Second semester and 2017 have begun, and I’m quite interested to see what the new year will bring. One of my resolutions is to keep up with my blog more often, as there are so many things that I have to tell!

I have decided to focus on my year in a different way. My roommate and friend, Emily and Maddy, invited me to come with them to STUMO, a non-dinominational Christian worship group here on campus, and I’m so happy that I accepted the invitation. It was an amazing experience, and I hope to continue going all throughout my collegiate career.

One of the scriptures presented was Luke 2:52, and it says, “Jesus grew in wisdom and stature, and in favor with God and man.” The rest of the time was spent analyzing this and seeing how we can implement it in our own lives.

So this line of scripture has become my focus for the year: to work hard academically, to be committed to working out, to grow in my spirituality, and, of course, branch out socially.

So today I’m writing about the first and second of those four focuses: academics and getting fit.

To clear up some stuff on the academic front, I just have to say that I am no longer pre-med. I am currently pre-major (although I am listed as Film/TV but that’s a long story). It was a decision that was a long time coming. I went to all these pre-health seminars where doctors and med students came in. I was hoping to think that I would be extremely excited to hear what they had to say and be able to envision my life as they spoke.

Nope. That is NOT how it went down.

I sat there actually dreading my life and career to come after hearing them speak. And they were great speakers with great stories and great lives. But I just really didn’t see myself where they were standing. And that’s when I knew: I really don’t want to be a doctor.

So now I’m on the exciting journey of trying to find out what the heck I’m going to be doing with my life. Yay.

Now fitness:

I’ve spent somewhere between 30 minutes to an hour everyday since being back at school working out (today is day 13). It’s been surprisingly easy to commit to getting outside or going to the school recreation center- although I have no excuses on that one, considering it is a mere 100 steps behind my dorm room.

I’ve always heard that change is gradual, and that it takes time to get to where I want to be. too bad it doesn’t stop me from coming back from the gym everyday looking for my new, perfect body, or the irrational frustration that comes from not seeing change. Nonetheless, I record everything I do down in my fitness journal, which is so aesthetically pleasing to see when every day in the week is filled out (insert satisfied sigh here).

Yesterday, I was on the treadmill for 5 minutes, only having been running for 3 of those 5, and I was so tired. I was actually debating hoping off (but I didn’t because Chris Evans wouldn’t want me to if he knew me).

WELL, today was different. Very different. I was able to run at a treadmill speed of 6.0 for 10 minutes (a whole mile) and let me tell you, I haven’t done that since I was a sophomore in high school. I was sweating a disgusting amount (I sure hope Wireless Beats are water resistant) but got off barely out of breath after 30 minutes.

THEN, I went to lift weights at the weight I normally do, and I’m telling you, I was pumping iron. I was like Superman, just doing my thing, barely breaking a sweat. I walked out of there feeling like I barely did anything, even though the clock indicated I was there for  an hour, and I was working hard for, like, 99% of that hour.

Hopefully, tomorrow goes similarly. If it goes like yesterday, I might run through a wall. My current strategy is to eat a banana and drink coffee before going, just like I did tonight (excluding the french toast sticks, tater tots, and ice cream I also had tonight*).

*Mom and Dad, I would just like to say that I’ve been watching what I eat and tonight I just didn’t take the effort to scavenge out something better. I was proud of finding the banana.

Well, hopefully I can update soon with more about my third and fourth focuses, but until then: Happy New Year!

~Kendall