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.

Tough Mudder

November 21st, get pumped. They call it a combination of a marathon, an iron man, and a navy seals training course. Perfect, right? Already working on putting a team together, be sure to let me know if you're interested. I've found that the easiest way to keep yourself motivated in fitness is to have events like these to look forward to and to push yourself towards. This one in particular is going to be one hell of a race. It makes the triathlon we all did last summer seem like nothing. Probably because, it comparison to this, it was nothing.

I'll update once I get plans/training schedule/have a roster of who is going.

A few things I've learned from my weekend.

A few things I've learned this weekend.

1) Don't hope for anything specific when it comes to going out for a night. All you can really plan on is having a good time, and that's pretty much it. I ran in to tons of people who were out to meet girls, to find the sickest party, or to try to make themselves known as "that guy" that goes way over the edge. I think that planning for all of these things is what makes them all impossible to achieve. After a year of college, I'm finally learning that you can't plan for things to happen... you can just plan for the way things will go. As I learned from the movie Blow last night - "Life passes you by while you're making grand plans for it".

2) "It is what it is" - Rule #2 on Kinsella's principles of a young life that he sent me two years ago. I think that I'll start posting these rules whenever I come to learn them myself, for this, like everything else, is one long and absurd fucked up journey through the best years of our lives. This one refers to making the best out of whatever you have. Last night would be a perfect example of that. Went out to carriage, lost...everyone, saw all my friends get lucky and leave, and ended up walking back alone. But then, walking back, I met a bunch of people on my floor for the first time, and ended up hanging with a lot of them in our room until 2 or 3 in the morning. At the end of the night, despite everything that had or hadn't happened, we still had all of our closest friends chilling on our futon, watching Blow and eating old popcorn. It is what it is. It's not about the people you meet for the first time and go head over heels in your endeavor to make a good impression. It's about those that help you drag back your friends when they are having trouble stumbling back to your dorm and stopping to go a leak every three seconds. First lesson learned. Many more to come.

- Connor