Push Yourself

I used to dread this time of year. As a kid, and even until recently, the beginning of August signified the ending of so many other things. As every Summer came to a close and school started approaching sooner and sooner, I was always upset that I had to go and learn new things, as if that’s somehow an inherently bad thing. I saw Summer as a chance for me to turn off the knowledge-acquiring part of my brain, depriving it of the vital nutrients in the form of information and activity it desperately craved without me even knowing it. Now, this time of year doesn’t upset me - it excites me.

In two weeks I will have begun my first week of my junior year of college. Most of the summer breaks prior to this one in my life have consisted of very little self-imposed cognitive challenge, but I took a different approach to this summer, and I’m here to share that with you. I’ve decided that self-betterment both in physical and mental health is good, cool, and what we should all be striving for. While not all of my time away from school has been necessarily productive, I’ve made a conscious effort to turn my hobbies and habits into beneficial acts that I enjoy every day. I’ll give you a few examples.

1) Despite being an English major in college pursuing a degree that will enable me to get a job in content writing and management similar to what I’m doing on this blog (another positive thing I’ve done this summer) but instead for a big company, my college requires that I take a Spanish class to graduate. While this antithetical idea used to really bother and confuse me, I’ve decided to instead embrace it. I’ve taken something that used to be a chore and made it fun, because I see it as very useful and even impressive to be multilingual. I’ve “game-ified”, as my dad says, learning the Spanish language, by using DuoLingo’s awesome and addicting lessons and quizzes. This is in no way an advertisement for their site, but I highly recommend it if you are wanting or needing to learn a new language.

2) My and my girlfriend’s family have been attending a weekly trivia night at a local restaurant on Mondays throughout the summer. While I think myself as somewhat of a jack-of-all-trades (and one day master of one: writing), the one category that I really can’t contribute much to is world geography. I just don’t know where countries are in relation to one another, but I’m trying to change that. I’ve been doing non-assigned studying of world maps in an effort to increase my general knowledge in that area, and so far I’m seeing results. If there’s something you feel like you don’t know enough about, go learn it.

3) I think it’s a misconception to associate highly-skilled chess playing ability with high general intelligence, but maybe that is common thought for a reason. I’ve always played chess (see my blog post about that here), but this summer I’ve done a more conscious effort to track my progression and made more of an effort to see improvement in my own game. There’s always more room for improvement and you can always get better at the things you love.

4) When people say that they’ve deleted their Instagram accounts and have felt much happier without them, that confuses me. I understand the damaging effect that needing constant approval and validation via internet points, clicks, and likes can have on people, which I try to avoid like the plague, but I think that these people are viewing the social media site in the wrong headspace. I thoroughly enjoy it and would miss it if it were suddenly gone. I see it as a photo gallery, a scrapbook, something to plan / schedule, and to reflect on regularly which is a lot of fun. Sentimentality and nostalgia can be cultivated along with our natural enjoyment of aesthetically pleasing design to build a gallery to share with the world and to reflect on ourselves. That’s what I’ve done with my Instagram this summer.

There are many more examples of efforts I’ve made to better myself this summer. Instead of reacting and getting flustered by political headlines, I’ve instead created a master document that is a culmination of research, sources, and reasoning that I’m using to place myself in the current toxic political climate. There are plenty of things that I haven’t completely figured out yet, too, like finding a workout plan that suits me, getting a grasp on a healthier sleeping schedule (I’m a natural night owl), or dealing with my general anxiety that affects other aspects of who I am when it’s in full-swing. The point of this post and the point of what I’ve been practicing is that it’s good to push yourself. Life is both short and long at the same time, and taking advantage of the capabilities that you’ve been blessed with should not be taken for granted. Always try your best, always strive for better, always push yourself.

And enjoy the journey.

How Chess Has Impacted The Way I See The World

I am beginning to think that if you were to give a complete stranger a list of my hobbies, they would come to the rational conclusion that, even though I am really only 20 years old in reality, that I am an elderly person. These hobbies include reading, writing, keeping up with current political happenings, listening to classical or lyrically complex music, and playing chess. I play a lot of chess and always have. In elementary school there was a chess club that I happily joined and quickly realized how truly complicated yet enjoyable chess is, with supplementary lessons being given by my parents. Being as competitive as I am, I dedicated a lot of my free time to it and became one of the better players in the club. Continued playing led me to eventually participating in some over-the-board tournaments, even placing (but never winning) in them and holding my own against others who had made chess a focal point in their lives. As the years went on basketball became more of a priority for me, but chess has always been an enjoyable hobby. Since I’ve been in college, I’ve played less basketball and a lot more chess. I’d consider myself an intermediate player who can hold his own against anyone in person, but there’s still so much to learn as just a ~1700 rated player. Chess is not only just a very enjoyable and thought-encouraging game, but it parallels life in many ways, and teaches players lessons such as discipline and focus, planning, and time-management which I will talk about in this post.

To get good at anything, especially anything competitive, you need discipline. It is easy to mindlessly play chess while doing other things like watching TV or talking to people as they come and go in and out of the room, but that will not lead to improvement. Approaching other tasks such as work, assignments, or even workouts without giving complete attention will lead to also diminishing returns and stunted progress (I need to get back into the home gym soon!). Instead, I play chess the same way that I approach the other to-do list items in my life — by tracking progress, giving them my complete undivided attention, and never biting off more than I can chew while accepting that some days will simply be more productive than others.

To simplify effective chess strategy to its most minimal form is to advise players to simultaneously attack and defend, while keeping in mind a plan of their own while anticipating their opponents potential responses. As a student of English rhetoric, I’ve learned that this approach is often a good one to take in conversation and writing as well. Anticipating rebuttals to your own assertions and arguments makes you a better debater and communicator in general. Understanding that your actions have concrete and irreversible consequences encourages you to think more carefully before acting whether it’s on the checkered board or in real life. Making a plan and sticking to it while adapting to the challenges being thrown your way is the recipe for good chess play, and for intelligent behavior in the outside world.

Chess also teaches careful time management. During my days as a basketball player I was almost paranoid in my awareness of the clock and of the protocols around it. This trait of mine has translated well to chess in that I am able to use my time as a form of currency and spend it wisely, and understanding that it is non-renewable (unless you’re playing with an increment, of course). Playing chess has taught me to give the proper amount of time to things that are more complicated in real world tasks, and to trust myself to not have to overthink when I find something easy, but to simply act on that initial gut feeling. All of these strategies when combined have absolutely changed the way that I view the world for the better.

Chess boards are typically thought to symbolize intelligence which is a stereotype that I can’t complain about as a player myself. Chess is a worldly game that doesn’t judge its players on anything but strategy and willingness to win, which is made much easier when employing all of the tactics listed in this post. Chess has led me to new friendships, fun interactions with who would otherwise be strangers (who sometimes who have destroyed me like the man pictured below at Whole Foods), and has taught me valuable lessons that have impacted and changed the way that I see the world. I strongly recommend giving chess your full attention and looking for ties to the outside world yourself - you too will see why it is one of the world’s most popular games.