FUN!!!

Fun, this word/activity can be decribed in so may different ways that people could hear something new every day. To keep things simple, fun in my definition is hanging out with some close friends on a day that is filled with video games, many different sports, and tons of jokes. To other people fun may be a quiet empty room filled woth books and movies. This concept of fun has many different perspectives but is always enjoyable. What is not enjoyable, to me anyways, is studying. So there comes this question that states "Can you have fun and Study at the same time?" my immidiate and final answer is NO! Although learning can definitely be fun, preparing ourselves to learn is never fun. Just like playing in a huge football game is always fun to me, the practice and hard work that came before that game is noty fun at all. To even begin to have fun while studying forces you to stop studying in order to perform a fun act. When it comes to sports, there is a mixture of fun and concentration, which I would say is the same for learning. You can have fun in a classroom but too uch fun and zero concentration forces you to not learn. Too much fun, and no concentration on a football field means you are getting killed on the scoreboard. To me the fun of playing a sport, or taking a class is the result that follows the work that you put in. So studying is not fun, but making an A on the final is extremely fun. At the same time, A hard practice may suck terribly, but winning is always fun. So if you are having fun when you are supposed to be focused you will not make an A on the final, and you will definitely not be having fun while you are losing. So I believe that fun needs to be timed right. There should be fun when you are finished with all of the work that you need to get done first.

High School to College

I am recently beginning to feel exactly how far away from high school college actually is. With the holidays coming around, in high school my teachers would begin to slack off and lighten up the load on us. In college on the other hand, the professors have not slowed down a bit. They insist on going a thousand miles an hour to make sure we get everything done that we need to befpre our up and coming breaks. Even though I hate them for it, they are helping us prepare for finals (another thing I did't have in high school). To a procrastinator like myslef in high school holidays were a blessing, but to the college me, it is hell. Every paper, test, project, and group assignment happen right before the holidays. Knowing me I have either recently or haven't started on all of the work I need to get done. Even the blog I am doing righ tat this moment is me procrastinating. But as I have said before whatever happens this first semester of college serves me as a lesson. In high school I could have just asked my teachers (who I had a very good relationship with) for extensions on assignments, but in college getting an extension on an assignment is a blessing, miracle, and rare find all at the same time. Honestly, I think that I am starting to understand how this whole college thing works, and much like everyone has said, it took me about a semester.

Keeping My Focus

Holidays are right around the corner, Thanksgiving break is almost here, and Christmas break follows. What is not going through any students mind is that before Christmas break is finals. With all of the distraction of the holidays and getting our breaks it is important to stay focused. Just becasue we get out of classes on Wednsday doesn't mean that we can just not do any of our work done for Monday, and it doesn't mean that we can just not study for our tests' on Tuesday. When I am on a football field or a pitchers mound, people have commented on the fact that my focus cannot be matched, but when it comes my academics.... It is an entirely different story. I know that I am getting extremely close to the time, where in high school, I have a track record of slacking off. I cannot stress to myself ebough the importance of keeping my focus and concentration for this next month or so. I need to get my grades up, I need to do my homework, and I need to go to class. Most of all I need to prepare myself for finals! It is extremely hard for me to concentrate on the importance of classwork, when all I seem to be focused on is getting out of class! This is why I need to prioritize my focus and concentration. For me that means whatever I am actually focused on, I need to focus on the exact opposite. When all I can think about is going out and having fun, I need to think about the things I need to get done before I can go out. When I am focused on Thanksgiving and Christmas break, I need to focus on getting all of the work I can done before these breaks come. Staying focused for the next month may seem like it is not too difficult of a task, but to a college student who is 5 hours away from home who has only been home twice, it is boarderline impossible. So it is extremely important that I am focused on the important things for the next month.

Failure....

I was raised with a few principles. One thing that my father told me that has always stuck with me is that "Every person, relationship, mistake, and triumph, will eventually be a lesson". At first I just acted like I understood what he was talking about and went on woth my life. Now that I am older and wiser, I have witnessed the truth behind his words first hand. I have watched friendships and relationships fade, even when I thought they never would, I have made great plays on the football field and I have blown games, but the one thing all of these have had in common is that I learned from the experience. One of my most recent lessons has come from my three year relationship has come to a sudden end. The failure of my relationship has takn a toll on me physically and mentally. I was depressed, confused, and betrayed, but the one thing I did not feel was regret. I understnd that even if I never get back with my ex girlfriend again and even if we stop talking and never speak to eachother again, that I have learned a lesson form her. I may not yet know, or understand what that lesson is, but I know that there is one there. The thing about learning these lessons is that the realization does not always happen right away. Sometimes the lesson will come right away, and sometimes we must feel embarrassment, pain, and a hint of regret before we figure out what we needed to learn from our failure. It ismportant to me that I never fully regret anything that I have done because I know that nothing ever gets done if you never try. So to me, even though we sometimes fail or make a galring mistake, we must not be broken by it, and we must not regret ever trying because we will learn our lesson from it one day.

The Meaningful Relationships

It is close to thanksgivng and everyone always jumps on the what I am thankful for bandwagon, so I decided that I would join them. What I am truly thankful for, is my father. As cliche as it seems my father is the one and only reason why I turned out the way that I did. My childhood (if you could call it that) forced me to grow up faster than any child should ever have to. I was around violence, seperated parents, drugs, and gang bangers from the age of three. I have vivid memories of fights that involved guns and yelling and police on multiple occasions. I remember having to call 911 at the age of 6 at 9:00 pm. becasue nobody in my house woulld wake up and I was scared. Most of the time individuals hat grow up this way do not come out of it the way that I did. I have never touched a drug, I do not get drunk, and the last fight that I have been in was when I was in 5th grade. My dad rescued me from the life that I was in and gave me the closest thing t a childhood that he was able to after what I had been through. He taught me how to channel my anger productively into sports, he taught me pretty much everything that I know today. Due to the fact that he is the greatest dad in the world, I made it to college, I am able to play collegiate football, I have a joob waiting on me after college. If it weren't for him I would either be working at McDonald's, in jail, or dead somewhere. When you realize whop the important and meaningful people are in your life, they become your fire, your reason for wanting to succeed. My father has helped me on so many different levels that the only way for me to repay him is to graduate from college, obtain a successful career and give him some healthy grandchildren. Becasue if it were not for his efforts and sacrifices, I would not be able to do any of those things.

Reminding Myself Why I am Here

Recently I have had some major issues dealing with the fact that I am grown now, and I need to start making tough decisions. I would say at this moment right now I am at a whole new level of homesick. I cannot sleep at night because my mind will not stop racing on the things that I am trying to not think about. This all started after I took my last trip back home to Dallas. I got home and my dad was a week late on his electricity bill because he had to use almost all of his check to pay for my college payment, and a little spending money for myself. When I saw this I started thinking constantly about what I am doing. I have not been the student that I planned to be since I started college, I do not drink, or smoke, or do any kind of drugs, but I still have this feeling that I need to do more. I need to put fourth more effort, I need to get more organized, I need too be the student, son, and athlete that I know I can be. It has always been easy for me to give half of the effort I can give and just get by doing a little more than the minimum. It is time that I challenged myself, it is time that I prepare myself for what will happen in the future, it is time that I grow up. It took me learning that hard way that I need to grow up. It took some pain inside and out to realize that I am going to be on my own. I understand now, that I need to do everything to the best of my ability. I cannot get by doing the minimum anymore, not if I want to succeed in this game we call life. For the first time I believe that I truly know what I am doing, why I am here. I am here to set up myself for a good future. I need to struggle now so that I will never have to do it again outside of college. This should be the case for almost every college student, it is hard for a reason.

Confindence In all aspects

 

I have noticed especially in the past few weeks that confidence seems to be a reoccurring theme in everything that I partake inside and outside of scholastics. In class my teachers are talking about confidence as more of a way to get out of our shells that we placed ourselves in high school. Our teachers want us to talk more, set up times where we can discuss things we are struggling with, and be active in class discussions. Not to mention the classes that ask us to attack our readings with a confidence that shows how good of a reader we truly are. Being an athlete we always are told to be confident not cocky. The football team is not doing what we all believed that we would do, so our coaches are telling us that we need to still be confident in our talents although our record does not reflect what we thought it would. The coaches want us to be confident in each other as well. They want us to not only believe in our talents as individuals, but as a team as well. In my social life I have hit a weird stage of getting dumped for no apparent reason at all. So even though I know that I did not do anything wrong in my three year relationship, I still find it hard to keep confidence in myself. I feel like because I was shocked by the break up that I have lost a lot of my confidence. So basically it took all of this to say that obviously confidence is very important in many aspects of life. When I focus on each aspect that I need to have confidence in, I realize that confidence is only a mindset. Like any mindset I notice that it is easy to change it either negatively or positively. Simply telling myself something can help out my confidence or take it all away. In the class room if I tell myself that I cannot simply read these fifteen pages, I find that it is a lot more difficult to get through that chapter than it would be if I would have just believed in myself. When I am trying to catch a pass and I have second thoughts about whether or not I am able to do so, is when I seem to make mistakes. When I act shy around people because I blame myself for a break up that was not my fault, is when I seem to not make friends. All in all confidence as important as it is in all aspects of life, it can easily be swayed by keeping a positive mindset on whatever you are trying to focus on.

Distractions Are Everywhere

It seems like the longer I get into the semester, the more work I get and the more distractions seem to pop up. The longer you are in class the more comfortable your professorss become with loading you with work. Also the longer you are in college the more friends you meet, the more friends you meet, the greater your chances of having a person distract you become. College is full of these external distractions. The thing about college is that you are able to get used to these distractions, you find ways to get things done despite these external distractions, even if staying up all night to do something is not the best thing for your health, you are still getting it done. While you find adaptions to these external distractions, what really kills any drive to work is the internal distractions. Lately with grades coming in, the home sickness beginning to take its toll, and the stress of midterms and tuition payments piling up, it is extremely difficult to get my mind focused on the most improtant thing. At night my mind constantly runs through all of the things that I do not need it to run through, and forces my sleep schedule to be put on hold. I find myself staring at a book and worying about little things that should not be on my mind when I am trying to read. As an eighteen year old first year college student there are certain social issues that are difficult to keep off of our minds long enough to focus on homework and studying. Whether it is relationships, or sports, or video games, or even the fact that while you want to study every person you know is out having fun, there are a plethora of distractions that we students must over come. It is important to prioritize where, and when to focus and what to focus on. Learning the skills it takes to ignore distractions will set the foundation for your future with whatever profession you arre looking to put your efforts to.

Focus and Concentration

This week is homecoming week! In highschool that meant that school was put on hold while every student focused on finding a date, concentrated on the homecoming game if you were an athlete, and trying to get nominated for homecoming court. Now that I am in college it feels so different. I want to geet into the homecoming spirit but I have test and essays and school stuff that was never important in highschool. I always thought that homecoming was basically a school-wide excuse to blow off work and focus on other things. Now I realize how when we reach the real world how things that are important to me may not mean anything to someone else. Keeping my focus with all of the spirit days and families coming down is more difficult than I thought it would be. I studied for a test last night and every five minutes I would get caught up in a conversation about free t-shirts or the game on saturday, all because homecoming is the only thing that the students are focused on. I just could not concentrate on any of the material that I needed to. That is why I think it is important to prioritize your focus. Focus on the things that you do not want to focus on because they are the not fun things. If tyou have to choose between focusing on getting a good start on an essay, or focusing on beating your friend at a new video game choose the one that you do not want to choose aka the essay. Concentrate on one thing at a time, I learned first hand that while studying it is nearly impossible to comprehend the material if you are trying to talk about your relationship with your girlfriend at the same time you are reading Socrates' "Allegory of the Cave". The one thing I have learned about focusing is that if you focus all your conccentration on one thing it will go by quicker, so you can have more time for other things. So today I challenge everyone to prioritize their focus and concentration.

PlayMaking 101

I have been an athlete for fourteen years now, so I have heard so many things in my life that I have heard and learned from. I can contribute most of my accomplishments off of the field to the fact that I am an athlete. So when I hear people talking about wanting to make a difference, I just picture being a play-maker. If you watch or play sports you have heard this term before. In sports a play-maker is someone who can make a positive impact in a game for his/her team. In life a play-maker to me is someone who can change a life or an aspect of a life, whether it is theirs or someone elses, for the better. So when you need to change something about your life for the better think of it as making a big play, the more big plays you make the closer you are to becoming a play-maker. Now I have been called a play-maker numerous times on the football and baseball field, but when it comes to my life I would have to ponder if I was truly a play-maker. I always try to brighten peoples days. I would honestly say I genuinely care if certain people are having a rough time or not. So in my opinion when it comes to friends and family I would call myself a play-maker. But, what about my life? Do I make changes to my life when I need to? These are the tough questions that I believe everyone should ask themselves. When it comes to my life, I would say that in many aspects of my life I am truly a play-maker, but when it comes to my academics I am not. I have always skated through school doing half of what I could have truly done and making "okay" grades. When I go back and think about high school there are definitely times when I regret slacking off. I know that if I gave full effort I could have done something really good with my academic career. My biggest problem is studying. If I was truly a play-maker in my life and outside of school I would change my study habbits and learn from my experiences, so until I am able to do these things I am not a play-makeer in life. So my question to evveryone today is, Are you a play-maker in your life?

Pushing Myself

When most people think about setting goals they always focus on big picture. They will set a goal that takes them a year to complete and at some point throughout that year they will completely forget that they even set a goal for themselves. Most people also like to set broad goals. Something like "I want to be a better dad", or "I want to lose weight". I have learned through many different teachers of "Goal Setting" that big picture is great but to actually complete these goals it is important to take them one step at a time. I like to set daily or even weekly goals for myself. The way I see it is, if I complete my goals every week I am getting closer and closer to where I need to be as a person. Even though I am setting small goals they are the foundation for my ultimate goal. So my reason for the introduction of goal setting is to express my goals for this week. Right off the bat, so to speak, I start off my week with a football game on Monday. For my first goal of the week I would like to score two touchdowns in my game. Understanding that in college I cannot only focus on sports, my second goal is an academic goal, I would like to spend at least six hours this week studying and doing homework. For my final goal of the week I want to focus on being social, so my third goal is to introduce myself to at least three new people before the weekend. I understand that these goals may seem small to the naked eye but if I can do this every week I will have accomplished bettering myself as an athlete, as a student, and as a friend. If I choose not to try at these goals then I am failing myself in three major aspects of my life. I understand that my goals could possibly not be possible based on what happens but as long as I try I know that I am bettering myself as a person. If I am not able to achieve my goals then I must figure out what I have done wrong and set new goals the next week. Even though this may seem petty to some people setting goals for yourself can completely change your life for the better.

TLU Transition

I have recently been here at Texas Lutheran University for my first official month. Believe it or not, I have been asked on MULTIPLE occasions how I have been settling in since I have been here. Honestly, I do not even know how to answer that question. Besides the obvious adversities that come with the transition from high school to college work, there are other things that take getting used to. Lucky for me I knew my roommate ever since I was about five years old so I get to skip the cries for help and privacy. My biggest problem so far in college is ignoring the distractions that appear in front of me. My lobby that I enjoy to study in happens to overlook the window to the freshly made game room in my residence hall. Besides that I have the unlimited meal plan so it seems that every free second I have is spent either eating in the dining hall, or the student center snack shack. Also the fact that it is hard to ignore the fact that every time I choose to sit down and work on my studies every single other person I see is doing something more interesting than the work I am focused on. Despite all of the negative points of transition, there are some positives. My biggest "like" so far in college has to be the fact that I am on my own time. One of my "many" good qualities is my time management. So the fact that I was able to pick my class times was a beautiful thing. Another positive at TLU is Study Hall for the football players. I have a definite love/hate relationship with study hall. without it I know that 85% of my homework would never even be a thought in my head until it was asked from me by a professor, but during it my mind becomes fatigued from the amount of work I force it to accomplish in an hour and a half. I know that only being here a month means that I am still in store for many more experiences, and I know that my transition is still incomplete. Though I am still immature in my college experiences, I feel that within my time here my transition to the college life is a good one and I hope that it continues to stay on that path.

The Mental Game

You hear people talk about being "mentally present" all of the time. Being an athlete I have heard this term way too many times in the passed fourteen years. It started when I was young listening to my dad screaming at me to focus, then I got a little older and my teachers and coaches would ask me "where is your head at today"? Now I am to the point in my life where I have to tell myself to be mentally strong. There has been many times in my life where my physical performance has faultered due to the fact that my mind is not in the same place that I am. My coach at the moment likes to tell us that "our minds and [butts] need to be in the same place" wherever I am physically needs to be what my mind is focused on. When I hear the term "Mental Game" I invision a competition of the mind. To me competition always has two opposing forces, even when you are competing with yourself you are still competing against two parts of you. Mental games can be between two physical forces or against the two forces of yourself that you create. So my mental game is always against myself. I do occasionally like to have a battle of whit between a deserving foe, but a true mental game is a battle against myself. My opposing forces are my body and my mind. Being a long time athlete I understand that your body shuts down faster when you begin to doubt yourself. So it is vitally important that I strengthen my mind for whatever I choose to do, almost like training for a game. I do this so that when my body becomes tired I can "trick" my body into having a little extra than it has had before. This is the case for more than just sports, it is the case with school work as well. When I am studying for hours on end because I have procrastinated my way into a midnight cram session of fifty pages of reading, I am able to stay focused if my mind is trained to do so. When it comes to my "Mental Game" I train my mind so that it is able to win the competition with my body. My Mental Game is a constant battle to focus on whatever my task at hand is, so that I may become better in all aspects of life that I am performing.