Apogee Young Men is designed to make teenagers into mature adults, and a lot of that has to do with mental changes and new habits. However, there are certain tasks that are simply so basic and necessary that every man should know how to do them.

This month I was required to learn nine different skills, as well as anything else I wanted to add. Because I’m age limit for those who can take this course, I already have five of those skills. Those were tying a tie without a reference, performing the Heimlich maneuver, changing and rotating tires, ironing dress shirts and pants, and tying a square knot.

I learned the other four skills that month, which were tying a clove hitch knot, mending a dress shirt and pants, performing first aid, and performing CPR. This part of the project coincided with a first aid book I was reading at the time, which was very helpful in learning that specific skill.

At the beginning of the project, I had the desire to add extra skills to the list and complete them, but I did not do this by the end of the month. Although I did learn many new things throughout December, specifically in relation to buying my first vehicle and doing simple maintenance on it, I felt that none of them were specific and relatable enough to count as skills every man should know.

Therefore, since I did not go above the requirements as I had wished to, I plan to spend the next months learning all I can whenever I come upon a new topic or challenge. Learning never stops, and knowing the basics profits nothing if you don’t move on to greater heights.

Kim’s Game Challenge

Kim’s Game is a memorization challenge, starting small and progressing in difficulty as the days go on. For this challenge, I had a daily memorization task created by my family. They would collect eight or so random items from the house, give me a minute to study and remember them, and then ask me to recall all items once the minute was up.

As the days went by, I had my family add more items every week. Additionally, the project called for memorization challenges in various scenarios. Therefore, when driving through a town, I would try to memorize and recall all the vehicles in a certain parking lot, all the shops in a certain city block, and other similar tasks.

I’ve always had a quick memory, so this project felt like I was honing and increasing that skill. I found that the indoor game set up by my family was too easy due to the static condition, so by the end of the month, I switched almost exclusively to recalling details from earlier parts of the day. My favorite game was to remember vehicles in the parking lot of a building I’m entering, as I feel that that ability could come in handy in the case of a crime or accident.

In the end, I really enjoyed this project and liked how it brought my family into what I’m doing to an extent. I think this is a very good skill to learn, even if you’re not very good at it. In our society of constant input and stimulation, it is important to stop and retrain our brain to move slower and hold important facts longer.