The First Year

So this is it. My Freshmen year is basically over, and I can't believe it. What a crazy year it has been. In less than 72 hours I'm going to be home again. No more late night netflix movies. No more Chick Fil' A. No more of my extremely comfortable JMU bed, in front of my cable tv, with a high speed internet connection. No More trying to avoid the two most annoying people in our dorm every moment of every day. No more Wii Bowling. No more Halo, even though I suck at it. No more thursday night shit shows. No more flying high on a tuesday night. No more Chanellos cheesy bread. No more awkwardness between me and my past roommates. No more drunk Taco Bell. No more living with all of the same people I have been living with for the past 2/3 of a year. I know that I'll be back next year, and I know I will hang out with the friends I have made at their new apartments, but it will still be different. I'll be an RA, and I'll have to be on my best behavior...most of the time, but definitely not all. I have to say this past year, even with its ups and downs, has been a pretty awesome year in my life. I have tried, experienced, experimented, and learned so many different things. I may not have made some good choices, but it still added to the experience, and it made college what it was. I've met a great bunch of people, and I couldn't imagine of having lived in another dorm, or in poplar hall with totally different people. We are definitely an interesting community, and I wouldn't want it any other way. I am excited that summer is here, and I will have more time with my Best Friends, but I will still miss this first year.

An Innocent Nature

When you're young, you're told to stay away from the woods, to stay away from nature. Dangers await in the woods-snakes, spiders, bears. So as a child the woods are a mystical place and your mind fills the woods with magic. When you start to get older the woods become more accessible. You enter and realize that all the beauty in the world can be found in nature; that all the innocence in the world can be found in nature. Nature may grow old, but it never grows up, and as you grow up you realize this. You realize that all those years you were told to fear nature, nature was fearing you. Scared that one day you would join in with the crowd that destroys nature, that bad group of kids that live on every corner of the Earth. When you're young, you need to be taught to explore nature, to experience nature, and above all respect nature. It has given so much to us, we must give something back.

Writing

So in my SMAD meeting the other night, I was strongly encouraged to create a blog and write in it often to keep my writing fresh. Little did he know that I already had my own blog and did write in it often, but I began to wonder what it meant to keep your writing fresh? According to dictionary.com fresh means retaining the original properties unimpaired. According to me, keeping your writing fresh means to continuing to be able to create with your writing. To draw, to show a new place, to introduce a new person as if they were standing right in front of you-having these abilities is continuing to keep writing fresh. Writing is kind of like an airplane, it can take you anywhere without going anywhere. Writing is a powerful tool. It can bring smiles, it can create tears, it bring Epiphanies. Writing created the world, it brought meaning and still brings meaning to everything on earth. It is something so simple that does so much. Writing, in my opinion is the greatest tool on Earth, and luckily for me, I'll be able to use the greatest tool for the rest of my days. Writing is life.

Febrile Illness: WARNING

Friday I woke up with a temp of 100.2. Within a matter of hours My temperature had risen to 102.8 and that was after taking two tylenol, my drug of choice. Finally I called my mom and asked her to come get me, that my body ached and I didn't think i would be able to drive home. She was very nice and picked me up. We drove home, where I laid down on our infamous couches when she told me that she was going to take me to the ER. I didn't want to go, but we went. I found out that I had been stricken with the Black Plague, i mean Febrile Disease, and virus that has been going around this month that has flu-like symptoms with the main difference being THERE ARE NO MEDICATIONS TO CURE YOU. I was told to take various over the counter medications and that I could be sick for 1-2 weeks. It has been I really long time since I have felt as bad as I did this past weekend. It was Hell, i even got dilusional, my mom however did not come to that conclusion and thought I was having withdrawels from some sort of drug. Right now I feel ok, besides a cough that could blow away a small nation, and low fever, and for some reason an endless amount of gas. I guess I'm writing this to say, DO NOT CONTRACT FEBRILE ILLNESS. You've been WARNED.

The City-Boy from the Country

I grew up in Louisa County Virginia. Where you ask, well it's in between Richmond and C-ville, and it is slowly growing-which I like. I like that more businesses are coming to our small town and the population is growing. I like to meet new and interesting people and the more people to meet the better. I also like the people in Louisa, maybe not all of them, but most. Small towns tend to have quirky people, and I like quirky. Besides a few other things I enjoy about living in the country, the things I don't like outweigh the things I like. I hate how i have to drive at least 30 mins to go see a movie or for any other kind of activity. Yes, I do like just having a few friends over and watching a rented movie, but there is just something special about actually going to the theater. I don't like guns, and everyone in the country seems to have a gun. I don't mind hunters, but maybe there good be like a check out system or something during hunting season, guns are just bad. I hate curvy roads, I guess because I'm not that great of a driver. I hate how some people in rural areas are still prejudice. My uncle constantly says the N word, and my Nanny still says colored. I can't stand it. I just learned today that Southern Baptist Churches aren't just baptist because they believed God wanted White men to own slaves. I respect people's beliefs, but I hate it when they put their personal beliefs in everything that they do i.e. Mr. Wills. Don't get me wrong, I'm glad I was able to experience the country. I like being outside on nice days, swimming at lake Ana, reading in the hammock, seeing fire works in someone's back yard, but the living the country life as a whole just isn't for me. I know when i go to the city many people think i will, but i will never forget where i came from and the people that were there with me. I'm a city boy at heart with very strong country roots.

MY LONG HAIR

On the Set

This may sound weird, but I often feel like my life is movie. There are some sweet moments in my life that are just picture perfect, then there is drama that take me on so many twist and turns I'm left trying to figure out how to get back to normal, and then there are times when things make for an awkward, but funny situation. For example, when we went on our trip to the James River. We were having a great time. It was a nice day, we were jumping rocks, and exploring old buildings. Of course behind the fun of that day, there was me awkwardly, but nicely trying to get away from one particular person who cold not keep there hands off of me.

Another scene in my life that I will never forget, is the last day Jordan, Nichole, and I spent together before we all left for college. It was a tuesday, and after spending the day together, I had to leave to go have my "last" meal with the family (HOME-MADE Chicken Noodle Soup). As i was leaving we all hugged, and then, I would try and go, but we would just end up hugging. Finally i made it down the stairs, and I stopped, and looked back up to a crying Nichole and Jordan. I didn't want to leave, I felt like I was leaving them forever, i guess because thats how dramatic that moment was, but i couldn't move. I just stood there and all three of us stared at each other, and finally I said, "see you later," and left. It was a bitter sweet moment because I new I wasn't leaving them forever, but for once in the past three years for Nichole, and the past six yeas for Jordan we were gonna be apart. I think about that moment often.

Another scene in my life that was just picture perfect was when Ember, Josh, and I went to see Rendition. It wasn't the movie that made the night good, it was the company. The three of us were sitting at Chipolte's outside in great weather, just laughing and talking, and for a moment I forgot that i had ever left for college. I felt like it was summer again, and we were just having a typical weekend. It was perfect.

And then there is the drama that seems to constantly force its way in. There is Octoberfest ( no need to go into detail), random misunderstandings between friends, founding out who people really are, me snorting a perkeset (however you spell it), and the other things I try not to think about.

In the end I guess that's life. My life isn't like a movie, but Movie's are like my life.