Photic Sneeze Reflex

I've had a tumultuous experience with reading books. Due to quizbowl, I've had an obligation to read a wide array of poetry, plays, and other veins of literature. In that vein, I've read a lot of novels. I'm trying my best not to sound pretentious here, but by a lot, I mean a lot. Since freshman year, I've grinded through such great classics as Jane Austen's  Persuasion , Upton Sinclair's  The Jungle , even Leo Tolstoy's  War and Peace. Unfortunately, this incessant push to read books drove my joy and desire for reading into the ground. Halfway into sophomore year, reading became more of a chore that I felt obligated to do instead of something I could do for fun. I was forcing myself to read 50 pages a night of books like  Vanity Fair , absolutely dreading it and questioning why I was even still reading. I think I got burnt out, but by the time summer hit that year I couldn't keep doing it. Reading was a waste of time when I could just as easily lo...

Back when I was 13 or so, my Boy Scout troop planned a weekend backpacking trip to Shawnee National Forest in Southern Illinois. If you haven't been down there before, it's a really beautiful place. It's this hilly, sprawling region that balances out the rest of the state's flatness with a whole lot of elevation change. We figured it would be a nice introduction to backpacking, considering it was "relatively" nearby and a pretty good start to rugged terrain. After all, Southern Illinois had mountains, but they were Illinois mountains so, you know, easy. We went down to Shawnee on Memorial Day weekend and found a campsite to spend Friday night at. The plan was to drive over to the trailhead on Saturday and hike 12 miles up to a campsite close to a road, so that we could do some  resupply (because we were just starting backpacking), hike about 8 more miles to another campsite on Sunday, and then drive home Monday morning. Pretty easy, yeah? What would a group ...