And So It Ends...

My experiment had highs and lows, successes and failures. Every day of my experiment affected my entire day, whether I did well or poorly. I am extremely glad I chose this experiment because I can see how it improved my softball skills and I now know how great it feels to wake up with plenty of time to get dressed, eat breakfast and relax.

Through this experiment my softball skills have improved.
Through this experiment my health has improved both from my exercise and eating breakfast.
Through this experiment my stress level decreased as I wasn't so rushed.
Through this experiment my education improved because I was able to focus during school.
Through this experiment I avoided possible accidents because I was alert driving to school.
Through this experiment I became more confident since I was able to dress myself well.
Through this experiment I improved my life.

I am aware that many days I wasn't completely successful in my experiment. Let's recap!
Day One (Friday)- This day was a complete success. I woke up early, practiced softball, had breakfast, and dressed nicely.
Day Two (Saturday)- This day, I didn't do too well. I did do some wrist rolls so it wasn't a complete failure but it wasn't perfect either.
Day Three (Sunday)- This day I basically failed. I did nothing in the way of softball.
Day Four (Monday)- This day I failed to wake up early but I think this day showed the most motivation I had during the whole experiment. After going to hitting lessons after conditioning I convinced myself to get to work in the garage and practice softball.
Day Five (Tuesday)- This day I had good intentions. I woke up fairly early and got down to the garage to work. However, I only hit two balls before breaking my tee so I wasn't able to continue.
Day Six (Wednesday)- This day I did nothing in the ways of softball besides buying myself a new tee. I didn't do the softball that I was supposed to, but I really couldn't so I don't consider it a failure.
Day Seven (Thursday)- This day I did nothing. It was a complete failure and that's all there is to say.
Day Eight (Friday)- This day I switched it up and hit off the tee after getting ready for school. But, I still did my softball so therefore it was a success.
Day Nine (Saturday)- This day I did nothing in the way of softball and I didn't even consider it. I failed.
Day Ten (Sunday)- This day I failed once again by doing absolutely nothing.

Honestly, I had less than a 50% success rate but I don't feel like a failure at all. This experiment showed me that I can wake up early if I put my mind to it. The thing I learned most from my "new lifestyle" was the feeling of waking up and having plenty of time to get ready for school without feeling rushed. That's a feeling I haven't had in a very long time. I hope to continue waking up and practicing softball because I can see so many ways that it has improved my life. This blogging experiment is over but hopefully my new lifestyle is just beginning. I'm excited!

Days Eight, Nine, Ten

Wow, so I think the fact that I'm blogging three days at once shows a little bit about how busy I've been.

Friday morning I fell in and out of sleep with no real sense of time until I finally turned over to see my clock tell me 6:00am. I was unsure about whether I would have time for my softball since I was running a little behind schedule. I decided to go ahead and get dressed and make sure I was completely ready for the day ahead. Since I was ready around 6:30am I decided to head out to the garage and get to work. Pulling out my brand new tee and my bucket of balls, I was ready! I love me new tee. It's black rubber, durable when getting hit with an aluminum bat. It has the scent of fresh rubber- a scent that's good and bad all at the same time. I had a successful round of swings and gathered up my books and backpack to head to school. Friday I was fully awake driving to school and all through my classes.

Saturday was an extremely hectic day. I woke up at 7am and got dressed. I gathered up some sharp number two pencils, erasers, a calculator and some snacks. Guess where I was going? That's right- the ACT. After hours of testing I headed straight home to pick up my mom and turn around and leave for Spring Hill Middle School. I am a member of a 4-H club and Saturday was "4-H Days." 4-H Days is a competition of mostly oral presentations, music, and skits. I recited Hate Poem by Julia Sheehan. I think I scared the judge with my delivery but I got a blue ribbon. From best to worst the ribbons are purple (exceptional), blue (above average), red (average), and white (below average). I also participated in the impromptu competition. When you check in you are given a topic- either a question related to 4-H (Ex. Something I have learned in 4-H is...) or a word that can tie into 4-H (Ex. Perseverance). You are then given a notecard, a pencil and five minutes to prepare a speech. Immediately after these five minutes you stand up in front of the judge and everyone else and give a speech that can be up to five minutes. The word I got was "skills" and I spoke about the skills I have obtained throughout my eleven years in 4-H. I was praised highly by the judge and he told me that he had a very tough decision to make for first place between another girl (who's also in my club) and me. I ended up getting second place (Alternate Top Purple) and I will go onto regionals if the other girl is unable to. After waiting around for results my mom and I left Spring Hill shortly after 5pm. We went to Minsky's Pizza for dinner and watched the KU game. When I got home, I went out to pick up my best friend who came to spend the night. Needless to say, I did not have a chance to practice softball on Saturday. It did not even enter my mind.

Today, I woke up at 8am and went to church. I am the Media Technician for my church (I put together the media to display all the prayers and song lyrics on the screen) so I have to get there early to set up. After church and Sunday School I went out to lunch. We got home around 1 and I worked on math homework and did a whole lot of nothing. I went to my youth group's Super Bowl party this morning and enjoyed many of the commercials. After getting home I watched Undercover Boss even though I really needed to be doing my history homework. I am going to bed soon but still have a ton of history I need to read. Sigh. Once again, softball never even entered my mind this morning, but I don't feel very guilty about it.

Day Seven

Last night, I was extremely tired. I was ready to curl up in a ball but for some reason I didn't get to bed until 1:30am. I can't even say that I was busy or that I was being productive (make-up math homework anyone?). I was sitting on the couch with the TV on a channel I wasn't even watching- I wasn't even doing something as slightly productive as watching Monday's House which I still have on TiVo (or Surewest DVR to be exact). I was sitting there lifelessly watching TV and I was on the computer. Flipping back and forth between my e-mail, facebook and other's blogs I looked for anything at all to interest me. There was absolutely no reason for me to be up that late, doing nothing.

Needless to say, if I had woken up at 5:30 for this social experiment, that would be four hours of sleep. I did not wake up at 5:30. I stayed in my warm bed grasping every second of sleep I could until I finally forced myself out of bed at 6:45. 6:45 sounds like it's really late but actually gave me plenty of time to get ready, I don't need that long. Here I am at school, BEYOND tired and hopefully this evening I will find some time to go out and hit off the tee but I honestly don't know because I am going to East's production of Footloose tonight. Even if I don't get to practice tonight I will make myself go to bed at a decent time.

Day Six

Without a tee to hit off of I didn't have much motivation to get up this morning. Sure, I planned on doing all the wrist rolls and such but it's not the same. When I woke up this morning, I didn't feel like it would make much of a difference so I went back to sleep. I still got up in enough time to get ready for school without feeling too rushed. I really have nothing to say and I don't know if it's because I am extremely tired right now or because nothing happened. I bought a replacement tee at Sports Authority this evening that is made of rubber instead of plastic. Theoretically the rubber will take beating much better. So, tomorrow I will return to my schedule of getting up early and doing some softball! I know as far as from a literary standpoint this post sucks, I should be "showing not telling" and yhadda, yhadda, yhadda but really, I am insanely tired right now and don't have the energy. I'll have more than the five required posts by the end of this experiment so H, you can just ignore this post. I'm just one of those people that needs to stick with something so I needed to write today even though I didn't have much to say. Goodnight all!

Day Five

Today I got down to the garage around 6am. I was running a little behind schedule but I was still going to fit in a quick workout before getting ready for school. I set up my tee with my bucket of wiffle balls. First swing: nice. Second swing: nice. Third swing: the ball dropped in front of my feet as something else went flying through the air. I realized this "something else" was a piece of my tee. The top piece to be exact. The place that's a little bit wider so you can put the softball there. My tee is made of plastic as opposed to the higher quality rubber ones but we were getting along just fine. There were a few chips in the tee but I wasn't concerned. Not until i whacked off the top of the tee. I guess I should work on not swinging under the ball?

I was unsure of how to continue so I just packed everything back up and headed inside to get ready. I enjoyed some apple cinnamon oatmeal and some raspberry yogurt. Tomorrow evening I will hopefully go with my mom to buy a new tee but as for tomorrow morning my plan is to wake up and do some wrist rolls and swings with a weighted bat. Pretty much anything I can think of that doesn't involve the tee. This mild roadblock may pause my plan but I will not be stopped.

P.S. I'm going to umpire softball for little kids this summer and I got all the paperwork I have to fill out today. I'm super excited. Super Duper. Like, you don't even know how excited I am. Just thought I would share. :D

Day Four

Today I woke up and rolled over. The bright green numbers stared back at me. 6:46 they told me. I blinked repeatedly, sure that I was mistaken. But 6:46, now 6:47, shone like an exit sign in my dark room. Not only had I failed in waking up, but I slept through five alarms. Count them- FIVE! I don't wake up easily on the mornings, but I was so sure at the beginning of this experiment that I would be fine. Instead, here I was, rushing to get ready for school with no time for softball, breakfast, or relaxation.

I went to conditioning after school today but had to leave early to go to hitting lessons. I think my time at conditioning counts for the time I was supposed to run on the treadmill, right? When I was at hitting lessons I thought about the fact that I could just cop out, blog about lessons, and claim I had done my softball for the day. But then I thought about the purpose of this experiment, It's supposed to be extra practice, practice to improve what I am already doing at lessons. So, this evening I lugged myself out to the garage, set up the tee, and hit away.

I was almost done with a bucket of wiffle balls when my mom came out to ask me what i was hitting that sounded like glass. I had no idea what she was talking about until it dawned on both of us at about the same time that on the other side of the wall I was hitting against was my dining room. That wall of the dining room had a china cabinet against it and plates hanging on the walls. Luckily, nothing broke from the vibrations I was causing but my mom advised that I pick a different wall to hit against, so I did. Today I also decided to take some swings with my insider bat. With this bat you have to hit tennis balls which is part of why I decided not to use it on Friday. I only have two tennis balls. I made an amazing discovery though when I started hitting. Tennis balls bounce- a lot. And that means that they will bounce around enough that they will eventually come back to you. I don't think I ever had to step more than a couple feet to retrieve a tennis ball. And so, even though I only had two tennis balls they were enough.

I think much of my problem with waking up this morning came from the fact that I stayed up late last night. Last Thursday night in preparation for my first day of the experiment I made a point of going to bed early so I would be fully rested when I woke up at 5:30. Last night I didn't do this. I am off to shower now and clean off some of the glitter I am coated with from making a Valentine's day card for Spanish and then I will go to bed. Hopefully early enough that tomorrow I can wake up to my alarm at 5:30 and head downstairs for softball. Today was not a complete success but it was far from a failure.

Day Three

I have decided that me plus the weekend does not, and never will, equal motivation. Today, I did nothing. I did not hit off the tee. I did not run on the treadmill. I did not even do some measly wrist rolls. And I do not have a single slightly decent excuse. I won't try to make excuses like I did yesterday. I failed, it's as simple as that. But, I have forgiven myself. I've decided that since the main part of my plan was the waking up early before school then my lack of practice this weekend isn't a true failure. I've decided that weekends are supposed to be a break and therefore, it's okay that maybe I didn't do my best these past couple days. Tomorrow, I will set my alarm and I will wake up at an ungodly hour. Hopefully I will get out of bed, go down to the garage, and practice softball. If this doesn't happen tomorrow, then I failed. But as of today and this weekend, it's not a failure. It's simply a break in my plan.

Day Two

Today, I woke up at a reasonable hour (around 10am I believe). And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I drove my friend home who spent the night and picked up a sandwich from Goodcents. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I got home and gathered up my stuff for a church meeting in Lawrence. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I drove to my meeting and we accomplished a lot as we planned a huge event called Institute for this summer; I got home about 4pm. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I sat down on the couch and watched reruns of House with my laptop in front of me. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! I ate dinner and watched KU beat K-State in a very close and nerve-wrecking game. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! After the game, I got back on the computer to play games and chat with friends. And I thought, this evening I will do my softball! The evening has came and gone and my softball has not been done. The thought of going upstairs to change into workout clothes and then move the car off the driveway so I could back both cars out of the garage was just way too much. And anyways, refreshing my Facebook Live Feed every 30 seconds to read new status updates about the KU/K-State game was much more important, right?

In my defense, just minutes before writing this I decided that I didn't want to be a complete failure for today. I grabbed the device I had made and did wrist rolls to strengthen my wrists and therefore strengthen my swing. For those of you who don't know, wrist rolls are done with a weight hanging on a string from some sort of rod. Basically, you just hold the rod and twist it so the weight comes up, then you twist it the other way so the weight goes down. It is very tedious but I can feel my arms strengthening with each turn.

I have decided that tomorrow I will have a self-imposed punishment for my failure to hit off the tee today. Tomorrow, I will do my tee workout and on top of that I will do wrist rolls and run on the treadmill. I need to punish myself for my slip up or it will just happen day after day. And if I fail again tomorrow, well, I guess we'll see what I decide to do.

Day One

I was unaware that I was supposed to start this experiment yesterday so today is my first day of my social experiment.

I was awoken by the blaring beeps of my alarm clock at 5:15 this morning. Grabbing my phone, I hit buttons until the noise stopped. My soft sheets and warm comforter cradled me like a baby. I drifted in and out of sleep for three more alarms until I finally forced myself out of bed at 5:45. Only 15 minutes behind schedule- I wasn't complaining. I threw on some clothes, pulled my hair back, and laced up my tennis shoes. Once outside in the cold garage I backed my car onto the driveway, followed by my mom's minivan. When I asked my mom if I could use the garage for this experiment, she agreed on the condition that I would take care of moving her car. With a now empty garage I gathered up the things I needed- a tee, a bucket of whiffle balls (so I wouldn't damage anything by hitting softballs around), my bat, and an "insider bat" (a training device my mom had bought me for Christmas).

6:00am and I was finally ready to begin. I hit three buckets of balls- one armers with each arm and a bucket of normal swings. I decided I didn't have time to use the insider bat. Each whiffle ball made loud bangs. One bang when I hit the ball of the tee, one bang when the ball hit the opposite wall, and two or three more bangs as the ball ricocheted off each wall. With each thud I cringed that my mom would wake up and not be too happy. I was afraid that she would tell me the experiment was off and I would have to chose something new. I guess the garage was fairly sound-proof because my mom stayed in a slumber.

I finished my practice at 6:15 and hungry from my workout I headed inside to enjoy a well earned bowl of rice crispies and a glass of strawberry milk. I was fully awake with enough time to get ready so I decided to dress up a tad. On my drive to school and in first block I noticed that I was much more alert than I have been for many many mornings.

Today improved my softball skills with my workout. Today made me healthier by eating breakfast. Today was less stressful because I had enough time to get dressed. Today was safer because I was alert driving to school. Today I was a better student because I was awake in my first block. Today was a success.

My Mission

In the movie Julie and Julia a woman decides to cook her way through Julia Child's cookbook and blog about it. So here I am to do much the same thing. We brainstormed in class about what we wanted to do- habits we wanted to start or habits we wanted to break that would improve our lives. I came up with two main things that I wanted to change and I decided that they could be combined into one mission.

My first problem is my failure to wake up on school days. I don't wake up to my alarm or when I do I have no motivation to get up. This causes me to be extremely rushed in the morning when I finally get out of bed and it just starts my entire day off on a bad foot. I don't have a chance to fully wake up before my first block and it's really just not good all together.

My other problem is that I'm taking private hitting lessons to improve my softball and I never seem to find time to practice outside of lessons like I'm supposed to. It would be much more beneficial to my improvement if I practiced on my own.

My plan is as follows: On school mornings I will wake up around 5:30am and actually get out of bed. I will go down to the garage and hit softballs off the tee and do my various drills for about 20 minutes or so. This means that I will be out of bed and done practicing softball around 6-6:15am which will give me plenty of time to get ready for school without felling rushed. I might even have time to make breakfast a routine which would be good for me. On weekends I won't worry about waking up early but I will make an attempt to practice softball on Saturdays and Sundays.

So, I guess we will start off this "social experiment" next week and see how it goes. I think it will improve my softball ability, my stress level, my education, and my health if I can pull this off. I'm excited to get started!