22!!

Yeah, I think I'm overdue for a blog post yet again. I'm a bit worried that when school starts next week, I will only get one post a month in or something. That would be lame. Life has been going well this past week. I was able to go on a trip up to the Snake River in Wyoming with my singles ward to do some river rafting. It was good fun despite it being my 8th time going up to raft that river. We had some good times. (even though I was zip tied into my tent Friday morning and I had to bite through it because I REALLY had to go to the bathroom). I also had fun times yesterday at a party for my friend DJ, as he built a mud slide, and we had a good time on that. Today was good, as it was the day my family celebrated my birthday since I won't be around for the actual day. Andrea came down for the weekend, I got to speak in church on forgiveness, and my family came over for food and games in the evening.

Well it just turned midnight, so I'm officially 22 now. It's weird. 22 feels like an odd age to be. I'm now a year beyond the official "adult age", and all the birthdays from now on don't quite have that special meaning, or any significant ones that have a positive connotation. (30 and 40 are bad) This last year seems to have gone by super fast, but I feel like I've done a ton of stuff. So in this blog post, I thought I might reminisce on the past year, and go over things that happened to me, or that I've done.

When I turned 21 last year, I was still on my mission in Walsall, England, and serving with Elder Benson McKay. It was a good birthday, and I got a couple good parcels from home, which I thoroughly enjoyed. After being with Elder Mckay for a bit longer, there was another emergency transfer and I got Elder Spencer Wright, and I served with him until the end of my mission. It was good times.

I returned home from my mission on Nov. 25, and spent the next long while adjusting to normal life again. I worked to get my old job back, and also registered for my first semester of college at WSU. The following months in the spring went interestingly, but good. I came home with a broken foot, and once that healed, I had a concussion by crashing hardcore on my wooden floor. Putting my injuries aside, the semester of college moved on. I got my old job back at America First in February, and I'm still working there to this day. During that time I went on a few dates, but nothing especially came out of them in the end. I also found a couple new groups of friends that I met through old friends, and my social life began to flourish a bit more. Other than that, the time of that semester was pretty monotonous, and I was glad for it to end.

At the end of the semester, I moved up my hours at work, and took the summer off from school to prepare for the fall semester. It also gave me some time to think of what I wanted to do academically. I had previously been looking to go for a Psychology degree, but I have since changed my mind, and I'm now wanting to get a degree in Communications. With all of that, I looked for options to other schools I may attend. Right now it's looking like I'm going to move up to UVU next year, and try to move over to BYU in the years following that.

In all of that, I started to date a girl named Marlee, but that didn't work out in the end either, so after two weeks, I went back to single life. Soon after, my blog began here. :D I was able to go on a few good vacations to Louisiana and Snowbird, and I finished those up in the end of June. When those were done, I began to date Andrea, and we are still dating to this day. It's been really awesome. That's been the main highlight for July and also up to my birthday now.

So, it's been a fun past year, and I'm looking forward to the coming year as well. I plan to make it even more epic than the last. Let's see how it goes!

Adjusted?

You see? I'm doing a bit better here. More than one blog per week. I'm starting to get back into it here. I'm just sitting here on my bed, and the thought kept coming to do a blog, so here I am. Don't expect anything especially special here though. Probably just rambling mostly, but hey, it's fun for me to do either way.

Tonight I FINALLY organized my mission photos. I found out that the total pictures I had including small movies was 1,323! I didn't realize it was so many. I suppose that over the space of two years, with around 730 days, that means I took on average 2 per day, which isn't too bad. It was the first time since I've been home (almost 9 months now...Aaaahh!) that I've looked through all of them. I definitely had a good laugh, but I also found myself missing the mission terribly. It's days like today that I really wish that I could go back and keep serving. On the "mish", or all missions for that matter, the term "trunky" comes up. To be Trunky means you are looking forward to going home, and usually are missing a certain part when feeling the trunky emotion. The term comes from one being near or thinking of their trunk (or suitcase). Well, since I'm home already, I now change it, and say I'm feeling trunky for my mission. I had so many good times there. Taking those two years out of my life, and dedicating them to the Lord and spreading the Gospel full-time was the best decision I ever made. EVER. I don't regret it at all. I had a BLAST! Sure there were hard days, when no one would listen, I didn't get along with my companion, or I was feeling a bit homesick, but I feel like I grew so much out there and learned so much. I wouldn't trade it for the world.

Today I was having a bit of a downer day, and not feeling so positive. Life had become stressful and difficult lately with all sorts of stuff (friend drama, apartment finding issues, etc), that it was starting to wear on me. In the evening, I was talking to Andrea, and we decided to show our mission pictures to each other tomorrow. So tonight I began to go through them and organize them for that first time, and I immediately began to feel better. It took a couple hours, but it was well worth it to go through those memories again. Now I'm feeling great and positive. =)

Anyway, those were just my thoughts for tonight. Am I adjusted? I think so. Do I still miss the mission? Absolutely.

Epic Fail Again...

What's happened here? I thought I used to be a daily blogger. Now I'm lucky to get one in once a week. I'm failing miserably here, and it's no bueno. I still have plenty to blog about, I just never get around to it. Boo on me.

Life is still going really well. I feel very positive about everything. My friends and I are really close to getting an apartment, I'm dating the most wonderful girl, and school will be starting soon. I also have a river trip coming up, which is exciting, and my birthday, which is a bit less exciting, since I'm getting old (yes, 22 feels old), but it should still be great. Other than that, life moves on. Oh! I'm also much much better. I'm no longer sick it seems. My throat is good, and I barely cough at all anymore. It's great.

Tonight I just wanted to mention a bit about my writing. I won't say too much. Even though I have this blog here, I still enjoy writing stories, and starting novels and such. It all started back my sophomore year in high school, when a friend approached me and asked me to write a random chapter for a book he was putting together. That chapter sparked a novel I began, and tried to write all the way through high school called "The War of the Elements". It was a basic fantasy story about some youth (based on high school friends) that go off and have an adventure. Sadly, it became too involved with my social life, and the story more or less got ruined. I guess it couldn't be helped, as I had never written anything quite so extensive in my life, and my writing was in much need of improving. I only got fourteen and a half chapters into it (each chapter being around ten to fifteen pages), but it got better as it got on, but still couldn't be saved. So I have since scratched it, and started over with a better storyline, no involvement of real life counterparts, and just generally better writing altogether.

Through high school, several other ideas cropped up that I tried to start. I had one that got three chapters in about marching band, and a secret war going on between rival bands (Davis and American Fork), but that one ended quickly as I ran out of ideas, and it was mostly ranting anyway about the rival band. That one was titled, "From the Eyes of a Band Member". Another that didn't get very far was called "Game", and was about virtual reality sparring games played by the whole world that are very realistic that involved medieval combat. Other ideas that never really got anywhere included one about an epilogue about the Matrix, or a romance story based on my high school girlfriend (yeah, it was lame, don't ask). I'm sure there were plenty of other ideas I played with, but none really came to fruition.

After high school I fell a bit out of practice, and didn't write too much for a while. One day, out of nowhere, I was in a writing mood, and remembered an idea I had for a story called "Erin", which was supposed to be a story about a girl with mental powers and how she went through life with them. This writing mood, however, came with a large sarcastic mood as well. I kept thinking about writing, and wanted to try "Erin", but it just wouldn't come. So, I just opened a blank Word document, and started writing. Then, "Brian" was born. Brian brought a whole new style of writing I hadn't done before, as I do the whole story in a first person perspective, as if HE is telling the story to you. The part I liked about it is his general sarcastic view on things, and he goes off on tangents all the time. I denied it for the first while, but Brian is loosely based on experiences I had in high school, and a general narration on them. I focused mainly on how ridiculous and/or dramatic they were, and make fun of them mostly. However, Brian is built with a twist that continues to build as I write it. I'm thinking of taking the story in two directions, and I very well may do that. We shall see. I've only gotten six chapters into his story, but my excuse is that to write him, it requires that I am in a certain mood that I've discovered cannot be duplicated or forced to come out. So it will take some time. I was actually surprised about his story, as it was pretty popular for some time, and my friends actually asked when I was going to write another chapter. This gave me a bit of hope for the future. Although I may not do it as a career, it will be fun to write on the side, and see where things go.

Other than that, the reason I'm talking about my writing today, is that I actually got into a "writing mood" this afternoon, and began another story. I've always been a fan of apocalyptic stories/movies, and wanted to write one, so I thought I'd start. I'm only three pages in, so we'll see how it goes.

I just really enjoy writing, as it helps let out frustration, or anything that I'm feeling at that particular moment, and I am free to express myself creatively as much as I want.

Anyway, I've probably bored you enough with talking about my writing. If you are curious at all, I'm more than happy to share ANY of my writing with anybody. I may be embarrassed with some of it, but I'll let you read if you ask. I still have it all saved since day one. Just ask, and I'll send it to you.