Honestly, I need to organize my life better, because I found that if I don't have a lot going on I really like blogging.
My blog is all about feeling getting people to feel the way I feel. From the visual layout to the topics I choose to write about, it's all to help you get inside my mind a little bit.
Visually, I really like the way I've got things set up. I am a very simple and relaxed person(that does not mean that I am unable to get stressed out of my mind), so my blog does not have lots of extra pictures or links. Also I love the background I chose, because that is my favorite sight to see when I look out a window. Every time I look at my blog I really feel like I'm all cuddled up on a rainy day. That is what I want my audience to feel as well.
Speaking of which, my audience is really just myself and this English class. I think if I were to do a blog for all of my friends and family my speech would be even less formal than it already is and I would probably include more pictures. I most likely would try to have a picture for every single blog.
As far as what I have chosen to write about, it follows the same idea as my visual layout. I have tried to write about a variety of things in my life, so that my audience gets a little taste of everything. When I write on my blog I like to write fairly similar to the way I speak, so that the audience almost gets the experience of reading my mind.
If I were to write about all the health and medical events of my life I could write dozens of blogs, but I feel that those things are more for a personal journal. The things I would write about would be too personal to me and many of them too graphic for a general audience.
When it comes to blogging I do procrastinate, but I do enjoy it and I'm grateful I had the opportunity to start it in this class. There is a sense of excitement when you are writing down your thoughts knowing that other people are going to read them. This is my first semester of school in three years, so this has been great for getting me in the habit of writing a lot and getting my opinions and feelings out of my head. I think deep down most of us truly want people to know what we are thinking, what we are going through and just more about who we are. So many people go through life afraid of what others think that they do not realize or work towards their full potential. Blogging gives us the opportunity to just say, "You know what, here I go. This is who I am, what I have been through and what I think . . . regardless of what others might say or think about me."
I have been converted to the world of blogging. I will start a different blog now and it will be very creative with different topics like"Nate Date's the States": a look inside the dates that I go on with girl from every single state. This could be really fun!
Tuesday, December 7, 2010
My Roommates are All Accounting Majors. . .
I think my title says it all, but I guess I'll expand a little on what I'm getting at.
I'm pretty sure none of them are ever going to read this, so I don't think they'll mind if I talk about them a little bit.
They are all in the masters program for accounting and they are all going to graduate in April. They all have jobs lined up in major cities and they are all very bright and live extremely structured, organized, systematic lives. The rest is what happens when you throw an MDT major in the mix. . .
Starting from youngest to oldest. By the way, I'm two years younger than the youngest of my three roomies.
The youngest of the three is a very type A personality. Everything about him is fast, the way he walks, talks, eats. . . everything. He is definitely the "perfect" one in the apartment. Well, accounting majors don't talk about their feelings much, so now that he has me I'm the main guy he goes to about all things emotional. Almost every night for the last three weeks he vents to me about the girl he is dating. I love it.
The middle roommate is very intelligent, also has the most "street smarts", but is also the most rebellious. He is definintely a smooth talker. He constantly gets me to say things I don't mean and is even more constantly trying to get me to not do things that I need to do; this blogging stuff for instance. We get along great, but it is just really interesting to see how much he opens up and acts differently knowing that I am different than they are.
The oldest has had the greatest transformation. He is very, very reserved and prior to this semester has never been very social. At the beginning of the semester he would tell me how he never used to go to church activities or dances. Well, now that I'm around he loves to do all of that stuff. We go to every church activity together and he is trying to date people that he has met hanging out with me. . . AND he said he has danced more this semester than pretty much his entire life. Every time we go to a party he gets a bigger smile on his face knowing that he is going to get a little more adventurous with his crazy moves.
I love my roommates and I think it's safe to say that I have officially rocked their world, in a good way!
I'm pretty sure none of them are ever going to read this, so I don't think they'll mind if I talk about them a little bit.
They are all in the masters program for accounting and they are all going to graduate in April. They all have jobs lined up in major cities and they are all very bright and live extremely structured, organized, systematic lives. The rest is what happens when you throw an MDT major in the mix. . .
Starting from youngest to oldest. By the way, I'm two years younger than the youngest of my three roomies.
The youngest of the three is a very type A personality. Everything about him is fast, the way he walks, talks, eats. . . everything. He is definitely the "perfect" one in the apartment. Well, accounting majors don't talk about their feelings much, so now that he has me I'm the main guy he goes to about all things emotional. Almost every night for the last three weeks he vents to me about the girl he is dating. I love it.
The middle roommate is very intelligent, also has the most "street smarts", but is also the most rebellious. He is definintely a smooth talker. He constantly gets me to say things I don't mean and is even more constantly trying to get me to not do things that I need to do; this blogging stuff for instance. We get along great, but it is just really interesting to see how much he opens up and acts differently knowing that I am different than they are.
The oldest has had the greatest transformation. He is very, very reserved and prior to this semester has never been very social. At the beginning of the semester he would tell me how he never used to go to church activities or dances. Well, now that I'm around he loves to do all of that stuff. We go to every church activity together and he is trying to date people that he has met hanging out with me. . . AND he said he has danced more this semester than pretty much his entire life. Every time we go to a party he gets a bigger smile on his face knowing that he is going to get a little more adventurous with his crazy moves.
I love my roommates and I think it's safe to say that I have officially rocked their world, in a good way!
Cursed Music 201
Alright, I have never had anything good come from a history class before. I can never retain even half of the information I learn and they always just seem to be the weak point in my GPA.
Well, my passion is music and performing, so I thought it would be a good idea to take Music 201 as my Civilization credit. I didn't think that it would be an easy class, but I also didn't expect it to be the most ridiculous class I've ever taken.
I understand that in order to learn about the history of music we must learn about the history of other aspects of the times we're talking about. We need to understand what living conditions were like in certain parts of the world and in certain parts of those societies, but I think this class goes way to far.
First, as a little disclaimer, the Professor is an incredible teacher and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the way he explains this.
Honestly, music is the smallest part of this class. We spend most of our time learning about art, architecture, literature, governments and religions. Yes, those are essential pieces of information, because music reflects the times and places in which we live, but 90% of all that stuff and 10% music is not what I signed up for.
Not to mention the amount of information that we are learning. I really think that if this course is going to continue to have this much detailed information that it should be split into two semesters.
I don't want to sound like somebody who complains a lot, because I don't, really. It's just that this has been a crazy class to take and I'm really not looking forward to those 5 people who get a 98% on the final. . . I took this class for a reason and with a desire to learn, but it has overwhelmed me to the point that I just don't even care anymore. I think next semester I'll give humanities 202 a try.
Well, my passion is music and performing, so I thought it would be a good idea to take Music 201 as my Civilization credit. I didn't think that it would be an easy class, but I also didn't expect it to be the most ridiculous class I've ever taken.
I understand that in order to learn about the history of music we must learn about the history of other aspects of the times we're talking about. We need to understand what living conditions were like in certain parts of the world and in certain parts of those societies, but I think this class goes way to far.
First, as a little disclaimer, the Professor is an incredible teacher and I have thoroughly enjoyed listening to the way he explains this.
Honestly, music is the smallest part of this class. We spend most of our time learning about art, architecture, literature, governments and religions. Yes, those are essential pieces of information, because music reflects the times and places in which we live, but 90% of all that stuff and 10% music is not what I signed up for.
Not to mention the amount of information that we are learning. I really think that if this course is going to continue to have this much detailed information that it should be split into two semesters.
I don't want to sound like somebody who complains a lot, because I don't, really. It's just that this has been a crazy class to take and I'm really not looking forward to those 5 people who get a 98% on the final. . . I took this class for a reason and with a desire to learn, but it has overwhelmed me to the point that I just don't even care anymore. I think next semester I'll give humanities 202 a try.
Looking Back at the Issues Paper
When all was said and done I still wanted to keep writing and researching. I'm glad Sister Steadman allowed us to choosing something that we were interested for our paper.
Sure, that paper killed me and I was stressing about it for weeks, but if I wasn't in school right now I could have kept researching. I believe I only scratched the surface of my topic. It was a fairly specific topic, yet there were still tons of articles that talked somewhat about the points that I was trying to make.
That was where a lot of my stress was coming from. I found so many good articles, that it was taking me forever to read through them all, narrow down the ones I would actually use and figure out how they would all flow together. Every article was so interesting.
I chose my specific topic about how early childhood exposure to music effects most aspects of growing up and life in general. I chose that topic, because I have very specific goals for a music company I want to open in the next few years and I wanted to see if my career goals and choices would be worth it. I was not disappointed. In fact, writing this paper has given me an even stronger desire to go through with establishing this company. One reason is because nobody, in any source that I read, talked about a business like the one I want to open. I figure the best career choices are pioneering something! Also, I found evidences of music helping kids that I had never even thought of before. Music helps us more than I imagined. It was just so fascinating to me. This just goes to show that if you take assignments seriously, you can learn a lot, but also help yourself out in the long run with other aspects of life besides just knowledge.
Sure, that paper killed me and I was stressing about it for weeks, but if I wasn't in school right now I could have kept researching. I believe I only scratched the surface of my topic. It was a fairly specific topic, yet there were still tons of articles that talked somewhat about the points that I was trying to make.
That was where a lot of my stress was coming from. I found so many good articles, that it was taking me forever to read through them all, narrow down the ones I would actually use and figure out how they would all flow together. Every article was so interesting.
I chose my specific topic about how early childhood exposure to music effects most aspects of growing up and life in general. I chose that topic, because I have very specific goals for a music company I want to open in the next few years and I wanted to see if my career goals and choices would be worth it. I was not disappointed. In fact, writing this paper has given me an even stronger desire to go through with establishing this company. One reason is because nobody, in any source that I read, talked about a business like the one I want to open. I figure the best career choices are pioneering something! Also, I found evidences of music helping kids that I had never even thought of before. Music helps us more than I imagined. It was just so fascinating to me. This just goes to show that if you take assignments seriously, you can learn a lot, but also help yourself out in the long run with other aspects of life besides just knowledge.
Directions: In Order to Hold On, Let Go
I am a Music, Dance and Theater Major. Normally, when people hear that they think that I am this amazing person who is fulfilling all of the requirements for a music major, a dance major and a theater major. Besides the fact that that would be physically impossible, it is a nice thought to think that somebody believes that I could actually be that remarkable. My major is really just a musical theater major.
For the last month I've been a part of a student project. Students who are in their third year of the program must put on 30-50 minutes versions of musicals that are assigned to them by the Professors in charge of the major. I was asked to be in the cast and help out with the Les Miserables group. I was so excited! I had never scene Les Mis, but I had heard and loved the music.
Doing this short project was a blast. It was also a little bit of a challenge for me in a couple different ways. First of all, I haven't been on a stage or really performed in 3 years, so I was really rusty at memorizing lines, lyrics, songs, and choreography. Second, Because we were a small cast, all of us had to play a few different characters. I, myself, had to play four: a foreman, a rich man looking for a prostitute, a homeless beggar, and an energetic student.
This leads to the title of this blog. See, I love studying people and trying to act, or imagine acting like those around me. Though, normally when you are in a show you play one maybe two characters. I like to get very connected with the people I'm trying to play, so changing four times in 50 minutes was a little difficult at first. Every time I have a character, I try to think how they think, I create secrets and a back story for them, and I create objectives and reasons why they are doing all that they are doing.
What I found was that I just needed to spend a lot of time going over these things in my mind while I wasn't on stage. After practicing it enough and setting my mind on certain choices I had a great experience. By the final performance I just had to tell myself "OK, Nate, you're the foreman now. . . OK, Nate you're the student now." As soon as the different scenes would start I would completely change. I would really feel the frustration and disgusting nature of the foreman, or I would really feel like a student deciding to go to war and all that that meant for me and the people I knew.
It was a great experience to see that after putting lots of work in, I just needed to let myself go and forget about everything else, so that all I could think about were my character's thoughts. It really helps in a lot of real life situations to have tried to walk in the shoes of others.
For the last month I've been a part of a student project. Students who are in their third year of the program must put on 30-50 minutes versions of musicals that are assigned to them by the Professors in charge of the major. I was asked to be in the cast and help out with the Les Miserables group. I was so excited! I had never scene Les Mis, but I had heard and loved the music.
Doing this short project was a blast. It was also a little bit of a challenge for me in a couple different ways. First of all, I haven't been on a stage or really performed in 3 years, so I was really rusty at memorizing lines, lyrics, songs, and choreography. Second, Because we were a small cast, all of us had to play a few different characters. I, myself, had to play four: a foreman, a rich man looking for a prostitute, a homeless beggar, and an energetic student.
This leads to the title of this blog. See, I love studying people and trying to act, or imagine acting like those around me. Though, normally when you are in a show you play one maybe two characters. I like to get very connected with the people I'm trying to play, so changing four times in 50 minutes was a little difficult at first. Every time I have a character, I try to think how they think, I create secrets and a back story for them, and I create objectives and reasons why they are doing all that they are doing.
What I found was that I just needed to spend a lot of time going over these things in my mind while I wasn't on stage. After practicing it enough and setting my mind on certain choices I had a great experience. By the final performance I just had to tell myself "OK, Nate, you're the foreman now. . . OK, Nate you're the student now." As soon as the different scenes would start I would completely change. I would really feel the frustration and disgusting nature of the foreman, or I would really feel like a student deciding to go to war and all that that meant for me and the people I knew.
It was a great experience to see that after putting lots of work in, I just needed to let myself go and forget about everything else, so that all I could think about were my character's thoughts. It really helps in a lot of real life situations to have tried to walk in the shoes of others.
Broom Hockey...Shmoom Bockey
My elbows and shins are covered in bumps and bruises. Okay, just bumps, but it sounds better if you say bumps and bruises together.
Last night I tried a sport I have never tried before--Broom Hockey. For our last church activity of the semester we went to Seven Peaks Ice Arena to play this wonderful game. I confess, my preconceived thoughts of this event were a little skeptical. For one, I thought we were really going to play with brooms, so I was wondering where we would acquire all of the brooms. Second, someone told me that we were just going to play in our normal shoes. That was a little bit of a downer for two reasons: first, I love and was looking forward to ice-skating, second, I thought running around on ice with only shoes was one of the stupidest things I'd ever heard. Actually, I take that back, because I've run and played on the Mississippi River in the middle of January before. But, for 75 people I thought this sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.
We got to the rink and I was anxious to see what everyone would look running around on the ice. As I approached the ice and looked out at everybody I was surprised to see everyone doing just fine and having a blast. That caught me off guard, so I took my first step onto the ice and it wasn't slick at all. . . or so I thought.
We started a game and I was playing goalie. Things were going pretty well and we were having a great time . . . then I switched positions with another guy. Things went downhill from there. I was trying to move around faster than anybody else, something I wouldn't recommend. That simply resulted in me falling the most. I'm glad I could be that person for a night. For most people I think, falling as much as I did would in some way damage their self esteem, but I really don't mind at all, so I was glad to take that burden.
Despite all the falls, and dirty play by one of my roommates, I actually had a wonderful time! Sliding around and laughing with dozens of people is a great activity. I like doing big group activities with people I only know a little bit, because it makes it so much easier to get to know them fast.
It was a great and I can't wait to do it again!
Last night I tried a sport I have never tried before--Broom Hockey. For our last church activity of the semester we went to Seven Peaks Ice Arena to play this wonderful game. I confess, my preconceived thoughts of this event were a little skeptical. For one, I thought we were really going to play with brooms, so I was wondering where we would acquire all of the brooms. Second, someone told me that we were just going to play in our normal shoes. That was a little bit of a downer for two reasons: first, I love and was looking forward to ice-skating, second, I thought running around on ice with only shoes was one of the stupidest things I'd ever heard. Actually, I take that back, because I've run and played on the Mississippi River in the middle of January before. But, for 75 people I thought this sounded like a disaster waiting to happen.
We got to the rink and I was anxious to see what everyone would look running around on the ice. As I approached the ice and looked out at everybody I was surprised to see everyone doing just fine and having a blast. That caught me off guard, so I took my first step onto the ice and it wasn't slick at all. . . or so I thought.
We started a game and I was playing goalie. Things were going pretty well and we were having a great time . . . then I switched positions with another guy. Things went downhill from there. I was trying to move around faster than anybody else, something I wouldn't recommend. That simply resulted in me falling the most. I'm glad I could be that person for a night. For most people I think, falling as much as I did would in some way damage their self esteem, but I really don't mind at all, so I was glad to take that burden.
Despite all the falls, and dirty play by one of my roommates, I actually had a wonderful time! Sliding around and laughing with dozens of people is a great activity. I like doing big group activities with people I only know a little bit, because it makes it so much easier to get to know them fast.
It was a great and I can't wait to do it again!
Saturday, December 4, 2010
Rhetoric in Conference
Elder Christofferson: Reflections on a Consecrated Life
I was so excited to listen to this most recent session of General Conference. As a missionary, I got to hear about all the things the Church is trying to do to gain the confidence and respect of the public eye, or at least correct false assumptions and traditions. This made me really anxious to see how the way in which the General Authorities teach might change a little to more effectively get their council across to the vast audience of our world-wide church. I was definitely happy with the topics that were discussed in all of the sessions. It is always incredible to see how all of the talks come together even though they do not plan a set theme or outline for what should be discussed at Conference. Elder Chistofferson talked about hard work and consecrating your life to the Lord and he did an excellent job making lots of different arguments using memorable quotes and lots of examples.
One of the opening quotes was "True success in life comes from consecration of time and choices to God's purposes." This helps us understand what our highest priorities are and aids us in realizing that we cannot be selfish if we are to succeed.
The list of five elements of a consecrated life he gave at the beginning to outline the rest of his message were not the usual generic list of attributes. They were very specific and powerful. The five elements of a consecrated life he listed were: purity, work, respect for one's physical body, service, and integrity. It is amazing how General Conference talks are written for a very general audience and usually all have the same formula, or outline, yet they can still reach the audience on such a personal level. This list is an example of something that occurs in most Conference talks, but it is a great tool, because everyone knows what to expect for the remainder of the message.
"A consecrated life is a life of work." Elder Christofferson evokes a sense of duty and passion in the audience and hopefully helps us to understand that in order to become who we want, and more importantly who Heavenly Fathers wants us to be, we must work hard. He then continues to go through his list by helping his audience to see how each point helps us to consecrate our lives to the Lord. "A consecrated life is a life of integrity, purity, respect. . ." and so on. Expounding on the list keeps the thoughts clear, organized and easily remembered by the audience.
One phrase that was said, "Naive is not knowing we are accountable to God" was a great way for Elder Christofferson to start wrapping up his talk. Many people might wonder what the point of working so hard is. There is no reason to work hard if we are the only beings in existence. He helped us to see that every person is responsible for his or her own life and that Heavenly Father is watching everything.
Anyone who is a believer in Christ wants to have, feel and express more faith. That is a very general and powerful desire among believers and in this talk Elder Christofferson shows how living the points of a consecrated life will help our faith to grow. He says, "Honor is the rich soil in the seed of faith thrives." This explains that being pure, working hard, being respectful, serving others and having integrity bring honor to ourselves, our family and the Lord. Therefor, by doing these things in our lives we create a wonderful atmosphere for our faith to grow and help us change.
Elder Christofferson may have used an outline that is used in almost every Conference talk, but it was still very effective. He made it effective by talking about aspects of life that are very important to most people and by keeping things clear and simple. The things he said are very memorable quotes and as a result people can listen to this and feel optimistic and motivated about hard work. It takes a great teacher to help people want to do something they normally despise or have a problem doing.
I was so excited to listen to this most recent session of General Conference. As a missionary, I got to hear about all the things the Church is trying to do to gain the confidence and respect of the public eye, or at least correct false assumptions and traditions. This made me really anxious to see how the way in which the General Authorities teach might change a little to more effectively get their council across to the vast audience of our world-wide church. I was definitely happy with the topics that were discussed in all of the sessions. It is always incredible to see how all of the talks come together even though they do not plan a set theme or outline for what should be discussed at Conference. Elder Chistofferson talked about hard work and consecrating your life to the Lord and he did an excellent job making lots of different arguments using memorable quotes and lots of examples.
One of the opening quotes was "True success in life comes from consecration of time and choices to God's purposes." This helps us understand what our highest priorities are and aids us in realizing that we cannot be selfish if we are to succeed.
The list of five elements of a consecrated life he gave at the beginning to outline the rest of his message were not the usual generic list of attributes. They were very specific and powerful. The five elements of a consecrated life he listed were: purity, work, respect for one's physical body, service, and integrity. It is amazing how General Conference talks are written for a very general audience and usually all have the same formula, or outline, yet they can still reach the audience on such a personal level. This list is an example of something that occurs in most Conference talks, but it is a great tool, because everyone knows what to expect for the remainder of the message.
"A consecrated life is a life of work." Elder Christofferson evokes a sense of duty and passion in the audience and hopefully helps us to understand that in order to become who we want, and more importantly who Heavenly Fathers wants us to be, we must work hard. He then continues to go through his list by helping his audience to see how each point helps us to consecrate our lives to the Lord. "A consecrated life is a life of integrity, purity, respect. . ." and so on. Expounding on the list keeps the thoughts clear, organized and easily remembered by the audience.
One phrase that was said, "Naive is not knowing we are accountable to God" was a great way for Elder Christofferson to start wrapping up his talk. Many people might wonder what the point of working so hard is. There is no reason to work hard if we are the only beings in existence. He helped us to see that every person is responsible for his or her own life and that Heavenly Father is watching everything.
Anyone who is a believer in Christ wants to have, feel and express more faith. That is a very general and powerful desire among believers and in this talk Elder Christofferson shows how living the points of a consecrated life will help our faith to grow. He says, "Honor is the rich soil in the seed of faith thrives." This explains that being pure, working hard, being respectful, serving others and having integrity bring honor to ourselves, our family and the Lord. Therefor, by doing these things in our lives we create a wonderful atmosphere for our faith to grow and help us change.
Elder Christofferson may have used an outline that is used in almost every Conference talk, but it was still very effective. He made it effective by talking about aspects of life that are very important to most people and by keeping things clear and simple. The things he said are very memorable quotes and as a result people can listen to this and feel optimistic and motivated about hard work. It takes a great teacher to help people want to do something they normally despise or have a problem doing.
Ocean's May Divide Us, but Friendship Unites Us
Almost three years ago I entered the MTC. On the first day I met a guy who has now become my best friend. We served together in the Twin Cities. Because we were Hmong speaking missionaries there weren't very many of us, so we worked together a lot and got to be very close.
Well, it took our entire missions just to get decent at speaking Hmong. My friend had never spent time around an type of Asian culture, so of course he fell in love with it and even though the two have almost nothing in common, he also developed a interest in Chinese culture.
Now he is on a small Chinese island teaching English to kids of all ages. He went over there with a group from BYU-Idaho. He had only been there since August and has completely fallen in love with their culture and society. He never wants to come home. Not to mention that he is so motivated and inspired to be there doing what he is doing, that he has already mastered Mandarin Chinese as well as he knows Hmong. It really is incredible to listen to him speak to people in Mandarin.
He calls every couple of weeks just to catch me up on how things are going out there. All we do is laugh when he calls. His stories are just hilarious and we have essentially the same sense of humor. The last time he called he had me talk to one of his 16-year-old students. It was so much fun to listen to how well this boy knows English.
The only problem was the time difference. For them, it was only 3 in the afternoon. For me, it was 1 in the morning. . . I kept telling them that I was trying to go to bed, but they just kept talking.
So, basically I just wanted to write a little about this, because I think it is so cool that my best friend is in China teaching English, knows Mandarin already, and we get to talk about it all the time. I am blown away by his diligence and motivation. See, right when we got home from our mission he started at BYU-Idaho, but he didn't have a very good semester, so he decided to try something completely crazy. Now, because he is doing something that he is truly driven to do, he is excelling in all areas of his life. We could all learn a lesson or two from my friend!
Well, it took our entire missions just to get decent at speaking Hmong. My friend had never spent time around an type of Asian culture, so of course he fell in love with it and even though the two have almost nothing in common, he also developed a interest in Chinese culture.
Now he is on a small Chinese island teaching English to kids of all ages. He went over there with a group from BYU-Idaho. He had only been there since August and has completely fallen in love with their culture and society. He never wants to come home. Not to mention that he is so motivated and inspired to be there doing what he is doing, that he has already mastered Mandarin Chinese as well as he knows Hmong. It really is incredible to listen to him speak to people in Mandarin.
He calls every couple of weeks just to catch me up on how things are going out there. All we do is laugh when he calls. His stories are just hilarious and we have essentially the same sense of humor. The last time he called he had me talk to one of his 16-year-old students. It was so much fun to listen to how well this boy knows English.
The only problem was the time difference. For them, it was only 3 in the afternoon. For me, it was 1 in the morning. . . I kept telling them that I was trying to go to bed, but they just kept talking.
So, basically I just wanted to write a little about this, because I think it is so cool that my best friend is in China teaching English, knows Mandarin already, and we get to talk about it all the time. I am blown away by his diligence and motivation. See, right when we got home from our mission he started at BYU-Idaho, but he didn't have a very good semester, so he decided to try something completely crazy. Now, because he is doing something that he is truly driven to do, he is excelling in all areas of his life. We could all learn a lesson or two from my friend!
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Personal Narrative
Journey to the Top of Mt. Whitney with a Hogi
I was feeling so proud of myself. I had been training for months and had now made it through three days of my scout troop's 50-mile hike from the base to the summit of Mt. Whitney, the tallest mountain in the United States. This was one of the most memorable experiences of my life. Each day started fresh, turned into defeat, and ended with triumph. Although exhaustion overtook me, I have never felt so alive. I owe my positive attitude to my leader and great friend, Dave Hogan, or "Hogi", as we like to call him.
It had been three days filled with fatigue and adventure. We were hiking about ten miles a day and it was so exciting not knowing how the trail would change, or if there would even be a trail where we were going next. We covered all sorts of terrain: flat and sandy ground, steep inclined boulders, you name it. I was mesmerized at the surrounding peaks, huge boulders, trees like skyscrapers, and flowing rivers and waterfalls. The night prior a small black bear invaded our camp about eight times between eleven o'clock and four o'clock in the morning. On the third day what we thought had been a rigorous hike so far was nothing in comparison to the cliffs we faced . . . in the pouring rain. It was becoming more and more clear that this hike was going to be a once-in-a-lifetime expedition.
There were eight of us, six scouts and two leaders. From the level of exertion necessary to continue with each step we barely had enough energy to speak. Yet, a warm camaraderie grew between us. We were so tired that we only had enough energy to talk about how tired we were, tell jokes, or say a few words every once in a while about the beautiful scenery. None of us had any reason, or strength, to argue with one another; it was great. And at least once a day we could look forward to listening to the stories of the younger of our two leaders, Hogi. He loved to tell the same story over and over again, but put different twists on it each time. Though, it always started the same.
"Have I ever told you about my Great Grandma Josephine? We had a love/hate relationship; she loved to hate me and I hated to love her."
He would then go on telling about what their relationship was like and what kinds of ridiculous things she would do to him. I wish I could remember exactly what he said! Every day the story became more and more funny. I mean the first day it was pretty funny, but by the last day of the trek we would have to stop walking, because we were laughing so hard. Some of the stuff he was making up was absolutely hysterical.
I loved Hogi so much. I always felt like I was a much better person around him and that I could accomplish anything. I find that the best relationships are between people who have shared a lot of experiences together and have grown to love every part of each other's personalities, but Hogi had never done anything except make me smile and laugh prior to this hike and that has been the case ever since. Well, on this day, day four, that changed a little bit.
See, each of us was carrying back packs that weighed no less than 40 lbs. and half of our group was in much better shape than the rest of us. Seriously, I thought I was constantly chasing a couple Energizer Bunnies. After we had gone about six or seven miles on that fourth day I suddenly became extremely tired, a form of tired that I have only reached a handful of times in my life. I had really pushed myself to the limit and I couldn't feel my legs, I could hardly breathe, and my chest was about to explode; yeah, that feeling.
So, without a second thought I looked up and asked Hogi, "How much longer to we have to go?" I'm normally not a whiny person, but I must have sounded it, because he turned and snapped, "Nathan, I have no idea!"
That is all he had to say. I had never seen him look that irritated. I could almost see it in his eyes that he wanted to push me off of the waterfalls we had passed that morning. I didn't want to say anything for the rest of the day; the way he responded came out of nowhere. In as much of a voice as I could muster the word "Sorry" crept out of my lips and we continued climbing the steep switch-backs.
Later, when we were only a mile, or so, from our second-to-last camp ground the incline leveled off and we were just enjoying the surrounding peaks that seemed to be growing as we looked at them. Unexpectedly, a woman came running past us. . . running! I was doing all I could just to put one foot in front of the other. She stopped about 100 yards in front of us and sat on a rock to rest. When I reached her I was astonished to see that she was only wearing normal running shoes and carrying a small Jan Sport back pack. We all started whispering to one another about how maybe she just had really cool, high-tech camp gear that she could cram into that little bag. We were flabbergasted to see that the only contents of the pack were a couple energy bars, a water bottle and filter, and extra sweatshirt, and a jar of peanut butter.
I was so blown away that it took me a few minutes to come to my senses and realize that Hogi was really struggling as he was trying to communicate with the woman. Did I mention that this woman was deaf? So, she was trying to describe to us that she was jogging the same trail we had been on
for four days.
The guilt began to weigh more than my pack. My younger brother is deaf and I had studied American Sign Language for a year in school. I knew that I should jump in and help, but I got so scared and nervous. I figured I didn't know ASL well enough to be of any real help and I didn't want to frustrate this incredible lady. I also feared getting in over my head by getting into a situation where she might need my help and I wouldn't be able to know exactly what to do. Basically, I just froze and stared a forced conversation between her and a very stressed Hogi.
A few hours had passed and the clouds were rolling in over our camp site. The woman ended up camping a few hundred feet away from us. Camp was set up and we were just relaxing and staring at the beautifully calm Guitar Lake to our east. Then I heard, from one of my friends, what I had hoped wouldn't come out, but knew it probably would, "Hey, Nate why didn't you talk to the woman earlier instead of making Hogi look like an idiot?"
"I don't know" I replied, "I didn't know if I could have understood her I guess."
I couldn't bare the look of embarrassment and disappointment on Hogi's face. I don't remember exactly what he said to me, but it was along the lines of how he couldn't believe I didn't help him out and how I could not have possibly looked more ridiculous than he did. The rest of the night was very cold and very quiet.
The next afternoon we had made it to the summit and almost reached our last camp site. We stopped to rest when who should come up behind us, but the deaf woman. No time was wasted on my part! A conversation started between us so fast that nobody had even noticed that she was there. We continued to run into each other along the trail the rest of the day and each time we would have a short conversation. And each time my eyes would wander to see what kind of expression was on Hogi's face.
Right before we arrived at the last place we would camp Hogi called out, "Hey Nathan, have I ever told you about my Great Grandma Josephine?" I was so relieved to turn and see a huge smile on his face!
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