the soonest. We shall be in need of all our skills when that time comes.

But that is why we practice. A music teacher once said to me that practice=confidence. That is true in some ways, I think. But the practice must be right to yield the full and desired effect, and that is not always clear. So with all this "practice" in the coming months, it would seem essential to identify the right sort of practice one should be doing. I'll have to reflect on that from time to time, and rest assured, kind readers, that I will share some of that reflection when it comes to pass.

Meanwhile, I shall also have to find some convincing projects to make my stay at home less a burden than a service. Hopefully I shall only require a year to move forward. But things may change, and new opportunities may come to the fore. We shall see, we shall see.