...in which I am encouraged and yet baffled.

It's jarring to see people that went to school with me not only getting married, but having kids too...people that got married a year after us, at that! I don't envy them at all, I wouldn't want to try and have kids in this economy. I wish them the best of luck. It doesn't make me want kids, it's just baffling to see these people that I remember slacking on homework and making fart noises with families.

Anyway, I've long said (at least to myself, I'm not sure if I've passed my wisdom on) that "if you really want to do something, you'll just do it." I know that we say we want to do things, but the thing is, we really can accomplish a lot more than we think. If we really, really want to do something, we will find the time, the energy, the motivation. If we're not doing the things we claim to want to do, it's because the raw truth is that we just don't want it badly enough.

You can kick, scream and protest otherwise, but no, it's true. If you want something badly enough, you will find the time, whether you're doing ten pushups when you first get up in the morning, or staying up fifteen minutes late to read that last chapter.

I cite Matt as an example. He has long been claiming that he has no time to write. Well, amazingly enough, NaNo came around, and guess what? He's writing! Is he able to write and still do everything else (like play video games?) - no. Is this a pace of writing that I want him to keep up with? Not necessarily ... I'm looking forward, at the end of the month, sitting down and watching a movie, or having a date night...little time luxuries we're not giving ourselves at the moment. But I think this has been a real eye-opener to him. He DOES have time. He can MAKE time. It involves some sacrifice, but it can happen. I don't necessarily want him to write for 3-4 hours a night like he's doing now, but I hope when this is all done, he'll write for one, or take a few hours on the weekend for himself to write. Something.

So yeah. Amazing rammifications with this. If you want it bad enough, you'll find the time. If you can't find the time, you don't want it bad enough. The ball really is in your court. What do you do with that?