Play Ball, Old Sport

'Thought constitutes the greatness of man. Man is a reed, the feeblest thing in nature, but he is a thinking reed.' Blaise Pascal

September, the month of a lot of firsts, is over. It was the first month of living alone and the first month of higher education. In short it was a month with a lot of change in environment. Adaptation was needed on my behalf and I proudly believe that I succeeded.

Although my calendar is already stuffed and I should avoid taking on any more responsibilities, I would enjoy having more language lessons, attending some higher education history lectures and of course I would love to have more volleyball trainings. The hunger is real but since I want to avoid burnout at all costs I will have to make do.

On Wednesday I received last weekend's physics test. I was quite happy with my grade (13/20) since I came out of the exam room on Saturday a bit confused. On the copy it was written "not bad". The thing is : I was first of the class. The class average was 7. That was a true Welcome To France moment. It was one thing that I genuinely feared about coming here : praise is frowned upon.

I spoke to the vice principal about my volleyball trainings. The school considers me a "high level athlete", which sounds really cool. I was told that the school was willing to make a few sacrifices in the name of me being able to manage my time with more ease. For now I prefer to leave it as it is, having all lessons and enjoying the workouts, for me those two go hand in hand. One is nothing without the other.

In the human formation course we analysed the difference between self-esteem, confidence in oneself and affirmation of oneself. The lesson only takes place once every two weeks, but it is a truly crucial lesson in my opinion so I am happy to have it at all.  We took some tests for fun to arbitrarily grade our self-esteem and our overall character. My favourite was the 16personalities one.

That is why it is also this week's suggestion. It took me ten minutes to complete the test and the results I got were very satisfying. Satisfying in the sense that I could recognise myself in the descriptions of the character. I got the Architect's personality type. With the personality type comes the explanation what are its strengths and weaknesses, how one of such traits would behave within different relationships and what sort of career paths best correspond. Very thorough. If you want a little feedback on what type of field you would/could fit into and/or just want to have a few laughs I think you should consider giving this a try.

On that note, have a wonderful week!