(What is actually happening) Re-dedication

You may have read the title and, if you know me, thought, "What? The only way he could be more dedicated to Ultimate is if he were a disc!" And while I am re-dedicating myself to Ultimate, I'm also re-dedicating myself to life. 

The Situation:

I wasn't going to play Ultimate this semester. I couldn't afford to go to school, thus I wouldn't have been eligible to play this semester. The decision had been made. I was still going to be around, at practices, at tournaments, etc. But I wasn't going to be playing.

Funny thing is, I have really good friends. Friends who believed I meant enough to the team (certainly more than I thought I meant to the team) to come forward and offer a solution. I really try not to accept favors like that. (This is mildly hypocritical because: a) I tend to always be in a position where I almost have to accept them and b) When the tables are turned I am adamant that friends accept favors from me.) They clearly wanted to make this happen, and I couldn't disappoint them by saying no. So I accepted.

The Result:

Biking home that night, I decided something. If I'm going to allow them to make this huge sacrifice for me, then I'm going to do the same for them. I can't allow myself to just go through the motions this year when they are clearly depending on me to be something I didn't think I was. So I've decided to become that.

This starts by giving up television, in all its capacity. No TV shows, no sports, no movies, no anything. You might be inclined to say, "That's not that big of a deal." I assure you, it is. I spend hours of time each day watching television. This is not to say that I'm some couch potato who doesn't get out and do anything, which I'm not. However, there are large chunks of time spent watching ESPN, Fox, NBC, dvd rentals, etc. By giving that up, at least until the end of the semester (with the only exception being the NCAA basketball tournament aka March Madness), I can fill my time with much more productive activities, including:

-Training. I plan on running more, throwing more, and working out in some capacity. I'm going to restart the Air Alert jumping program, in addition to running multiple miles around the track multiple times a week. I also plan on getting into the gym at least once a week.

-Reading scripture. Thanks to another good friend on a completely unrelated situation, I have finally gotten into a pretty good routine of reading my Bible daily. This will continue, in a greater capacity.

-Other reading. In the last couple of weeks I have completed "What's So Amazing About Faith?" and "The Lightning Thief." I am currently reading "The Catcher in the Rye" and plan on reading quite a bit more, including finishing the Eragon series, reading the rest of The Chronicles of Narnia, and searching for more religious material including other works by C.S. Lewis and Philip Yancey.

-Building relationships. Relationships can always be improved, and I plan on doing so with my teammates, co-workers, the high school students and anyone else I come across.

-Sleeping. I don't even like sleeping, but I know that only getting 5-6 hours of sleep on a nightly basis isn't as good as 7-8. So we'll see how that goes.

Lastly, I am also greatly indebted to the aforementioned friends. Therefore, I'm going to be much more tentative about my monetary habits. WAY less eating out, with a lot more peanut butter, pasta, fruits and vegetables (that's all healthier anyway, right?). Absolutely no unnecessary purchases (movies, music, clothes, etc.). All the money I now have technically isn't mine, so where do I come off spending it on things that aren't helping me achieve my goal? I've had a loan before. I didn't handle that situation well, and it's not going to happen again.

It's highly unlikely that this all comes together the way I planned. Which is fine, because I'd rather it come together the way God planned. But I am going to put everything I've got into this. If my friends feel I'm worth that much to them, then I'm going to make sure that they have a reason to believe so.

PS: I can't do this alone. Any help and encouragement any of you can give along the way would mean the world to me.