Snowboarding Season

Mt. Snow is open. Snowboarding season has begun.
I've been waiting for this. Anyone that knows me knows how much I love snowboarding season. In the eight years I've been riding I've never found anything as exhilarating and liberating as snowboarding. For those of you that don't ski or ride - you really should pick it up. For those that do - you know exactly what I'm talking about. Hitting that first run right off the lift after waiting three months is unlike anything else. Over the past year I've gotten to experience seeing Dave Matthews Band live, watch everyone rush the field after we beat West Virginia, and play in front of 109,000 people at the University of Michigan. Those were all awesome experiences, but nothing compares to being able to carve your own way down the mountain. When you're boarding you are completely free from everything. Free from worry, free from judgment, free from all concern. It's important to be aware of the world and it's happenings, but sometimes it's critical to let go of everything. Consider it "self work" if you must. Call it anything, but to me, it's something that keeps me grounded. When I ride I find my own way down the mountain. My line is unique, my turns our mine, and I'm free to move however I want. No one can hear me yelling to myself; my voice quickly dissipates in the winds that singe my face. No one can judge me; I ride faster than anyone who would waste their breath with unconstructive insults. The world is within my grasp. From the top I see more life than most people experience in a month, and that moment is indisputably mine. I love everything about life, and it's moments like those that give me reason to continue living optimistically. Moments where we feel as alive as we'll ever be. Moments where nothing can stop us. This is why I snowboard. It's an artform, an expression of life; my own personal zen. It's been too long, and I can't wait to get back.

Late Night Conversations

Track Listing

1. "Seating Subject to Availability" - 3:54
2. "These Lights" - 2:49
3. "Helping Hands" - 2:34
4. "Fade In, Fade Out" - 2:29
5. "Whiskey's Dead You're Next" - 3:50
6. "Late Night Conversations" - 4:09
7. "APR" - 3:32
8. "Exorcise Demons" - 6:20
9. "Sleep Tight Tonight" - 6:03
10. "Losing Signal" - 2:3

I found this band+album while I was randomly browsing through the untouched albums that are sitting on my hard drive, waiting to be listened to. The Forecast consists of Shannon Burns on Bass/Vocals, Dustin Addis on Guitar/Vocals, Tony Peck on Drums, and Matt Webb on Guitar Vocals. You know what that means: Three Part Harmonies! The Forecast has pretty much everything you'd want out of a talented but common emo indie-rock group - catchy lyrics, a strong female singer, two and three part harmonies, and a lot of vocal emotion. You can sort of already get a vibe as to what they are about from just hearing how they sound, but the lyrics really spell things out.


I got this feeling I can't shake
Tonight.
So I'll call you, for the hundredth time
Just asking for a reply.

We'll fight the good fight, the good fight.
Waiting up
For the phone to ring off the hook.
I've waited so long to hear
Goodnight until sunrise.

I know - not exactly the most eloquent writing, but I didn't get into this band for their lyrics. It's simple, but it's real. This band now is what Dashboard Confessional was to me for my junior year of high school - that guilty pleasure band you listen to over and over again while hoping for a return text at 12:30 in the morning. "Seating Subject to Availability" and "APR" are two other standout songs that sold me on this album, but what it really comes down to is the entire feel that the album gives off. It's something to listen to when you want to "feel" rather the "appreciate" what you are listen to, if that make any sense. Trust me - listen to the track "Late Night Conversations" and it'll make perfect sense.

Oh, and I made travel pep band at Uconn. Baller. Now I need to figure out some new goals to set for myself. Life is good.

Phase I complete

It's not quite the end of the first semester, but for all terms and purposes it might as well be, academics aside.

In short, I've accomplished just about everything I wanted to do. This semester was all about a second start, a chance to redirect where my college career is going and to get myself integrated into a new school. After spending the entirety of last year learning about what type of person I am, I spent this semester learning about what kind of person I am at Uconn. Things, as they say, are good. Eight months ago I made a list of all the clubs, activities, etc that I wanted to at uconn and it essentially consisted of UCMB, Pep band, SSDP, UCOC, Honors Program, and Uconn short films club. With the exception of Pep Band (find out about audition results next week), I'm pretty will involved with all of these, which is exactly where I wanted to be.

So where to from here? Next semester is all about moving outward. I'm still working out, still working to make new friends and make a name for myself here, but my "efforts" are going to start heading in a more outward direction. I want to spend more time working with community service organizations, more time developing leadership skills, pretty much just spending more time helping people in general. I'm incredibly fortunate for getting to have a second chance at uconn, and I can barely begin to express how happy I am here. It's time to start paying it forward - not to anyone or any group in particular, but to my community in general. One phase of college has ended (the start, you might say), and another beginning. Above all else I've learned that you should take every opportunity, make every connection, and always find a reason to try something new. Never make excuses to get out of something that you might enjoy, just because you are afraid that it might be different or that it's new. You never known how things will end up.

Heading home for the first time since August 15th - will be sure to write again. But for now, it's time for some Uconn basketball.

Solution

Life is about doing whatever it may be that makes you happy, save anything that negatively effects. Seriously, I've been working at trying to listen to my conscious and my body and what the try to tell me, and the last three months have been some of the best of my life. It's not like there was any one pinnacle moment that made all the difference. Everything. This is what life should be. I like where this is going.

More later.

This Week

This week might be the busiest week of the semester thus far. In no particular order, I have to work around:

Regular Classes
UCMB Rehearsal
Getting everything set for the UCOC trip I'm leading on Friday-Saturday
Filming for Frontier
Pep Band game on Thursday Night
SSDP Tuesday Night Game
Pep Band Audition Practice
An hour work out everyday
Studying for a huge biology exam on friday

Which leaves me with no time for anything.
In other words, things couldn't be better. Life is short. Don't let a second go to waste.

Rule #25. Someone's gotta do it. Why not me?

I said before that I'd try and write an entry every time I had another realization from the "Principles for a Young Life" list that Kinsella gave me three years ago. This one came about rather quickly, and I realized it after literally saying "Someone's gotta do it. Why not me?" Think about that for a second. We've all been brought up on principles of stepping out, on being leaders, and on making an example that others should follow. Maybe I've sort of taken this for granted after all these years, having grown up in a town where it's so common. At a school as big as uconn you're bound to see a lot of great leaders, but there's even more masses of people walking with no particular destination in mine. This is how we make things happen. This is how we make a name for ourselves. I hear thoughts left and right about "tradition" and "knowing your place" within whatever groups, clubs, and the school in general, and I get it. I understand where that comes from, but you know what? Fuck that. We have a surprisingly finite of time here, and I see no reason why I should waste a single second waiting for things to fall into place, or for things to work themselves out. Maybe I want to be the one that work things out, or the one that gets things going. Could I fuck up? In all probability, yes. Does it matter? Not in the least bit. I love going out and having a good time and doing the weekend thing, but every Sunday night I get that itch in the back of my mine that makes me want something more concrete, and I'm not going to wait around to find it.
I've been trying to keep this entry relatively abstract, based on a number of lessons I've both observed first hand and learned about through friends, because I really think this applies to everyone out there. If you want something then go out and get it! We see that phrase pasted on motivation ceiling tiles in the infirmary or on feel-good websites that we find on stumbleupon, but I say lets fucking do it! You don't have to know what you're doing or be confident that everything will work out in order to go out and try to get something done. We pay too high a price (and I mean this literally, as in money) for our time here to sit and be escorted. Go out and get whatever it may be that you want. It could be a job, a leadership position, a girl, fame, anything. It doesn't matter. Go get it.

The 65daysofstatic station on last.fm is absolutely killer if you like post-rock.

seriously, check it out.

also, that is all.