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.