This month has gone by insanely fast. Between watching NCAA games, work, running, and play, life seemed to be pretty busy. I'm only hoping April goes just as fast because we're in the last term of the school year, and the end is in sight.
One of the major projects for my students this term is to make a podcast, so my preparation for the unit hasn't been too painful. I've been exploring popular podcasts and learning some pretty interesting things. The other day I was listening to a Freakonomics Radio episode called, "Save Me From Myself." The podcast explored the idea of commitment devices, explaining what kind of restraints people put on themselves to ensure they WON'T do something. For example, one man signed himself up for the gambling ban in Missouri because he knew he had a problem. They referenced marriage and gastric bypass as forms of commitment devices, as well.
I found that I've implemented a commitment device into my own life lately without even realizing it. No, not gastric bypass. You remember that exercise 2 times a week New Year's Resolution? About three weeks ago I decided on a whim to participate in the Rex Lee Run 5k. This, of course, would help me have motivation to continue running. The week of the race I ran a total of 9.9 miles and earned my shin splints back...yay!!! (sarcasm) I did, however, enjoy myself. I finished the race with a time of 29:29, and my roommates were there to cheer me on, sign and all.
That night I searched online for more races and quickly became convinced that I needed to do more. Shortly after, my roommate Kyna and I signed up for the Color Me Rad race, April 28th, and The Dirty Dash, June 2nd. I called Kara to see if she would want to do the Riverton 4Life 5k, March 31st. AND the next week I volunteered to start a running group every Tuesday night for my calling...commitment device after commitment device.Kara and I showed the pavement who's boss today.
We finished with a time of about 27:20! We earned ourselves some third place medals in our respective age divisions!
IF I somehow end up not meeting this New Year's Resolution, I'm thinking it won't happen until at least June...but I don't know, Kyna and I are looking into The Warrior Dash in October too...Other commitment devices? Those dang drum lessons I've been paying for. It turns out that it's really hard to give up on an instrument when you continue to invest in it. I'm getting better, though, especially when you look at my video from a year ago! Check out the video below to see some random beats that I spliced together.
Untitled from Jessica Dixon on Vimeo.
In other news, I had the opportunity to win $1,000 by throwing a football into a sunroof at the Blaze game and missed by about a foot. So close!
Also, some of my students tried to suck up to me by giving me this award. It totally worked.
Last but not least, Spring Break is in a week, and I think I might weep tears of joy. What should I do? Come up with more commitment devices?(GO WILDCATS)
