To An End

My first semester of college is finally drawing towards an end. It was a tough transition from high school to the real world and working a job, and then into a college setting. I felt so far behind by being out for a semester, and it was tough to get the ball rolling. In the middle of the semester I finally got settled in, and a sense of urgency arose within me and caused me to go the extra mile with my school work. With the semester drawing near an end so quickly, I feel worried and stressed for my upcoming final exams. I know if I study long and hard enough I am sure to do well. So much resides on my final grades, that it is building up more pressure on me. So many times in life things draw near to an abrupt end, often things that we would least expect. The loss of a sporting game, the loss of a pet, or a relative. Not every thing in life has a due date that is visible to the everyday world. As a human being you never know when your last day on this Earth will be. I can relate to my grandmother, she was in perfectly normal health and in the blink of an eye she was gone. Last week marked two years since her passage, and I still can recall the last time I seen her. There are many things which we wish we could have done differently, or wish that we would have done. I believe that because our days are numbered and so few, that we should live each moment like it's our last and spending every available moment we have with our friends, family, and spending time doing what it is we love.

19 April, 2014 Tied together

As my classes are winding down, I have began to notice certain patterns, concepts, and ideas reoccurring throughout all of my classes. For example: things I have learned in my English class, like clustering, are cognitive ways in which the mind can better understand things. In my Liberal Studies class on religion, my professor encouraged us to create these "mind maps" as he called them, to help us better understand the complex structure of the textbook we are reading. Mind maps and clustering are essentially the same thing, except in a mind map the main idea of a chapter is circled in the middle. The various ideas and concepts relating to that main idea are added in their own bubbles creating a molecule shape with each idea flowing into the next. I have also noticed in both of my liberal arts classes, that things seem to tie together much closer than I realized. These classes are specifically required for all students to take, which leads me to the theory that the university is trying to change the way we view the world and our everyday life and our impact on society.

Reflecting on My Childhood

This week in class we wrote letters to our younger selves reflecting back on a point in our childhood that was not so great. I wrote my letter to my middle school self. I was new to my middle school and didn't have any friends in any of my classes, I was struggling to figure out who I was while trying to make friends. Making new friends was always a challenge for me, I was always the shy and quite kid in school, and to a lesser extent I still somewhat am. Along with the shyness I was also suffering from weight issues, and I remember getting picked on for being "chubby". During recess I always wanted to play football with everybody else, but I was always picked last because I couldn't run fast. If I could go back and tell myself one thing, it would be "don't let other people define you, and take the negatives of your life and turn them into a positive". When I was twelve I had appendicitis and had to have surgery. The surgery and the pain in my stomach made me nauseous every time I would try to eat for at least two weeks. Because of this I ended up loosing almost 30 pounds, which I didn't gain back until my sophomore year. My freshman year of high school I decided I wanted to try something new, wrestling. Tryouts were the most grueling and painful thing I had ever been through,  but I used my desire to better myself and to never be the kid that got picked last again. I pushed myself as hard as I could, I remembered what it was like being picked on for not being athletic, and having that in the back of my mind throughout my high school career led me to be the best that I could be, and I ended up being co-captain of the wrestling team my senior year. Reflecting back on my childhood I believe that every struggle that I have been through has molded me into a better person today, and I am proud of how far I have come in life,