Author: Fritz Sullivan

This blog was definitely an adventure for me. It allowed me to actively work on becoming a better person, and it did not go without its challenges. I chose five virtues: silence, cleanliness, appreciation, bliss, and order. At first glance, this may seem easy, but this blog pushed me each and every day. I believe using these virtues as a blueprint on how to live my life in the future would be good for me and my character. I plan on thinking of these virtues in everyday life, and practicing each and every one. I will keep myself accountable, as will my friends and family I and sure.

Every virtue in this daunting list had its challenges. Some pushed me to be more put together, while some pushed me to enjoy my own life. If I had to choose, cleanliness would be the virtue I had the most trouble with. Ever since I was a kid, it has always been hard for me to clean my life up. My room and car usually are coated with my stray belongings. Some would say it is a metaphorical representation of how I live my life. I often just throw things I don’t want to deal with on the “floor”, metaphorically speaking. This blog helped me work on this flaw of mine. It allowed me to notice when my room or car was dirty, and encouraged me to fix it. Sometimes, however, the urge to do something more stimulating took over, leaving the mess still there. Although this activity did help me achieve a bit more cleanliness, it is still definitely something I will have to continue improving on.

On the other hand, there was one virtue that really improved my way of life over these past few weeks. I was unaware how powerful an effect focusing on appreciation would have on me. Every morning I would wake up to get ready and during this time I would recognize the alone time I was granted by doing so. I then would carry on my appreciation throughout the day, appreciating the little things that made my life easier. Whether it was a hot coffee, or an easy day of Calculus, I was able to appreciate so much of the good in my life. It was such a healthy practice for me, and I cannot wait to continue working on it.

This virtues affected me in ways I did not expect them to. They almost turned me into a different person completely. Before this, my family and friends would often label me as stressed and messy. Now, it seems I have a bit more of a hold on my own life. This feeling of control is so incredibly important to me. Working on these five virtues, and possibly more, will help me throughout my life. Before this assignment, I was unaware of the importance of these virtues. My life was lived sloppily and day by day. Although I wasn’t anything near perfect, I believe through work and dedication, these virtues will help my life be more productive and enjoyable.

My tenth day of practicing virtues was one of my most successful. I woke up early to get ready and appreciate my alone time. I then went to school, worked on Order with my schoolwork and worked on silence by listening to music in my headphones during choir. I then got home and cleaned my room. Finally, I went to dinner with my brother, who has been gone at college for 4 months. This allowed me to work on my bliss virtue, and also appreciation.

This was an uneventful day, but a good opportunity to work on my virtues. I slept in, due to it being late start, and got ready a little quicker than usual. This gave me less time to work on appreciation, but I still got a little but of time in. I then went to school, and had a very easy day. In Physics I got to work on my bliss virtue because we did a fun catapult activity. I also got to work on order in Physics. After a few post-school activities, I got to go home and work on silence. Part of that was sitting down in my room and writing this blog!

Today was a really great day. I woke up extra early to get ready, and used this time to practice appreciating the alone time. I then went to school, and all day focused on Order and Bliss. I took the free time I had in choir to do all my homework, and spent the whole day with a positive attitude. After this, I went to musical rehearsal and had a ton of fun. I then went straight to my tutor and work on Order with my math work. I finally got to go home, have some of the pie I made the night before, and work on my silence virtue.

This day started a bit unusual. I got ready like normal, and made sure to appreciate my alone time while I got ready. However, when I left the house, I noticed the passenger door of my car was open. So was the glovebox. My car had been broken into, and my wallet was gone. This, of course, did not allow me to practice my bliss virtue. I did get the chance to work on order. I went to the bank and got a new card, and found a cheap new wallet for myself. I finished the day by making a pumpkin pie with my family, which I could appreciate. Although this day was very stressful, it ended up being a pretty good one.

Today, I went back to school. I would say that it was one of my weakest days when it comes to my virtues. I am two days behind on my blog, and I didn’t write in my planner. This means that my Order virtue is a little bit lacking recently. I did clean my car again, which was my practice on cleanliness for the day. I was stressed most of the day for my Physics test. This did not allow me to practice my bliss virtue, however, I did use my time in the morning to practice my appreciation virtue. Although this day was not my finest, I still took the time to practice some of my virtues.

This was my favorite day of the week! It was the first day in two weeks that I actually didn’t need to do anything. I took the time to clean my room, which helped me practice my cleanliness virtue. I spent the whole day watching football, which allowed me to work on my appreciation and bliss virtues. I didn’t work a lot on Order, but on weekends I feel like being organized is a little bit less necessary. I used today asa way to unwind and appreciate my down time.

This day was sort of a celebratory day for me. I had my final show at 2:00 PM, and that went super well. I used that time to practice bliss, because that show is very fun to do. After that, I was able to spend the rest of the day relaxing. I went to grab food with some friends and then hung out with them for the rest of the night. This gave me a chance to practice appreciation. I haven’t gotten a lot of free time recently, so it felt really great to have some. Although the day wasn’t very organized or necessarily clean, I would call this day a success.

This day I focused on Order. It was a day full of tests and labs at school and in order to succeed, I needed to practice being organized and prepared. It started out rough, due to the fact that I forgot my calculator at home. Besides that, I would say the day was pretty successful in terms of organization. I used my planner to write down my homework, I took good notes In math and APUSH, and I remembered to go to my guitar lesson before my show. As for that night, I had my opening night of my show. I had to practice bliss, because this show was a huge source of stress for me. The notes I had to sing were high, and there was a lot of pressure to be funny. In order to help myself, I decided to just try and enjoy the experience as much as I could in order to have a better night. It worked, and my experience in the show was a very good one.

Day two for me was one with a bit more challenge. I had rehearsal for my musical that night, and rehearsal for another musical before that. I did not get time to clean my room, but I did still take the time to write my homework down in my planner. These rehearsals kept me busy all day, and gave me very little time to appreciate some time for myself. I did, however, approach my last rehearsal with a bit of a different attitude. I decided to, instead of treating it like a stressful experience, enjoy it and make it fun. It worked! I really enjoyed my rehearsal and got excited for opening night in two days.

I am very eager to begin exploring my virtues, and improving my moral compass. These past few months I have been struggling to find my footing, and approaching life with little to no thought. For these next two weeks, I will address my most prominent flaws, and attempt to tidy them up a bit. This, to some, may just be a measly AP Language assignment, but to me, this is an opportunity to clean up my life. Benjamin Franklin has appeared in my history textbooks since second grade, and honestly for many years I would yawn at the mention of his name. This project has given me the opportunity to use his tactics to better my own well being. No longer will Ben Franklin be restricted to my AP US History class. Franklin is now my mentor of morality, guiding me to live a life of near perfection.

For my five virtues, I have chosen Cleanliness, Silence, Order, Appreciation, and Bliss. To me, cleanliness is the most important of the five. This year I have let cleanliness take the metaphorical “back seat”. My room is always in shambles, my car has piles of clothes in the back, and my bathroom has hundreds of empty contact cases on the counter. Waking up to a visual disaster is a wonderful way to encourage a disaster of a day.  For these next two weeks, I will clean my room and car every two days, in order to keep my life clean and tidy. Silence is also very important to me, and something that I haven’t really seeked out this year. My life is one filled with extra- curriculars, and oftentimes I won’t get home until about 10 pm. This means a lot of noise, and very little quiet. Deep down, I am an introvert, who needs alone time in order to enjoy life. In order to preserve some quiet time for myself, I will start using my mornings as a way to do that. The time I use to brush my teeth and get ready for school will also be my time to enjoy some peace in my chaotic life. Due to the natural business of my daily life, I often find myself to be unorganized, and in a state of disarray. My math worksheets can currently be found in my english folder, and my planner was last added to in August. In order to improve my own morality, I must change these life habits. To do that, I will start adding to my planner daily, and making sure I stay on top of my activities and assignments. My life is one filled with reasons to be grateful, and reasons to feel lucky and blessed. I believe that I haven’t done enough to show my appreciation for these things. I need to start taking the time to notice my blessings, and to be thankful for them. From today on, I will practice appreciating my life, and taking the time to say “thank you”. Finally, I want to work on being blissful. I can’t remember a time this year when I felt completely happy. I am always thinking about the next thing that brings my stress and sadness. Enjoying the little things in life will allow me to become a happier person overall. 

This project will be so beneficial to me and my life. I need to start holding myself more accountable for my own happiness, and by using Franklin’s strategies, I believe I can do this. At the end of these next two weeks, I will be a cleaner, more organized, more thankful, happier, and more peaceful human being. It may be a challenge to remember all of these things, but the payoff will be much worth the hard work. I will be posting short daily updates on how my journey is going. This will play a part in holding myself accountable, and aid me in staying true to my virtues. I could not be more thrilled to see how this goes, and to become a better human being. 

Today was an exciting day. It was the first day of my journey to moral perfection! It started at 6:00 AM, when I got up to shower and get ready. In order to practice silence, I used this time to appreciate the peaceful nature of my mornings. After this, I took the time to clean out my car, which was a sloppy mess before today. Although I did leave my room just as dirty as it was before, I plan on tidying that up tomorrow. This gave me a chance to work on my cleanliness. I then went to school, where I took the time to write each of my homework assignments down in my planner, giving me a good organized way to remember my schoolwork. After school, I went home to eat and relax before rehearsal at 7:30 PM. I used this time to practice appreciation for my food and my home. A couch, a blanket, and a TV is a combination to be thankful for any day of the year. This also gave me the opportunity to practice being blissful, and to forget the daily stresses of my life. This was a time for me to relax and unwind, and it did not go to waste.