1.) What is something you did for your body?
Over the past week, I have exercised with my sister, made sure that I’ve gotten enough sleep, and made an effort to drink more water. I already have to do exercise videos for P.E. online, which means that every day this past week (minus Saturday and Sunday), I have been exercising with my sister. We did one day of dance, two of yoga, two of general strength and just today we both ran 1.5km and walked 4.5km. Furthermore, my sister’s P.E. has started, so today we jump roped together for the entire length of the Cake album, Comfort Eagle. On top of exercising, not having to wake up at 6:00 a.m. for school anymore has given me the incentive to also go to bed at a reasonable time. All in all, allowing me to get a decent amount of sleep. I have been going to bed at least before 1:00 a.m. (which, yes, is absolutely an improvement from earlier this year, and even more so from spring break), and waking up around 8:00. I know it isn’t nine hours of sleep like I need, but it’s better than only five or six, and I will start trying to go to bed even earlier. Finally, this past week whenever I was thirsty, I drank a glass of water instead of juice or pop.
2.) What is something you did for your mind?
For my mind this past week I read a lot, wrote analyses for other books that I have read, and did sudoku. As per the rule of my English class, I must read 20 minutes a day. However, I consistently read more than that and within the last week, have finished two full novels (The King’s Men by Nora Sakavic and Destroy All Monsters by Sam J. Miller), three volumes of a comic (Fence by C.S. Pacat), and 114 pages of Vengeful by V.E. Schwab. Moreover, I explicated and wrote about the symbolism, foreshadowing and types of imagery in Maggie Stiefvater’s The Raven Cycle. The analyses were for a friend, and I definitely enjoyed writing them and want to continue to expand on many of my ideas, but I believe that the amount of thinking involved makes the activity one for my mind. As well as all of this, I did my sister’s sudoku while bored. I don’t particularly enjoy sudoku, but it is also a mental exercise.
3.) What is something you did for your happiness?
For my happiness, I have spoken at length with my cousins and friends, and I have spent much time with my family. On Monday, I spent four hours straight, video chatting with two of my cousins, one in Nanaimo, BC and one in Victoria, BC. We spoke about everything and anything that came up, and then just kept each other in the background while my older cousin and I did homework and my younger cousin read. It was very comforting to know that everything is all right with them, and I tremendously enjoyed seeing them and talking to them for such a long time. Similarly, on Saturday, I video chatted with my friends for several hours. Although I have been keeping in consistent closer contact with them than my cousins, I always like to speak properly with my friends and see them. On the topic of staying in consistent contact with my friends, one of my friends and I have been sharing and discussing the books we read (this is the same friend for whom I wrote the book analyses). I have been in more constant contact with her than any of my other friends, and we also text about whatever we’re doing and many other topics than just books. Yes, I have been staying in contact with her for more than only the past week, but this past week I continued to, and I always enjoy speaking with her. Therefore, it’s something I did for my happiness. Lastly, with all this time at home, my family has started watching movies together. We all put aside whatever homework or work work we have to do to watch a movie. This past week, we watched more than ever, finishing all the modern James Bond movies, watching A Fish Called Wanda, True Lies, and even going outside at night to project Guardians Of The Galaxy Vol. 2 on a hanging sheet.
4.) What is something you did for someone else?
Some things that I have done for other people are helping them with homework, carrying pieces of wood, cleaning, and reading. One of my sister’s common French assignments is to listen to a French radio news podcast and summarize what was said. She often can’t understand parts of it or needs clarification, so I have been listening to the recordings and transcribing what they say for her to read and decipher. I also helped her set up Teams and find where everything is on it, as well as how to use it. Moreover, today I did her jump rope P.E. exercises with her. Additionally, my dad has been building different wood projects in his boredom, so I helped him carry pieces of my brother’s old bed frame down to his workspace. After Easter, I cleared all of the Easter decorations off our kitchen table, and I organized the mess of plastic eggs by sorting out which ones still contained candy and chocolate, and which were empty. Finally, my friend texted me in a panic about a book she had just finished — the sequel to a book I had read and recommended to her — and how I needed to read it immediately because she didn’t understand what had happened and needed to speak about it with someone. Even though I had its Ebook downloaded, I was in the middle of a different book, and I would rather not start a new book while halfway through another. As a result, I immediately went and finished the book I was currently reading and promptly started the next.
