It's Summer!!! Carry on!

So, last week I took my last final exam, ran in my last track meet, and attended my last day of seminary. My life emptied out really quickly and it was a very bittersweet few days. I suppose if I didn't like learning, or running or studying religion, I wouldn't ever do those things again since the grades are posted and track results set. To discontinue such activities would only be cheating myself, however. Life requires constant and steady effort. Even though this is the last thing I want to tell myself as summer has peered around the corner and exciting vacations await, it is true: we should never stop trying to improve ourselves. No matter your age, your situation in life, your previous accomplishments: keep pushing yourself to improve.

I just finished a super hard 5-credit college course of chemistry. It required a lot of time and analytical thinking. I sacrificed a lot for that wretched class. I barley pulled off an A though, which is something I didn't think I could do. After such a painful class, I kind of want to take the summer off of academics. And I will, for the most part. But I read this quote in the New Era magazine, and I knew it was speaking to me.

'Before we have families, there is leisure time even in what is our busiest day. Too often we use many hours for fun and pleasure, saying, “I’m recharging my batteries.” Those hours could be spent reading and studying to gain knowledge, skills, and culture."

Recharge your batteries and don't run faster than you have strength, but most of us spend more time than necessary "recharging" i.e. facebook, tv, or whatnot. Instead of wasting hours of my summer with the excuse that I'm recovering from a hard semester and gearing up towards another one, I'm setting a goal to improve my spanish before I head to Guatemala.

The end of a semester or sports season doesn't mean the end of trying hard. It's all about enduring.

We can make a difference.

Faith