February 17th, 2009

Why wait for you to come home?

Why search for answers to nothing?

Don't come back crying for help.

Why wait for life to come?

"Why Wait"  Rufio

I was on the long walk home from the Co-Rec (Gym) last night around 11:30 when this song came on my iPod.  It really got me thinking especially the second and fourth line of the chorus.  These seem like two things that a lot of people including myself tend to grapple with, so I decided to write a little bit about my thoughts on both of these lines.

Why search for answers to nothing?  I think this is a problem that we all face.  It seems inevitable to ask what if, what could have been, did I do the right thing, etc.  The fact is you can't go back and change the past.   It has already happened and you have to live with the consequences of your actions.  Instead of asking questions about what happened or what could have been, you should let yourself learn from your mistakes, and change your future actions by what you learned from the past.  I see a form of this when people get into exams and are worried about if they have studied enough.  I have been able to get past this and understand that no matter how much I have studied, worrying about it right before or during an exam will not change how I perform.  I am good at not asking those what-if questions when it comes to this example; However, I tend to have problems with not asking these questions in my own life.  I have tried to not do it as much as of late, but I still understand that I need to make a conscious effort not to do it.  Everything that happened in the past happened for a reason and I need to learn from the past.

Why wait for life to come?  I see people dealing with this problem everyday.  Seniors about to graduate wondering why they don't have a job when they have done nothing to market themselves, people who mope around all the time because something bad has happened to them, and people wondering why nothing good happens to them.  These people all are facing the same situation.  Instead of going out and actively pursuing the life that they want, they decide to sit on their hands and hope that life comes to them on its own.  Life doesn't work that way, at least not in most cases.  You must go out and seek the life that you want.  As I quoted in an earlier post, "Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you've imagined."  This is a necessity.  Grab life by the horns and go along for the ride.  It will take you to great places, great friends, and great times.  If you just sit around waiting for life to come and pick you up, it's not going to happen, and you will never get to understand how great life can be.  Carpe Diem, Eat Drink and Be Merry, whatever you phrase is,  LIVE LIFE LIKE ITS MEANT TO BE LIVED.  Live life with a purpose.  Make goals, and achieve those goals, then make new goals.  Life is a challenge, but it is the best challenge that one can ever undertake.  

And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count.  It's the life in your years. - Abraham Lincoln

The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.

There are a million ways to lose a day, but not even a single way to get one back. - Tom DeMarco and Timothy Lister

Music

I have been listening to music on an almost constant basis lately.  If I am not in class, I usually have my headphones in or music playing on my computer.  I find it very relaxing and almost uplifting.  Currently, I have been listening to a lot of Lil Wayne, T.I., Rihanna, Dave Matthews Band, and Nirvana.  It is weird that even sad songs somehow have a way of making someone feel better.  Not saying that I have been having bad days or anything but music always tends to put me in a better mood.  

For instance, listening to Nirvana, which is by no means "happy music" somehow makes me feel better.  Maybe its because I understand that I am not at all in a situation similar to Kurt Cobain when he was writing all of his music.  I know that I am stable, that I am happy with my life and the direction that it is going.  Listening to his music makes me understand how lucky I am to feel this way.  

Listening to the likes of Lil Wayne and T.I. gets me into a great mood because I love rap.  I love finding a new line in a song that just makes me smile.  I think both of them are some of the best poets and lyricists right now because they can turn some of the most obvious things into the weirdest metaphors or some of the weirdest things into the most obvious metaphors.  

I think Rihanna is one of the most talented and beautiful artists out there.  It seems like every thing she touches turns to gold (Except for Chris Brown maybe....too soon?).  The great thing about her is that she transcends both genders with her music.  It is enough hip hop and party music, so that is not considered girly to listen to her.  I have no problem telling people that I regularly listen to Rihanna because her music is actually good.  By the way, I think Chris Brown has finally given me some room, so I will soon be dating Rihanna.  Thanks, in advance, for all of your congratulatory remarks. 

Finally, Dave Matthews Band.  I have listened to them for pretty much 7 years straight now.  They are by far my favorite band and probably always will be.  I have heard every song they do thousands of times over, but every time I hear a different version or the same version over again, it seems that I find a small part that I had never noticed before.  It is ridiculous really, it could be just a couple notes on the saxophone or a little lick that Dave adds in or a little extra roll Carter adds on the drums.  It gets me every time and then I am hooked.  DMB is one of those bands that you can put on your CD player on a long drive and literally listen to every second of one of their albums.  I could go on for hours about DMB, but I will leave it for now.  Maybe I will do an entire post on them later.

As always I will end my post with some quote, but this time lyrics from Dave Matthews Band.

Turns out not where, but who you're with that really matters. - Best of What's Around

Hey, my love, you came to me like wine comes to the mouth.  Grown tired of water all the time.  You quench my heart and, love, you quench my mind. - Two Step

You don't need to prove a thing to me, just give me faith make me believe - Save Me

Tuesday February 10th

So I went and looked at an apartment today with my future roommate Pat.  It was really cool. 2 floor townhouse with an unfinished basement as well.  The main floor has all wooden floors, living room, a kitchen with full appliances and a half bath.  The second floor has two pretty big bedrooms that are carpeted as well as a bathroom.  There is a nice patio on the back and a good amount of grassy, common area for all the townhouses.  and the kicker....they allow DOGS OF ANY SIZE.  It is only a short fifteen minute walk to the School of Management, so that is a great perk too.  It is not very expensive either.  We are going to sign the lease on Thursday.  This has put me in a great mood and has relieved a lot of stress because I actually know where I am living next semester.

P.S.  I have decided to add a funny video from youtube every week or so.  Enjoy!

Update- February 9th

One month down in this semester and I haven't really been blogging whatsoever.  So I guess I will just use this post to update everything that has or is going down.  I have been very busy with classes because I am taking 18 hours.  I have been trying to use my Fridays (since I have no classes) to get ahead on my accounting homework.  I have an assignment due each day in that class and it is very time consuming, so getting it done on Friday really frees up a lot of time during my week.  I have 6 exams over the next 3 weeks, so I will be busy, but I don't see any of them being very difficult.  

Besides school I had a very busy January on the weekends.  My first weekend of the school year I spent skiing in Colorado with my brother and his wife.  It was a blast.  We spent two days at Keystone and one day at Vail.  The weather was perfect and my legs were sore for a long time after I got back.  The following weekend I went to visit two of my friends at Wabash College and had a really good time there. I always enjoy hanging out with them.  The weekend after that was my friend Lane's birthday.  She turned 21 so my friend Chris and I decided to go to Miami (OH) to help her celebrate.  It was a really great time.  I danced at one of the bars for over an hour, which is a huge accomplishment for me because you are lucky to see me dance one time.  It was really a great time.

Since returning to school, this semester I have tried to have a much more open mind towards everything in life.  I am one of the pickiest eaters, but I have been trying a lot of new food lately.  I tried sushi and edamame while I was out in Colorado.  This past weekend I tried shrimp for the first time at my Dad's birthday dinner.  I found all of these things very tasty. As of late I have also been on a huge pepper kick.  I am trying to include serrano and jalapeno peppers in as much of my food as possible.  It is weird because I have never been a fan of spicy food, but peppers have been really enticing lately.  I have also decided that I need to put less what on people's perception of me.  Sure it is important to have a good perception, but I am talking about caring what people think about my actions or the things I say.  I do not need to worry about if someone would make fun of me for something I did or talk shit about me behind my back.  I understand that I can be the bigger person and not let it dictate my actions.  I will keep updated on my progress on keeping an open mind.

There are two awesome things that I am planning for the near future and I am really hoping that I can accomplish both of them.  First off, I am seriously contemplating attempting to write a book.  It would be about college, but have a very different outlook then the typical college advice book.  More to come on that later, but I don't want to reveal too many ideas on my book.  Secondly, I am wanting to travel to Utah during the month of May.  I guess this idea came to me after watching "Into the Wild" and reading the book.  I know that I could not do what Chris McCandless did, but I hope that I can at least mimic it in some sense.  Hopefully, my great friend Michael will be joining me.  If everything works out, I want to spend a large part of my short break between school and my internship hiking through parks in Utah such as Moab and the Narrows.  I feel like it is a necessity before I finish college to go off and do something that I have never done. I think that it would be a very liberating and life altering experience to go out into the wilderness with no real modern amenities.  

OK I have rambled on enough for this post and can't think of anything else to write about.  I will try to write more frequently so my posts will become shorter.

Go confidently in the direction of your dreams.  Live the life you've imagined. - Henry David Thoreau

Do not be too moral.  You may cheat yourself out of much life.  Aim above morality.  Be not simply good: be good for something.  - HDT

Happiness is only real when shared. - Christopher McCandless