First Day of School!

While laying on top of my houseboat in Lake Powell a couple minutes after a beautiful mid-afternoon ski, basking in the warmth of the sun, and smiling at the scent of sun tan enhancer... my ipod changed to "So Long Sweet Summer" by Dashboard. The rest of my trip was ruined and I swear I started crying at even the thought of jumping back into the grind again.

I got home and immediately started shoving my pens, notepads, calculator, etc. into my backpack with disgust on Sunday night. I was mad, summer had come and gone. But for some reason, the second I stepped out of my car into the institute parking lot... it all just felt so right. I felt like I was home again after a long vacation and I was happy.

Now previously I remember the dreaded 18 minute walk from the Tute to the WEB to be torturous and a waste of time and energy. But for some reason I caught myself looking up into the trees and breathing the fresh mountain air. I think I was even smiling!!! And it only got better. I walked to the Union with a buddy just like every day last year and thought I'd painfully have to burn some time before the next class, but surprisingly I thoroughly enjoyed myself while chattin' about life with some friends.

The next couple of classes weren't all too exciting, but it JUST FELT GOOD to be in school again. I just felt happy. I don't know how else to explain it. Rush week should be killing me right now with stress up to the yin yang... but I love it. Being busy makes me happy. I don't know if this post makes any sense, but it was probably the best first day of school I've ever had. I am so completely excited for this school year and especially the fraternity. I love college!

On and on

So I'm sitting at work today, bored out of my mind and thought I might expound on a few thoughts. The thought of the day... life won't ever slow down and your problems will never disappear. They won't. So make the best out of every day you've got no matter the circumstances.

Last semester was probably the craziest time of my life trying to juggle dating, school, work, and church. I would think, "Gosh, if I can only make it to this weekend my life will perfect." or "Once this test is over I'm home free." Once the weekend was over or the test was done, it would be back to the grind. After going through this vicious cycle over and over, I finally started looking a little farther down the road. "If I could only be done with this semester so I can be happy again..." The semester ended, my stress level dropped to none, and I thought I was on top of the world again.

I changed to full time in my job, and for a little bit I thought I was extremely happy, mainly because I had finished the semester. But soon other problems and other stresses began to creep into the daily grind... co-worker issues, frustrations in my calling, the complicated dating scene, etc. The list never ends, and never will. I've actually even found myself thinking, "Man, if I could only get done with this summer and get busy again..." Haha! How fickle am I?

So recently I have had a rude awakening that no matter the circumstances in life, we are always going to have trials and walls to get around. So instead of always looking forward to better days and wishing today would just be over, why not make today the best day ever?

Moral of the Story: No matter what day it is, or what season of the year it is, or whether you're married or not, or if you're still struggling through college without any money, or missing the beloved people of Spain... be content with what you have. Be patient, focus on the positive, and do your best. Life if so much easier when you're just havin' fun with it.

Dating...

So I was thinking today that dating can be the most fun yet roughest part of life. There's not really much I have to say on the subject, except that never has life been more stressful and fun at the same time... With school out of the way for a few months and just work during the day (which consists of me facebooking for 8 hours) I've had a lot of time to hang out with the fellas and pay attention to the people I haven't had time for in a while.

I guess before my mission the dating scene seemed so harmless and uncommitted with 2 years of safety space ahead... But now everyone seems to think this is the real deal! We're playing for keeps now. Whatever happened to taking a girl out for a fun night without having to promise a second and third date? Buddies are dropping like flies and every 19 year old girl seems to be jumping on the "M" word bandwagon. It's just craziness and I'm still just trying to understand the whole thing. Now don't get me wrong, I'm not looking to be a bachelor to my mid thirties (by the way - I love "The Bachelor") but I think this is the time to just live life up. I mean, come on, I'll only be a single, white, American 22 year-old once in my life.

No time...

So wow, it's been awhile since I've done anything with this blog. But I'm gonna have to admit that my brother brought up a good point. It is kinda girly to blog, and since I know of no other male who blogs, I just might have to end my blogging days here today.

Special events that you've missed... I aced my finals and got nearly a 4.0. Nearly. Stupid Computer Science. I got a job over the holidays and now work part time at a software engineering company debugging problems in the software. Yes, you may call me a nerd. Over the holiday I dated a girl for a month or two and just recently she didn't even have the nerve to break up with me over a conversation. Yes, she wrote me a 10-texted break up. Advice ladies, never do that - anyone can do better than that. And now, life just won't slow down with the part time job and full time U of U schedule hitting me hard into the pavement. I just don't have time to sleep anymore. So I guess you're lucky that I'm taking time out of Statics/Strengths studying to update this "girly" blog. So there it is...

Moral of the story: Women are like monkies ... can't let go of one branch until they get a firm grasp on another. "Two words."

Chick Flicks...

So all this extra time on my hands from not studying or doing homework has really given me a chance to catch up on my chick flicks ranging from The Notebook, to Return to Me, to Startdust (I personally think it's a chick flick). It's really interesting ... and sometimes I hate admitting it, but I am absolutely addicted to chick flicks, possibly even more so than most girls. I swear every night this past week I've asked my sisters, "So what chick flick should we watch?"

You might think me a freak, but I believe it's just because I'm a hopeless romantic. Everything that's supposed to go right (and does in the movies) never goes right in dating. I text her too early, I call her too late, I come on too strong, I don't flirt enough, I get scared to ask her out again, ya di ya da. The list goes on. But those things just never happen in a chick flick. Or they do and then the guy miraculously gets the girl; probably because the girl can't resist his hollywood 12-pack.

Can it be the same in the real world? I hope so, I'm still waiting for it to happen. But until then I'll just sit on the couch and enjoy every moment of the cute little stories that another hopeless romantic wrote specifically for me. Or maybe I should just get off my butt and make it happen. Hmmm? And if you're a guy reading this post ... arrgh. (That was a manly grunt to prove that I'm still a man.)

Finals ... why?

So here I am killing over because I'm not sure if I can EXACTLY remember how to doubley integrate the polynomial that needs to be converted to spherical coordinates, or how to write a function in C++ language that uses a recursive call, or what embotellamiento "really" means in spanish. We work and stress and study for 4 long months of the year, yet only have 2 measly hours to answer 10 questions that covers about 1/50 of what we've learned. I've never been known to test well. In fact, my parents probably thought I was a "problem child" in elementary school because I couldn't score above a 10% in listening nor reading. And the scary thing is, finals are usually 30-40% of your final grade in college; but why?

Sure, finals test your knowledge of what you've learned ... but even more, test your abilities to cram as much of the info that's been thrown at you for the past months into your head for at least a couple of hours so that your life doesn't completely fall apart from losing your scholarship or gpa. One slight miss of the note-cramming could end up giving you a C in the class, which leads to a poor gpa and less chance of getting a great job, and without a job you can say goodbye to trying to support a large family, living happily ever after with that special someone is no longer an option, and life as we know it is completely ruined. All because of finals? Yes, and the injustice must be stopped now before I waste anymore time venting on this blog.

Moral of the story: Finals week stinks.

A blog, what's that?

So I have no idea what this is, nor do I have much time to figure it out. But somehow it seems a bit more intruiging than myspace or facebook. Just so you know, I just got home from my LDS mission in Spain, I'm studying at the University of Utah, and I love life. It couldn't be better. Life's hard most of the time, and I guess I'm finally realizing that stopping and "smelling the roses" is a must to survive. Blogging's just another way to smell'em.