Global Warming My Foot?

This winter season has been an epic one so far in my eyes. Today I woke up to see a blizzard of snow just come by for a few minutes. I walk outside to check on my car and clean up the drive way. My usual Sunday activity of going to the gym early in the morning was delayed a bit with rough road conditions. The snow was getting iced up on my windshield which made for some annoying cleaning. This has been easily the coldest winter that I have had to live through so far in my life and I absolutely hate it. Hate is a strong word and I rarely use it, but man I sure miss summer. I will do anything to have summer back. Spring is even better than this. Wake up to freezing weather and having to always clean my car daily is such a waste of time. Why did my family choose Michigan again? Again I will keep wondering in my head why do I live here to deal with this. That is just my frustration speaking because I am getting really tired of this winter. It has been freezing everyday at below temperature and the next few days it is supposed to get worse. That means the drive to work, school, or even to the gas station is going to be harsh. I sure cannot wait for spring to arrive and then spend the lovely summer weather outside. Until then, guess I am just going to be laid back at home tonight and stay on top of school work.

-January 26, 2014

One Smile Everyday Guaranteed...

What makes us all happy everyday? For me it is always having my girlfriend by my side. A stranger turned friend and now my closest friend I can ask for. Every day I think about where I would be if I did not have this friend. Would my rehab from soccer injuries have gone bad? I do not and will never know because her moral support has been huge for me for the past three years. We all have a friend or a strong personal relationship with someone. Whether that be a parent, a friend, or spouse; the impact on our life is huge. The key to my happiness everyday to have a smile on my face is this woman. Someone who knows what the real struggle is like losing a parent at such a young age. She has had so many responsibilities and handled it so perfectly in my eyes. How do I deserve this great amazing person? I have no idea how I got so lucky, but I am so grateful. I remind myself every day that nothing is bad and to smile because I have an amazing woman. Today marks 36 months since I have met this amazing person. I just remembered only because that day I bumped in to Shelly and acted like a total douche. In return, I got the biggest scolding in my life. Hah! That was like love at first sight. Opposites attract I guess.

Just Why People?

"Same routine, just a different. That is what I assumed as my day started on the 22nd of January 2014. Work was running smoothly as usual and things we going just fine per routine. For those that do not know already, my current job is a Bank Supervisor at TCF Bank. Suddenly around lunch time where we usually get a rush of customers where my skills are required to keep things in order at the teller line. Suddenly problem arises and the setting turns in to madness due to one person. In my mind, I am having all negative thoughts and I just want to curse at the customer and just be done. I had half a thought to punch the person in the face and shut him up. That is what I truly desired, but I had to keep it all in because of the professionalism ethics I am bound to and the leadership I must present to my peers. Its really tough when sometimes you just want to scream, but you are stuck in a circle with your thoughts. I must say though writing about this sure helps relieve some of that stress. It is ridiculous what some people will say just over a simple common error. I do not want to go in to much detail because I respect an individual's personal financial matter. I will say that the individual was not aware of a policy which is pretty much common sense if you use logic, but my judgement does not allow me to be disrespectful. I have to control my emotions because society deems it fit for me to keep my position. Policy is the requirement to keep my ethics and sanity within the company and the future goals I have for myself. Do I always have negative thoughts? Oh definitely I have a lot I could say, but simple logic is what I implement to avoid conflict of interest. I will not understand truly why some people just do not understand simple terms or logic. This world we live in runs on policy, but so many people do not seem to want to follow regulations with the opportunities we have in this country. I do not know what everyone is experiencing, but I cannot tolerate when someone just blatantly breaks a rule that they understand and continue to break it. Then they expect to be reimbursed! Like are you crazy or do you think I am stupid? These are just some things I will never understand why are we so negative minded. Why cant we all just get along?"

Regrets?

"Everyday I wonder how much harder I could have tried. I know myself enough that I had the potential. The potential to be better and become what I dreamed. The excuses of injuries and laziness got in my way and stroll me away from the passion I enjoyed a lot throughout my teen years. The sport of soccer is or should I say was my life. Everyday I into my backyard to dribble around with the ball and take shots at my brick wall. The numerous occasions my teammates and I wrecked private properties because we just did not care about anything. We just played the game and enjoyed it a lot. I enjoyed the game so much that I really thought I could make it to the next level in college soccer. I played very well early and was team captain for three straight years.
What else could have stopped my destiny? Junior year.....September 17, 2010, the day my life changed. I go head to head for a corner kick with another player that is easily 6 foot and 4 inches and me, well standing at 5 foot 6 inches. What was I thinking? I was making the play to get my team the win for sure. Always give 110% in everything you do if you want to be the best. I make the play and score the goal but then I cant feel my left knee. Later to only find out I tore a meniscus. I attempted to play through it multiple times and my arrogance and frustration grew more. My performance suffered because I would not take rehab seriously and the injury would limit me to this day. I finished off my soccer career at high school with a fun career, but unable to move on to the next level because
I am unable to keep up my high level of play. The disappointment that I would not be able to play ever again. The loss of my scholarship to play in collegiate soccer. The passion and fire I had in the game was gone and for a long duration I stayed away from the game. Eventually I would go back and play in the alumni game and then I remembered why loved the game. It was not because of the scholarship and free ride or to go professional, but to have fun and enjoy it. Did I have a lot of regrets? Yes! Do I still have any now? Nope, because in such a short amount of time since I stopped playing, I learned to appreciate what I had and enjoy whats left of it. I may have not gotten my opportunity at furthering my game, but I still get my chances to play pick up games and train with others just for the fun of the game. This is one of the biggest reasons I live life with no regrets. The experiences in life such as this will question you a lot. The mind will fight with regrets and bring you down emotionally. The trick I find is just play along and learn from it."

Writing As Communications: Self-Revelation

              Of all the great passages that was written in this article, Writing as Communication really caught my eyes. The whole section talks very truly about how writing should be portrayed, but it is being undervalued. Writers who write about their thoughts typically do not share their true feelings and share something that society will accept. That is not the way writers have to communicate with the outside world. It was said best on page 250 "We must leave the private world of our own thoughts and meet the demands of that world outside ourselves". We are all producers of our writing and must be able to express our ideologies. Everyone will always judge your style of writing and not everyone will agree. That is just the reality of human beings, we are not meant agree on every thought. If that was the case, writers would not have to right about how they feel about certain things.
            The passage greatly details how to handle criticism. As I was saying before, handling criticism is the biggest challenge. We must just face it because running away from expressing what you believe in will not resolve anything. "Criticism has long been our stock and trade", that statement is very true. When someone writes to express something they care about or something very important; there will be supporters and the opposition. Criticism is a way to make us writers better and help people evolve. It can help many realize the common errors and creates for an educated discussion.

Goody Two Shoes

It was very interesting when my eyes caught the very last few sentences of this article. The author states the difference of understanding the reality of life and how we present our thoughts through writing. Writing is a form of escape for many of us and a lot of writers tend to flow away from reality and do not rationalize between who we really are and what we want to be. Sometimes we just have to accept our roles which is what the article meant when I read "Otherwise, there is too much of a schism between who we are as writers and how we live our daily lives. That is the challenge: to let writing teach us about life and life about writing." This can have many meanings to it, but I interpret as a message to remind many of our roles in society. It can be viewed negatively to say we cannot achieve our dreams in writing, but that is not true. It displays a truly great debate that can go back and forth about how writing impacts many lives. It impacts many writers differently. Some find it as solace to search for the greatest potential through inner thoughts, but it can also drive many away from the reality of the daily life and create chaos. Life is a huge challenge and writing can make that challenge either easier or more tough.