Albatross, hamster, and a turquoise horse

Wow.  I cannot believe that I have been writing on 750words every day for the past 34 days.  I have yet to break my streak, and I think that in itself is kind of exceptional.  Doing something every single day is difficult; it's not always easy to put away a twenty-minute or so chunk of time.  Like today, for instance.  I woke up early, went to the university to work on a project, went to work, and I just got home and was supposed to leave again for a party.  But you learn to make time in your daily routine; like now, when I managed to squeeze in my writing between all my other activities.  It is hard to really understand the magnitude of committing to do something everyday until you actually begin, but I don't regret starting this project at all.

Forcing myself to make time for writing has done so many good things for me.  It helps collect my thoughts; it has gotten me into creative writing again; it forces me to reflect on what is going on around me.  Sometimes I spend my entry just whining and complaining.  During the week before exams I used it to help get myself organized with regards to my studying -- I had no idea what I was going to do in what order and was feeling overwhelmed, but by the time my 750 words had been written I felt more relaxed and with a plan in mind.  For the past few days I've written short stories:  today it was about a teenage criminal living in West Vancouver in the year 2028; yesterday it was a tale based on a character from an episode of a television show I had watched; a few days before that it was a psychological thriller about a wall, of all things.  Sometimes I talk about deep stuff like religion or my plans for the future, and sometimes I just ramble on about Jessica's facial expressions while watching Supernatural or talk about today from the perspective of my cat.  I love how individual and diverse this activity is, and I love how it is unlike anything else I have done so far for CAS.  Everything else has been so group oriented:  working to a deadline for newspaper, working as a team for ringette or dodgeball or GISHWHES, organizing a committee for yearbook.  750 Words is just me and my thoughts and the direction my mind takes itself, and forcing myself to make time for this is really helping me in exploring my own motivations.

You may have noticed in the picture up top that I've gotten a few new badges as of late.  The albatross was for writing every day for thirty days, and the turquoise horse was for completing the monthly challenge.  When January began I couldn't really imagine writing every single day; at some point I would be busy or forget and slip up, but thirty one days later I still had not.  Looking at a month from the beginning seems like such a long time -- looking towards the end of February right now seems so far away -- but when you just take it a day at a time, you've reached the end before you even had a chance to blink.  All in all, I'm pretty proud of myself for being able to stick to my commitment and complete the January challenge; on average it takes me twenty minutes to write an entry, so that means that I dedicated over ten hours of my January to writing, and I think that is just incredible.  I've signed up for the February challenge, and while typing this here on February 1st I can't imagine reflecting on these words twenty eight days later in either victory or self-disappointment, at some point I will, and I definitely will try my best to make it the former.  The other of my new badges is the hamster, another of which I'm immensely proud.  It rewards the practice of going ten days without a single distraction, and I've been working really hard to type all my entries in one sitting to force myself to keep my thread of consciousness going.  Sometimes it is hard to push through it, but when I log into my 750 Words account and start my entry for the day, I refuse to take a break until it is finished, and I think managing to push through the fog of writer's block is another accomplishment in and of itself.

Suffice to say my 750 Words adventure is going well as I close the chapter of its first month, and I hope that I can keep this streak going for many more days to come.