📚📚 Read every day challenge - Winter 2022 ☃❄

[windupbird]

Summary post

Winter Challenge: Final Thoughts

Would you look at the time, it’s already half-past March…and I still haven’t 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 - that’s one thing I did xD Not that much else, I feel, but I’m not mad about that.
Let’s 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 didn’t finish 囀る鳥は羽ばたかない 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 - that’s about the same as what I spent in the Fall Challenge, so I’m 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 - that’s pretty awesome, actually, I’m very happy about that.

Historically, this time of year is the literal worst but I actually didn’t find it as hard to keep reading every day as I thought I would. I also didn’t get too burned out writing posts, which I thought would happen. …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 “love” …I am essentially the little kid being like “you guys, look at this!!” 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?

Well…not reading, I’ll 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 I’ve been rapidly devolving into some kind of Oneus-obsessed gremlin ever since - that’s it, that’s my excuse for this late post lmao, I’m 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 haven’t even been keeping up with my daily books…like at all Does anyone else ever feel like they need to just let everything completely go for a while after staying “on track” for some time? Like, aren’t habits supposed to be easier to keep up the longer you do them, not harder? I feel like it doesn’t really work that way for me sometimes. It’s 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). Like…what is that, brain. What’s that about.

Anyway, I’m not too bothered about it, though. I think someone (I can’t 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 didn’t say you’d read every day for the rest of your life, you just said you’d read every day for those months. And I did that, so I fulfilled my goal. I’m satisfied with that.

Sometimes I get caught up in those thoughts of, well, you could be doing more when it comes to…well, everything, but Japanese too. But I feel like I’m really beginning to understand that just because I could theoretically be doing something more doesn’t mean I’m obligated to do it if it’s 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. …This might sound very common-sense to people, idk, but it’s a shift for me; I’ve always had this feeling of wanting/having to do the most or the maximum with whatever I’m doing, and if I’m not doing that “most,” I’m…wasting something? Myself? The chance? That time? “Doing it wrong.” Which is sometimes not the worst thing to feel, but for this situation it doesn’t really make sense or apply - after all, this is just supposed to be fun for me (it’s a hobby, not something I need to do), and if I’m pressuring myself to engage beyond what’s enjoyable for me, what am I even doing? What’s the point of fun that’s not very fun? Going to this k-pop concert actually brought me this realization LMAO, like…forget about what you “should” be doing to “maximize” or “make the most” or “do it right” according to someone else’s definition, make it fun for you and what you want or need. Don’t “perform” at the expense of actually having fun. Enjoy the experience without worrying what the “results” afterward will look like to someone else’s eyes. …I’m getting way too deep about this but honestly though, this whole live the moment, love the ride thing was like… brand new to me and I want to try and keep this thought with me - there’s 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 I’m not reading, but I’m fine with that for now. Will be all rested up and rejuvenated for the next one