Winter Challenge: Final Thoughts
Would you look at the time, itās already half-past Marchā¦and I still havenāt done that summary post I was going to do. Whoops (Carrying on my tradition of late summary posts, I guess haha)
What did I accomplish this challenge?
Well, I read every day - thatās one thing I did xD Not that much else, I feel, but Iām not mad about that.
Letās take a look at the numbers:
- Finished 5 manga volumes (+ finished up a 6th manga volume that I had previously started), totaling 765 pages. Aaaand I just realized that I still didnāt finish åć鳄ćÆē¾½ć°ćććŖć Vol 1, but I did read quite a bit of that also xD
- Read 100.5 pages in the daily books
- Spent a total of 53 hours reading - thatās about the same as what I spent in the Fall Challenge, so Iām pleased with that. About half of that was daily books, half other stuff. I read something in addition to the daily books on 51/59 days.
I realized as I was summing all this up that I did make significant progress in my reading speed with these daily books, though :o I went from spending ~45 min a day (sometimes closer to an hour) on those at the beginning of the challenge to ~20 min a day near the end - thatās pretty awesome, actually, Iām very happy about that.
Historically, this time of year is the literal worst but I actually didnāt find it as hard to keep reading every day as I thought I would. I also didnāt get too burned out writing posts, which I thought would happen. ā¦One could argue that my time spent writing posts might have been better spent doing the actual reading but I like writing the posts haha, I love to share what I love 
I love showing people stuff, and I love to see other people enjoy the things I love. How many times can I say the word āloveā 
ā¦I am essentially the little kid being like āyou guys, look at this!!ā constantly Thank you for letting me (over)share and liking my incredibly long and illustrated posts xD
What have I been doing since the challenge ended?
Wellā¦not reading, Iāll tell you that 
This got long - and bit tangential/philosophical toward the end
I went to a k-pop concert the day after the challenge ended and Iāve been rapidly devolving into some kind of Oneus-obsessed gremlin ever since - thatās it, thatās my excuse for this late post lmao, Iām so very distracted 
It was the best time ever though, wrote about it in the k-pop thread if anyone really wants to read my fan ramblings lol. Then I learned about some k-pop related things I probably should not have learned about but too late now, here we are with a new thing to spend money on
Anyway, I havenāt even been keeping up with my daily booksā¦like at all Does anyone else ever feel like they need to just let everything completely go for a while after staying āon trackā for some time? Like, arenāt habits supposed to be easier to keep up the longer you do them, not harder? I feel like it doesnāt really work that way for me sometimes. Itās more like carrying a heavy burden that I want to set down (and then, once I set it down, I have trouble motivating myself to pick it back up because I know what it weighs). Likeā¦what is that, brain. Whatās that about.
Anyway, Iām not too bothered about it, though. I think someone (I canāt remember who, maybe multiple people ><) in the last challenge said that, you know, the challenge is only a commitment for that period of time. You didnāt say youād read every day for the rest of your life, you just said youād read every day for those months. And I did that, so I fulfilled my goal. Iām satisfied with that.
Sometimes I get caught up in those thoughts of, well, you could be doing more when it comes toā¦well, everything, but Japanese too. But I feel like Iām really beginning to understand that just because I could theoretically be doing something more doesnāt mean Iām obligated to do it if itās not what I want to be doing more. I can choose to not care about one thing or do less or do some things vs. other things. What I do with my time is my choice. ā¦This might sound very common-sense to people, idk, but itās a shift for me; Iāve always had this feeling of wanting/having to do the most or the maximum with whatever Iām doing, and if Iām not doing that āmost,ā Iāmā¦wasting something? Myself? The chance? That time? āDoing it wrong.ā Which is sometimes not the worst thing to feel, but for this situation it doesnāt really make sense or apply - after all, this is just supposed to be fun for me (itās a hobby, not something I need to do), and if Iām pressuring myself to engage beyond whatās enjoyable for me, what am I even doing? Whatās the point of fun thatās not very fun? Going to this k-pop concert actually brought me this realization LMAO, likeā¦forget about what you āshouldā be doing to āmaximizeā or āmake the mostā or ādo it rightā according to someone elseās definition, make it fun for you and what you want or need. Donāt āperformā at the expense of actually having fun. Enjoy the experience without worrying what the āresultsā afterward will look like to someone elseās eyes. ā¦Iām getting way too deep about this but honestly though, this whole live the moment, love the ride thing was likeā¦
brand new to me and I want to try and keep this thought with me - thereās not one way to have a good experience and not one way to make your time/actions worthwhile
Anyway, that was a ramble and a half
tl;dr Iām not reading, but Iām fine with that for now. Will be all rested up and rejuvenated for the next one 