Hey everyone! In this post I will be introducing the new topic of my passion blogs for this semester. Last semester, I wrote about my mission trips to various places in the United States, such as Montana, Maine, and North Carolina. I absolutely loved writing about these experiences, but since I already wrote about all the mission trips I’ve been on, I had to think about a new topic that I am passionate about.

Due to some recent self-discovery and exploring, I have found a bunch of new activities that I can do that make me feel happy, productive, and content. Therefore, my topic for the passion blogs this semester will simply be self-care (as corny as that sounds). The things I write about in a specific week will not be set up beforehand; I will just write about any activity that I did in that week that was fun for me or that made me feel accomplished or happy. Topics will likely include things like exercise, listening to music, being productive on schoolwork, doing something fun with friends, or a variety of others.

For this specific post I will just talk a little bit about exercising. I started a definitive workout schedule a couple months ago and have kept it up consistently since then. I have never kept up an exercise schedule so steadily for this long. I believe that I have felt motivated to do it every day because I know exercise is a great stress reliever, and it makes me feel more positive and confident. In addition, since I am in Army ROTC at Penn State, I know that I need to maintain my physical fitness.

When this semester started, I began working out almost every morning before my first class. I have 8 a.m. classes on four out of five weekdays, so I get up at 6:45 every morning to work out before that. This has made me much more motivated in general, because when I do a workout in the morning, it wakes me up and gets me pumped for my classes and the rest of the day. Maintaining this definitive schedule has allowed me to feel more structured during the pandemic and more efficient as a whole. When I talk about exercise in future blog posts (if I decide to do that) then I will likely go into specific workouts and types of workouts that I do.

I recognize that these self-care posts will not be quite as interesting as my blogs from last semester, but I hope that everyone who reads them will get something out out of them. I decided to pursue this topic because I feel it will help me to keep track of all the positive things I do daily. It will also keep me accountable for doing those activities. Through these posts, I intend to emphasize the importance of taking care of yourself and making time to do things that are good for you. I hope that those who read this will be motivated to find time for themselves, be content and confident in themselves, and maybe even discover a few new hobbies or activities that they want to try out.