so here i am again at 11 pm reflecting on the events of the day.

i feel that i am beginning to get into the swing of things here in naptown (as acacia calls it). i'm liking the little college town feel at this point and it's nice to not have people drive me places. everything here is so close together and i don't have to worry about carry a cellphone around with me everywhere i go. it's hard to get into trouble when there is no traffic or confusing streets to get lost in. the unfortunate thing is that even if i needed to use my cellphone i can't because i forgot my charger at home (the only thing i forgot, mind you) so if my seattle family wants to contact me, email is best or my siblings' phones (i'm with one or the other constantly through out the day so you'll have to guess). i need to save the battery for more important things like maneuvering the airports on the way home.

today i went for my second lifting workout at the naval academy. beside being an olympian, natalie is a very sweet person and has a great coaching eye. it was such an honor to see her lift and receive encouragement and coaching tips. she urged me on as i set PRs in the snatch and clean at 54 and 65 respectively (i missed the jerk on the last attempt). i had a little trouble getting onto the campus with my homeschooling student id because "i'm sixteen and supposed to show a driver's license." whatever. i just went around to a different gate and they let me in, i'm not sure if it had anything to do with the fact i had acacia with me on the second attempt. mr. woolfolk made some calls to make sure that wouldn't happen again. i really appreciated his kindness.

this morning i sat in on acacia's math tutorial. they were talking liebniz. i could understand most of it and am now intrigued to go back to my calculus book and review. they go so deep into simple concepts and look at them from different angles and i feel that i would have to go back to the beginning of the beginning of calculus to really absorb and apply the ideas. at least i could wrap my head around it and that made me proud. this evening i went to aimee's seminar where they were discussing the peloponnesian war. i feel like i really began to grasp the merits of discussion, the articulation and exchange of ideas, and it really inspired me. in life discussion may seem like such an natural and simple thing for most people but it is something i have never really felt comfortable doing for many different reasons. i'm sure i need to just give in to my natural abilities as a human being to reason and stop thinking so much about every little thing. i am inspired to keep stretching my mind and challenging myself.

it's only day two and i have already learned so much. i did a little still life pencil sketch with laurel and stefan today which is something i haven't felt motivated to do for a long time. i'll being doing a little reading and essay writing while i'm here too and i'm hoping to learn some stuff from the essay writing champions of the world (i'm referring to all my johnny siblings).

thinking about things make me feel so alive.

goodnight.