The Past 30 Days

As my 30-day writing challenge comes to an end, I have overcome many challenges, learned many lessons, and had the chance to write on so many subjects I’m passionate about. I'm currently finishing the last week of module 3 in the Praxis training program, and although I haven’t quite reached day 30, I have been asked to speak about my experience so far with this challenge.

Over the last month I have spent nearly 60 hours writing. I have written on various subjects ranging from world issues to health advice. There are some posts I’m very proud of, and others that could use work. However, I’m happy with all the work that I’ve put in so far and the challenges I’ve overcome. Over the last 2 weeks specifically, it’s been very difficult to find the time to write. I’ve had multiple articles written on my phone on my break at work, I’ve had some written with only 30 minutes to do so, and I’ve had some split up into 15minute writing sessions throughout my day. These hurdles along with others that I encountered were hard to overcome, but I kept my commitment, both to myself and Praxis, to work everyday at improving my writing. This has given me confidence in my abilities to stick with something no matter the circumstances and made me stronger in my productivity as a whole.

All challenges set aside, I have seen improvement in my writing over the last 28 days. I mentioned in an earlier article that most of my experience in writing was for speeches. This heavily impacted the way I write and that came with some drawbacks. Through this challenge I have become more conscious of punctuation and sentence structure. I have also seen an improvement in how I get my point across. I am able to make my point with less words and more impact than before. All improvements that would have taken me much longer had I not spent so much time working on writing this month.

With the skills I have improved upon and more importantly the life lessons I have learned over the last month, I believe that I have built up my value as a possible hire. My writing has improved and will hopefully continue to as I progress in the program, and I have new outlooks on productivity and persistence that I believe would make me more useful in the professional world.

Overall I am grateful for this experience. The lessons I learned are invaluable and will do a lot of good for me in the long run. Beyond that, I truly enjoyed the creative freedom and having the chance to write about my interests. It’s been a great month, and I look forward to what Praxis has planned for me next

-Braden Schmidt 11-28-2019