“Anyone can love a thing ‘because’. That’s as easy as putting a penny in your pocket. But to love something ‘despite’: to know the flaws and love them too. That is rare and pure and perfect.”
– Patrick Rothfuss
We began the month with our first wedding anniversary, then the days fell back to normal. It’s been a very long month, and our key events included attending a funeral and travelling over 200 miles for an exam. I had three deadlines for Uni this month, and spring is taking a while to get here.
Reflections on the Journey
i. Read 12 books: 0/12 – I still haven’t finished a book (I finish one in early March), although I am still making some progress. Balancing the time spent reading and writing has always been a bit tricky for me, but I’m getting there.
ii. Edit second novel for submission: 1/1 – I submitted my manuscript from last year again; we’ll see in a few months if I can learn something from the process.
iii. Track my wordcount and aim for 100,000 words: 8,933/100,000 words – I’m still behind schedule, but it’s climbing, and I’m back to focusing on the novel at least, which tends to be easier to add to. I’m a bit disappointed that I wrote under 3k this month, but I did read a lot in my ‘writing time’ so I’m letting it pass.
iv. Build upon my wellness routine: This month H and I have been taking some walks together and planning the vegetable patch, as well as preparing a foundation for a patio, so we’ve definitely been more active. For our ‘adventure’, we travelled north for an exam, and then stayed an extra day so we could have a date night. We went out for a meal and came home via an ice cream bar.
v. Take Photographs: There was a beautiful full moon earlier this month, but the pictures didn’t quite come out as I’d hoped. This is a great chance to learn about my camera and the settings, although frustrating in the moment.
February’s Experience Collected
- 100/200XP
- 350/350XP
- 150/300XP
- 400/400XP
Total XP for February: 1,000/1,250
Total XP towards Level Up: 7,850/7,500
Total XP towards Level 4: 350/7,500
Jumping the Wall…
- I met all my uni deadlines.
- H and I celebrated our first wedding anniversary with pancakes.
- We celebrated Pancake Day with pancakes for dinner.
- H and I celebrated our first anniversary of owning the cats. They were confused.
- I worked on Skeletal across the month.
- I got to 95% on a book it’s taken nearly 2 years for me to read!
- I submitted a manuscript to an agent.
- H and I visited Hemel Hempstead: the 2013 ugliest town in Britain. We can see why.
- We began playing Elder Scrolls Online together; a nice way to unwind from stressful days!
The Path Ahead…
- March marks changes to both of our jobs, but we knew this year would be a tough one.
- I have 2 more Uni deadlines to meet in the next month.
- We’re hoping to make some movement on the garden with better weather, and to see our family.
