Question of the Day: What or who inspires you to succeed and be the best that you can be?This is the last Monday of March, 2010! It is remarkably scary how fast time is flying. I am already on my 30th blog post! Thankfully, I do not have any school due to Teacher Workday, so today is going to be pretty laid-back and more personal than usual. I won’t get into any hardcore topics but will instead post a “Monday Five” list. This is usually meant for Friday (“Friday Five!”) but oh well. If you are not familiar with this type of list, it is mainly discussing five specific areas or aspects of one’s life at the current state. Great way to wrap up the weekend and start a 4-Day School Week!

1) Writer’s Block = Conquered! Unfortunately, besides blogging, I have been procrastinating a lot of what I happen to love to do the most: writing. It seems almost paradoxical, doesn’t it? Unfortunately, writer’s block has a lot to do with it. Lately, my daily writing process has been going about something like this: Wake up, vow to get crackin’ with my writing project, go to school, come back, almost decide to write, actually decide to surf the Internet for a couple of hours, eat a snack, make a few extremely minor changes in my writing project and consider that “an accomplishment,” eat and surf some more, play the piano, eat dinner, cram in a few words, go to bed, suffer from insomnia due to guilt over not writing more, finally fall asleep, wake up. And the cycle goes on and on. It’s pretty sad. So much for a March NaNoWriMo, eh? :/

However, a few days ago I experienced one of the best feelings ever: inspiration. I’m not sure if being inspired or being an “inspirer” feels better, but I can definitely tell you that both make you feel like you are on top of the world and that you can do anything you desire. I’d like to thank Stephanie Perkins for being the main source of inspiration and new encouragement for this week. Her awesome featured post on Frankie’s blog on Thursday, March 25 discussed procrastination, and oh dear it felt like I was being seen right through and through…she hit me right in the soft spot! I’ve been procrastinating my writing project for almost half a month [yes, shame on me] now. It’s like she took all of my procrastination station faults and stuffed them all in this one blog post. Hard as it was to admit my problems, it was also relieving to know that my feelings of procrastinating on the one thing that I LOVE aren’t uncommon and have reasons behind them. It didn’t make me feel so horrible anymore. Instead, I’ve become inspired to fight procrastination and lunge myself back into writing! Hopefully I can stay motivated, but whenever I feel like that procrastinator bug is creeping up and over me again, I’ll turn back to Steph’s blog post and remember her words. =D

My Weekend Goal was to write 500 words. That’s not much at all, but I think it’s best to start off slowly and realistically. I hope to build up to 2,000 each day to get back into my stride. I wrote over 200 words yesterday. :’)

2) Monday’s Perks. I love a 4-Day week, don’t you? More time to eat, sleep, work on my super duper writing project, work on my high school’s literary magazine (which I have also sadly been procrastinating), and work on my high school newspaper’s April Fool’s issue (which the co-editors-in-chief have put me in charge of). Whew! Doesn’t sound very relaxing, but this lovely long weekend has given me a chance to catch up on all of the things that I’ve been procrastinating (not just literary work). And after this week comes Spring Break!

3) No Smallville. For the past few weeks, Smallville hasn’t been coming on because of spring break. College spring break. I am so glad that I’m not going anywhere for Spring Break, otherwise I’d have to miss the first episode! As much as I want to know and watch and hear more of Smallville, the other half of me is pining for the show to slow down and take its time in airing the last season and a half. I’ve been an avid viewer of Smallville for a little less than nine years (ever since it premiered in October 2001), and it’s quite sad knowing that my favorite show will be ending in less than two years. Have any of you fine readers ever had to say goodbye to a favorite television in the past? How did you cope with it?

4) Illness. Unfortunately, I have been sick since Friday with a cough and sore throat. Today marks the third day, and I am much better. The weather has been a drama queen lately… going from the mid 8’s and sunshine to a burr-burr 40’s, and now it is 60 degrees and raining. No wonder I got sick. Plus, there seems to be some sort of bug going around. Spring is rapidly approaching, and with it comes early April showers and pollen (aka allergy season) and vulnerable immune systems. Even with all of these, I am ready to spread my arms open and welcome spring. And I think spring is glad to finally be here as well.

5) Self Magazine. Now that my AP Government class is cooling it with the copious amounts of textbook reading we usually have assigned each week, I have been able to catch up with the last two months’ issues of Self Magazine. A basic overview: a monthly magazine targeted mainly to women; it is a confidence-boosting mag that features ways in which women can eat, socialize, and exercise healthier. It also includes fashion, makeup, and health-related articles. I’m a little too young to be reading it (it’s not that the content is too mature or anything, but most of the readers are well into the 20’s and I’m only 17), but it still makes me feel happier and livelier when I read it. I’m going to write a later blog post about this magazine, because it’s just that good. :] Stay tuned for more information on Self!

Have a nice Monday, everyone!

~TRA