Well, that's not quite true. I'm not good at everything, I throw up major flops in basketball. And there are some things I may be considered great at. But I have a lot of different interests, and I am more interested in doing lots of different things than devoting all of my time to one specific activity, process, or thought-stream. Here are some examples of my life:
Guitar: I'm pretty good at it, but I won't blow anybody's mind.
Wakeboard: I love wakeboarding, but I can't do any tricks beyond a slight mute grab. I have tried the backroll thing, but after a concussion and what I believe to be a cracked rib, I passed on that.
Technology: I love technology, and I can figure most things out after playing with it for a while. I know the basics of HTML, maybe even a little Java and CSS, but I won't devote my time to become fluent.
Soccer: I was pretty great in soccer back in high school, maybe even freshman year of college, but after some injuries requiring rehab, and two concussions, I decided it was good enough to enjoy playing every now and again and not become any better.
Running: There was a while where I wanted to be a great runner, and I even ran a half-marathon with a desire to run a full some time. But I finished the half, I became pretty content with that, so I don't run much anymore.
My College Major(s): I changed my major six times in college (Secondary education to psychology to social work to youth ministry to business administration to accounting and back to business administration). I think that shows how my interests change relatively quickly (by the way, I was able to finish with only 2 extra classes, so not too bad).
Work: I originally did work with camps, which I thought would translate into what I did the rest of my life. Then I did some youth ministry with some churches, figured I would do that or be a pastor my whole life, then I picked up an accounting internship, hoping to stick with accounting for quite a while, but my internship turned into less of an accounting role and more working with a truck fleet and computer systems, with a little accounting on the side, and I really like it like that. And now I don't know what I want to do when I grow up (I'm 22).
Singing, music theory in general: I'm pretty good at singing, and I have a good, basic understanding of music theory. I would love to be able to understand it more, but not so much that I will devote hours of my time to learning more about it. I am content with what I know.
What does all of this have to do with German Adventures? Well, I want to actually become great at something. Being super interested in something for a short time and then moving on to something else a few months down the road has simply become the norm for me and, while I enjoy that a lot, I do want to say that I have mastered something. And not even necessarily "master," but just be able to do something that seems great. And not master just anything, but something that is important and useful. I think that languages are extremely useful, and I think Americans have a long way to go to catch up with European countries to become more affluent in the foreign language realm, and I think languages are very important to know so that relationships are actually able to develop across cultures. As a Christian, I hear a lot about being culturally diverse (Jesus didn't just die for the white Americans, you know) and how important it is to form relationships with those from other countries, but if I don't speak any other languages then that is not going to happen. So basically, I hope to use this as a space where I can put my notes and stuff. Maybe, if I act like I am trying to teach people even though there may not be anybody that reads it, I will be able to learn it myself. We will see. For now, I won't get my hopes too high, but I do have hopes. Hopes to speak German. And other hopes, that I won't write here. So yup. I will try to write down my notes throughout the week, then organize them into coherent writings, and then put them up here at the end of the week. I will try and use tags and labels to connect things, and lots of internal links to other post I have put on the subject, and external links to sites that are much better for helping learn than mine. I will follow the Rosetta Stone framework (Level 1, Unit 1, etc) and so my notes may seem scattered. And that will try to be the organization of this endeavor. But I don't actually have internet at home right now (I'm currently sitting outside Panera at 6am), so that might not happen too regularly for a while. We will try, though.
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