August Rush!

Gosh dang. It's that time again. August Rush. That time when it's the last week of summer and I've only achieved a small portion of the goals I've set out to do. It's that time when I have to try and prioritize my goals to get the most out of this last week that I can. Of course, in the end, it's not the actual accomplishing of the goals that's important. That's just the way to measure my actual progress--which, of course, is the actual goal. My real summer goal every summer, and always, is to become a better person with new great experiences and more knowledge than before, and all the other goals are just variable ideas of how to best go about accomplishing that.

With all this in mind, here's a few goals I've completed since last time:

Goal #5: I'm still nowhere near to being as good as I should be at guitar. I'm awful and only know a few chords. At the beginning of the summer, I was envisioning that I would know several songs by the end of summer, but that didn't happen. However, at the beginning of the summer, I didn't pick up a guitar and start playing it every time I was in the same room as one. I'm going to say that although I didn't get to where I wanted, this one is accomplished--mostly because it left me with a continuous desire to increase my skills. Basically what I'm saying is: goal complete, but this one isn't over yet. Kinda like this next one!

Goal #7: Learn the history of Hip Hop. Firstly, I realized that this isn't a thing I'm just going to do once in my life. I watched a few documentaries and made a big list of artists I need to listen to someday, and even started on the list. I learned the difference between Hip Hop and rap music, where rap came from, where the names "Hip Hop" and "rap" came from. I learned about important and early influences in rap. I also started to learn how much I don't know about Hip Hop. But I think most importantly, this summer I learned a greater love for early Hip Hop. It's much more my style--simple beats, lyrics with actual feeling and meaning, songs that are actually about something, not just made to make money. I'm going to count this goal as accomplished, under the condition that I will continue to study Hip Hop and finish listening to my list by the end of the semester.

Goal #10: Quit soda for 90 days. This one was already checked off, but the 90 days have finally come to a close. Honestly, I thought this would get easier as the summer went on. I thought I'd get used to not drinking soda. But this one was actually a challenge for me. I'm constantly surrounded by soda and it was a constant temptation. Well now my 90 days is over and I plan on splurging on soda a bit this week before I start new, intense fitness goals for the rest of the school year. And 3 months is a long time to quit anything. But I also haven't had headaches from caffeine in 3 months, which is a great feeling.

Goal #12: Go on a date. I honestly didn't think I was going to get this one. This was a complete surprise that I was able to complete this one. And it was great.

Goal #22: Write 12 letters to missionaries. This one is simple. It was well worth my time and I might not have done it if not for this goal.

Goal #23: This one didn't go the way I hoped it would. But looking back, there's several girls that I met this summer that I actually consider to be my relatively close friends. Good enough, I'd say, because making new friends is tough for me.

Goal #26: I'm going to continue on this for the rest of the week, but I've been exploring the basics of Linear Algebra lately. I don't feel a real need to brush up on Calculus, which was my original intent, after learning more about Linear Algebra and Discrete math and finding that they're hardly connected with Calculus much at all. My Calculus skills are still decent enough anyways.

Goal #27: Visit a new state. I had never been to Texas before. I wouldn't say I fell in love with the state of Texas, but I met some amazing people and this was perhaps the highlight of my summer. I even got to watch every episode of Community, my favorite TV show, on the 40 hour round-trip drive. More than anything, though, I learned a lot about quidditch and I became more motivated than ever to get my butt into shape. Not just for quidditch, but for me. Either way, look out, world. I'm finally getting serious about my health. Maybe I'll document that online, too.

I guess the cool thing is that I did a lot of cool things this summer not even on the list. I made a lot of great friends. I fell in love with Charles Bradley after one of the best concerts I've ever been to. Also, I gained a real appreciation for Beck--he isn't the boring, old rock artist I was afraid he might be. He's a rockstar and he is amazing. I thoroughly enjoyed renewing my love for soccer and obsessed over the World Cup, along with many other generic Americans. I even had a whole lot of fun doing absoultely nothing. I learned a little bit of Spanish. I transferred colleges. I got really into old school video games (SNES mostly) and had a great time bonding with friends and family over them. I went to a bunch of concerts, saw some great movies, went on several memorable trips, played some quidditch. I made enough money to get me through the upcoming semester safely, quit my job, and got another one teaching Math. I learned that even though Local Natives is great, they should only be allowed to open for other good bands. I jammed playing several instruments I don't even know how to play (sax, guitar, drums, bass), and I had a lot of fun doing it.

Well I want to save some material for my last blogpost at the end of this week. I have 7 days to finish as many of my remaining 14 goals as I can. As of right now, I'm projecting my final score will be 21/29 (72%), which means I'm setting out to accomplish 6 goals this week as part of Augst Rush. I plan to clean the cage for one day this week, watch 2 movies a day, do a lot of skateboarding, visit my good friend the Papabat, read more Shakespeare, and write a script. I'll let you know how it goes.

Oh, and for the updated this of this year's goals, here you go: http://goalsofsummer.blogspot.com/2014/06/an-overview-of-this-years-goals.html