aspiring lucid dreamer...

Well, with yesterday being my 1-month anniversary for lucid dream training, I've finally decided to introduce myself. Hello, my name is Daniel, I'm 17 years old, and a lot of other things as well.. just ask if you want to know more than what is on my profile.
So, like I mentioned, I started utilizing lucid techniques and recording my dreams October 1st. My first night was very encouraging as I simply told myself to remember my dreams, and I actually woke up twice my first night and remembered two dreams quite well. Since then I've remembered roughly one dream a night, sometimes 2 or 3, sometimes only fragments...but with such good success right off the bat, I haven't felt the same sense of progression for at least a week. I find my enthusiasm often makes things come natural, but it's difficult to stay so enthusiastic when my progression isn't as encouraging as it once was. But with my recall being fairly sufficient, I'd say I've actually been trying to induce lucid dreams for a little less than a week. I do reality checks whenever I think to, which isn't usually enough (esp. during school); even if it is enough, it's not very habitual and doesn't carry over to the dream world. I'm trying hard to improve my reality checking, so I'm going to refrain from getting discouraged until the technique has had a fair chance.
Before I started this, I can't say for sure that I naturally fell into it..though there always have been a couple dreams that stand out from the rest. VERY vivid and long, and I always wondered what it was that made them come and go...I often practiced thinking of something before falling asleep and dreaming about it. It worked occassionally, but it still wasn't what I was striving for.
Just so you all know, I'm extremely open-minded and I've read some posts that mention meditation, OoBE's, magic, etc...I'm open to anything, in fact I envy those who can do what I only hope of doing someday. So any feedback is greatly appreciated.
I guess I don't really have a lot to say or ask right now, I just wanted to let you all know where I'm at in this thing. So hopefully some of you are right here with me and we'll all make it and have wonderful times sharing and discussing!
here's to ever-lucid dreaming *Cheers!* Maybe we can meet again, in the dreamworld... ;)