Choices, choices

Life comes at you fast! Recently I have been thinking a lot about my life. What classes should I take next semester? Should I do an internship in Brazil or stick to the United States? Do I really want to spend $1,000 just for an LDS singles cruise? Out of all the girls I am crushing on, who should I get to know at this time, who should I hang out with, who should I ask out on my next date? (Dating consumes about 90% of my thought time). What should I do for homework at this very instant? Should I move out and have a social life, or should I stick it out at home and save thousands of dollars in a year? Why does life have so many questions!?

It is incredible to me how much life has to offer and how many options we can choose from. There are a lot of great and horrible choices, as well as good options and bad options. It seems we are always being put in to positions to make choices rather than being able to do every single thing we want. Life is so cruel making us make sacrifices in order to live it. I am not in any extreme life or death situation, but I sure feel like there are a lot of huge decisions on my plate at the moment, and all of them have immense benefits.

With regard to school I can take the business core right now and graduate in 2011, but if I do that I wouldn’t be able to do a joint Bachelor/Master program. Decision, graduate that much sooner and be rid of the curse of homework or add on a whole new degree of homework and graduate with a Master’s.

I have a few offers to take internships in Brazil, of I take them, I could progress in my desire to do international business, but then I run the risk of jeopardizing a promising future at my current job.

Dating, well, that is just a completely different animal (plans to write a future article on that). Let us just say, I do not know the first thing about women, so therefore I am having an interesting time learning the old-fashioned way, ie, going on dates and messing up a ton.

Moving out of my home in to a student apartment would increase my non-existent social life by a ton. But then I would have to spend a lot more money, sleep in a room with an entire other person, be away from my mom’s home cooked meals, and a nice quiet place to study.

Choices, decisions, options, what is up with that? Maybe if I restore Soviet Russia they can choose my life pursuits for me.

Well everyone, choose your options well, because there are a lot of them!

Stewart Falls and Growing Notion

I have blogged in the past, let's just say that was an interesting experience. I didn't ever find the motivation nor the desire to actually do it. I was an immature teenager following the trend of peers and friends. Now I feel like I have a purpose for it, that's why I have come back to writing a blog, I feel that there is a need for me to do it. I hope I can inspire some people, help out someone in situations similar to mine, or merely entertain someone staying at home with nothing to do (yes, even those procrastinators holding off the studies for a mid-term).

Stewart Falls

I just had an interesting time at a place here in Provo called Stewart Falls.* I went there with a blind date hooked up by my good friends. I recommend the location to everyone. The hike is an easy two-mile in-out hike with some impressive views of the Provo Canyon and the back side of Mount Timpanogos. Unfortunately we missed the mesmerizing fall leaves by a week, but it was still a fun hike and the peaceful nature of the area was tranquilizing. I am definitely going back for future events with friends or future dates.

Parties with Old Friends

I watched the BYU vs TCU game live on TV. That disappointing game was a 38-7 loss. That being said I was not the most excited person when I went to a friend's party I was invited to.

By the way, it was cool how I was invited. The hostess of the event didn't have my cell phone number as her primary contact number for me in her phone. So the mass-text she sent out went straight to my land-line rather than my cell phone. The text actually went through and it was delivered by a computer voice like an answering machine, it was actually reading what she had sent me. Cool deal!

Back to the story. I got there to see several people I have been friends with since high school (graduated in 2006). Several of the friends there I would consider my good hang-out friends from high school. They are great interesting people. But I had a notion while I was sitting on the couch alone coloring a picture (the hostess's family places coloring books and papers, etc on the coffee table with a bunch of markers for people to color, doodle etc). I noticed that I just didn't feel like I fit in with them much anymore. Like I said, they are great people and are fun, but my personality has changed enough from theirs that I don't feel the same kind of connection I once had with many of them. It just showed me how much people can change in three years (especially with a two-year mission there in the mix to Brazil where I served).

I don't think I can completely explain it, but I felt like I had nothing to say to them and they didn't really have anything to say to me. Several times I would join a group of these people and just listen to the conversation, realizing I had nothing to add. That isn't normal for me, I'm a talkactive person with a lot to say, so I felt really out of place.

I guess this is what happens as we get older and discover new interests and more about ourselves. What was once normal can then become different and can feel out of place. I am definitely going to continue to be friends with all of these people and hang-out with them, but I can tell that time has changed my friends and me (for the better of course). That is life, we change, what we need to do is appreciate what we have learned from our past experiences and continue to grow from them.

*Directions and information about Stewart Falls