A Summery Summary
A few of you have asked me why I haven't posted in so long, and the answer isn't some exciting project I've been doing, internet-free, for the past few months; this summer has just been a lazy and lackluster one compared to my past few.
I came home for the summer with two goals -- to get in shape and to get my driver's license. I am glad to say I steadily and successfully crawled my way toward achieving both before leaving for school.
Someone told me that it takes 90 days of consecutive exercise to produce a visible difference in one's body, and my time off happened to be a convenient 90 days. Apart from times when I was suffering from a stomach bug in Mexico, some off-season cough-and-colds at home, and my present state of back-in-excruciating-pain, I worked out every day of this summer, without fail, regardless of where I was. I figured that summer was the best time to build up some confidence in my level of fitness in the most unobtrusive way possible. My routine generally included 30 to 60 minutes of cardio and, on alternating days, a package of exercise machine rituals at the gym that looked something like this:
5x10 leg press
5x10 leg extension
5x10 seated leg curl
5x10 prone leg curl
5x10 hip adductor
5x10 hip abductor
5x10 triceps
5x10 biceps
On off-days (i.e. in my basement), I would watch a number of exercise videos focusing on abs, legs, arms, etc. and struggle through them on a lovely mat we have from Priya's gymnastics days. I tracked my workouts religiously on a paper calendar that I was desperate to quilt in blue (for gym days) and green (for home days) with as few pink (for sick days) spaces as possible.
In late June, I took off for Mexico with Laura Kambourian, where we spent a month living in a beautiful apartment together and working for Centro Mario Molina, a think tank that designs solutions to a number of issues relating to urban sustainability.
At the end of July, I returned home to coach a group of students that would comprise Virginia's novice level competitive certamen team, to compete against other states at the national level in a fast-paced and challenging Latin trivia contest.
The kids were a joy to work with, and the highlight of my summer was exploring Latin with them and getting to know them better.
We traveled to Las Vegas for the 60th annual National Junior Classical League Convention, where the novice team placed 3rd in the nation in certamen.
The summer is always all downhill after Convention, so I've spent the last few weeks continuing to work out, making cooking videos with my mom, packing, coordinating interns for S&S, spending time with my grandmother, and practicing driving.
By the grace of a very kindhearted driving tester and the prowess of my impeccable acting (pretending to resemble a capable driver), I am now licensed to drive.
I leave for Cambridge tomorrow, looking forward to starting my sophomore year after a quiet summer.
I came home for the summer with two goals -- to get in shape and to get my driver's license. I am glad to say I steadily and successfully crawled my way toward achieving both before leaving for school.
Someone told me that it takes 90 days of consecutive exercise to produce a visible difference in one's body, and my time off happened to be a convenient 90 days. Apart from times when I was suffering from a stomach bug in Mexico, some off-season cough-and-colds at home, and my present state of back-in-excruciating-pain, I worked out every day of this summer, without fail, regardless of where I was. I figured that summer was the best time to build up some confidence in my level of fitness in the most unobtrusive way possible. My routine generally included 30 to 60 minutes of cardio and, on alternating days, a package of exercise machine rituals at the gym that looked something like this:5x10 leg press
5x10 leg extension
5x10 seated leg curl
5x10 prone leg curl
5x10 hip adductor
5x10 hip abductor
5x10 triceps
5x10 biceps
On off-days (i.e. in my basement), I would watch a number of exercise videos focusing on abs, legs, arms, etc. and struggle through them on a lovely mat we have from Priya's gymnastics days. I tracked my workouts religiously on a paper calendar that I was desperate to quilt in blue (for gym days) and green (for home days) with as few pink (for sick days) spaces as possible.
In late June, I took off for Mexico with Laura Kambourian, where we spent a month living in a beautiful apartment together and working for Centro Mario Molina, a think tank that designs solutions to a number of issues relating to urban sustainability.
At the end of July, I returned home to coach a group of students that would comprise Virginia's novice level competitive certamen team, to compete against other states at the national level in a fast-paced and challenging Latin trivia contest.
The kids were a joy to work with, and the highlight of my summer was exploring Latin with them and getting to know them better.
We traveled to Las Vegas for the 60th annual National Junior Classical League Convention, where the novice team placed 3rd in the nation in certamen.
The summer is always all downhill after Convention, so I've spent the last few weeks continuing to work out, making cooking videos with my mom, packing, coordinating interns for S&S, spending time with my grandmother, and practicing driving.
By the grace of a very kindhearted driving tester and the prowess of my impeccable acting (pretending to resemble a capable driver), I am now licensed to drive.
I leave for Cambridge tomorrow, looking forward to starting my sophomore year after a quiet summer.
Lazy and lackluster yet full of tangible accomplishments
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