NaNoWriMo: The First Experience

This year was my first year participating in National Novel Writing Month, NaNoWriMo is a nonprofit organization established in 1999, aimed at getting people to sit down and write 50,000 words in the month of November (that's 1,667 words a day, if you were wondering). Did you know that Water for Elephants was born as a result of this program? Over 250 novels that started as NaNo novels were published traditionally.
Sounds great, right?
Try looking at it from the other end of the straw.
As a full-time college student, this proved to be a challenge. November is one of the more busier months since it steadily nears exam time early December. Regardless, I took the challenge. With three days left and less than 20k written, I've simply given up on trying to "win," though I will continue my started novel at a more leisurely pace.
Yes I'll still be in college next year, but I'm still going to try again. Why? Here's three reasons, ones I've seen and heard, then engraved into my Declaration of Insanity, written and Hancocked by me, of course.
1. Bragging rights: You get to say you wrote a novel in a month. Yes, 50k is hardly a novel and the writing you produce will not be pristine, but that doesn't matter. You accomplished something great. You can say you wrote 50k in a month. That's more than fantastic.
2. It's on paper: In a frantic state of trying to match a word-count, you will be spewing idea from the very depths and crevasses of your mind. Worry not about how bizarre, or even how weird it may be, because you probably created a beginning, middle, and end to a great book. Now the fun part begins! You've got a figment of a story written out, and now you can go back in and mold it into something fantastic. You took care of the hard part, and now the fun begins.

3. Discipline & habit: After taking time to write and write quickly, you start to type faster and more consistently. However, you also realize a thousand words might be like extracting a thorn from your foot and spend half a day just trying to crunch out those words, or you could write two thousand within the hour and still be pumped. Either way, you are challenging yourself to write significant amount of words every day, and that is more than anyone can say when doing something as intense and mind-taxing as this.
Moral of the story: Check it out; you won't regret it.