Bucket List

      Sometimes we get caught up with deadlines and striving to make a profit, we forget what we really want to accomplish in life. For all of the cynics out there, think about it. Why do you wake up every morning? Are you truly happy? Take a moment and think about what you really want to accomplish in your life. Write yourself a bucket list. But also make a time frame when you want to accomplish these because if you don't you will keep just pushing them back.

Here's mine...

Family

    In these critical times, family is important. Have you seen how many people go back to living with their parents? Sometimes the tasks of life become too overwhelming that financially it was smarter to move back home.
    My parents can get on my last nerve sometimes but I love them. They think the standard of life in Europe can be applied to the United States but it can't in my opinion. Test scores fully determine your high school and college admissions there in Europe. In the U.S., your admissions are determined by many factors: essays, grades, teacher recommendations, activites, etc. I argued for months with them how a teenager at the age of 16 can get their driver's license here but they believed the correct age was 18. You get the point, my parents and I don't see eye-to-eye on many things.
    But I will always know no matter how badly I screw up, they will be here for me. I don't hide anything from them. They motivate me to be the best person I can absolutely be and help me strive to be successful.
    Once I took a three hour trip to help my dad set up his laptop and his preferences he wanted on it. It's okay though because they are paiding for my college and helping me debt-free when I enter the work force. My parents and I do things for each other because we care about each other. I will always love them.
    My advice is to never let them how of your life. You should be grateful to have them and respect them. I try to but I usually forget to. Give them a call sometime and see how their lives are. Trust me, they care how you are doing to. So go out there and be a good son or daughter to them because you never know how much you will learn from them or be saved by them.

Winds of Change (Friendship)

      In pop culture, we like to call the change of seasons from Summer to Autumn, the winds of change. Well ironically I think I experienced that winds of change metaphorically in my life. One day, I was laying down in a field of grass trying to relax before my next class. As I watched the trees and people pass by, I happen to have an insightful thought. Just as the apple hit Newton, I had something come to me.
     I noticed a large gust of wind blowing against a tree. Leaves from the tree branches started falling rapidly but as the wind faded, there were still a few leaves left on the tree. Realistically though in times of change, friends will also fall but true friends will still be left with you on the tree at the end of the day.

Create free time for yourself

      Create free time for yourself. I am not saying every hour of the day, take a thirty minute break. But every few days, do something that you love and doesn't stress you out. In high school, running and my activities were my free time. Granted it took a large portion of my day but I loved what I was doing. The constant pressure of studying for tests and completing homework assignments could overwhelm someone. Same thing with work. Eight hours at a desk job isn't always the best thing. But, we all must find some free time and do something enjoyable. We will feel gratified in the end and the distresses of life will vanished for a period of time.       The first week of April for me could be a good example of this. That week, I had...

Plan out projects and studying

      Most of us love to procrastinate. We just do. We want to put everything off to the last minute so we don't have to do it now. But on the last day or very last minute we have to do work, we make a mad scramble to finish it. This isn't efficient use of time and we forget to take the time to review and evaluate what we just done and learned.
      Say you have a big midterm in two weeks. You choose to wait the very last day to study for it. Cramming one-two months of work in one day doesn't seem possible but you make it possible. Here some of the issues with this...

MLIA > FML

      Now, I don't know how much knowledge you have of these two topics but I will give a quick walk-through. When a person hates themselves or life just didn't go their desired way, people tend to say FML. F**k My Life is essentially what it stands for.
      Now there's two definitions for MLIA. Either my life is average or my life is awesome. Personally, I prefer the second definition. When something great happens to yourself, a few people will say MLIA.

Love

     Someone told me to write about this topic awhile ago. I decided this one would take awhile to think about thoroughly. So here we go, I will try to my best ability explain something irrational.
     Love. It's the most desired thing in the world aside with money. I can't say enough though how great of a feeling it is to be loved but also how hard it is to find it. You can't just lay around waiting for it, you have to go and search for it.
     I been in love two times in my life. Each time...

Take chances

      Chances. You don't know for sure the outcome but you know what could happen. Have you ever wondered what would have happened if you carried out on a certain action? Personally, I do... every day.
      Your life could be so much different if you would have taken another route (metaphorically and literally) in life. Most of the biggest innovators of the 21st century, took chances on their inventions even though they weren't acceptable to society yet. Today, those individuals enjoy the good life on Wall Street and their private yachets while we all sit at home watching their life story, Rags to Riches, on CNN or MTV.
     This may sound hypocritical but a person should have more regrets than what-ifs in their life. What-ifs drive a person insane because they didn't take the initiative to go to the next level or do something that had no significance at the time but had major importance presently. Regrets lead to awful thoughts and doubtful times in your head but at least you took the risk of seeing the possible outcome and not have that lingering thought in your mind forever.
     This is a major mistake I have made in my life but I have learned a lot from it. I always wondered what if...

Rachel's Challenge

     I am sorry but I love Facebook. I saw on a couple people's statuses, " I completed Rachel's Challenge" or something along those lines. I had no clue what it meant so I looked it up and did some research.
     Rachel Scott was the first victim of the Columbine Shooting. It was the fourth-deadliest school shooting in history. Yet, one month before Rachel was shot, she wrote the two page My Ethics, My Codes of Life.
     What really sparked my interest the most was how she said in her journal, "I have this theory that if one person can go out of their way to show compassion, then it will start a chain reaction of the same. People will never know how far a little kindness can go."

Shift from technology to the real world

       As the world takes strides towards a technological world, we tend to forget the simple pleasures in life. Sometimes, we just need to turn off our phones and computers.
      When you are on a date please just turn your phone off. That person is taking their precious time to be with you and why not respect that. Turn your phone off and show how much you care for them and want to be with them. For me, I find it disrespectful when someone is talking to you then suddenly you start texting, as they are talking. I usually just leave my phone on vibrate or silent. If my phone vibrates in my pocket when I am talking to someone, I just ignore it until I am completely done talking to someone. I want to give my full attention when I see and talk to someone, which brings up my next point.
      If you can even if it's for a little time, go see your friends. Don't just text them or send them a message on a social network. It means a lot to a person when you take the time to visit them. So if you have free time go see a friend. Take advantage of this.
     Instead of watching TV all day or sitting on your computer, go outside...

The importance of sleep

     The worst way to start your day is with very little sleep. I bet many people have experienced this time after time. The recommended amount of sleep by most physicians is eight to ten hours. Some of us are different in the amount we need. I need six hours of sleep to function properly during the day.
     Now if you can't get your recommended amount of sleep or you are running short on time, I make this recommendation that has worked for me so far....

Try new things every day

     Make living every day interesting. You don't have to do outrageous things like bungee jump off a cliff or streak across the football stadium. What I am trying to say is do things most people do on a daily basis that you haven't tried. Simple things.
     Every day, I try to meet a new person. My intro to ethics class has about fifty students. Every class, I sit by someone new, try to introduce myself to them and spark a conversation. You will be fascinated on what some people have to say. I remember once I met a student from England, who traveled around the entire world before coming to the university. He never lived in the same country for more than three years. I can't believe some of the things people tell me sometimes. In life, we need to become more familiar with different kinds of people so we know how to live a successful life from different perspectives.
      Next time you order out, don't order the same thing you usually do....

Keeping yourself in shape (physically and mentally)

     This is a pretty ambiguous topic in the sense of which ways you can prepare yourself each way. But if you are in top shape, you will be ready to face any new challenges.
      For physical shape, you should do some sort of cardio activity at least 3 times per week. You will be able to keep your youth for a longer period of time and keep yourself healthy. By doing this, you will most likely plan out when you do your activity and keep yourself on schedule. I usually plan out when I will run or go lift ahead of time. This always keeps me focused and ready for the task at hand. But most importantly when I am done running or lifting, I always feel so accomplished and satisfied. And I bet most people will feel the same.
     Being self-aware you are in shape mentally, can be one of the hardest things to recognize...

Call your friends every two weeks

     Now I don't mean your friends you met at your university. Not the ones you just met but your friends far away, the friends you made before the separation of college. The friends who you shared your high school memories with.
     This may seem easy at first but as college progresses they will grow out of your lives because you hardly see them. College can become time consuming at some points but we can take the time to call people every once in awhile. Skype video or Oovoo video can constitute as a call too but text messages, Facebook and Twitter don't. When you are talking its more personal and more words can be said in a period of time.
     Calling someone can really make their day. They will feel you care for them. Keeping in touch is important these days. Anything can happen at this very moment. I had a friend pass away one month ago and I didn't talk to him for more than one year. I made it my goal to call my closest friends every two weeks so I knew how they were doing and if the worst happened, I knew I talked to them before the end.
    One of the biggest benefits is when you come home for winter and summer break, you have some people to hang out with. You kept in contact with them and now you can finally see them. In the long-run, calling your friends every two weeks will pay off. And for you people who worry about their minutes and paying for them, call after 9 P.M. Almost every cell phone company provides their customers with free minutes at night.

Take an interest in what you do

Along with keeping up with current events around the world, everyone should take an interest in what they do. What I mean is just don't be a regular student in the classroom. Don't be that person that punches in every day from 9-5 at their job. Be proactive.

How unpredictable life is

     Have you ever thought for sure you would end up somewhere but didn't? Sometimes, life takes you on a different journey yet you don't understand why. I am really confident in saying though, "Things happen for a reason."
     I was so dead-on I would end up at Northwestern University in the Mathematical Methods in Social Science Program. That was my dream path after high school. I would attend a top-notch school and be in the Windy City.
     I thought I would end as my team's number four runner for cross-country and help my team qualify for state. I ran one thousand miles the summer before the season started to put my body in better position to race well.
     I set my sights on finding that one person, I could fall in love with throughout high school. Our love would be like a romantic novel and we would head off to the same college conquering it together.
     Yet along the way, none of these things happened. I didn't get into Northwestern. I ran terrible in cross-country and was benched at Regionals. I thought I found "her" multiple times but I was denied each time. I became sleep-deprived and mentally confused why I didn't accomplish my goals. Did my life just become a complete failure?

Have at least two best friends(one woman and one man)

      To tell you the truth, I didn't really realize this until the summer before college. This may seem irrelevant to this blog but I believe its a good thing to have not a necessity.        Having one of each is beneficial in so many ways. All guys have a feminine side in them. Some are just afraid to express in front of their male counterparts. All girls have a masculine side in them. You get the point. Having a friend of the same sex, you can always talk to about anything. For men, whether your fantasy football team is losing badly, how to tie a tie, checking out a girl you like or just some man talk, having that best friend will always make you feel your wanted and have someone to talk to at any time. For woman, whether which pair of heels matches with a certain dress, ask her to watch Grey's Anatomy with you, checking out the cute guy that passed by or just some girl talk. In the end, we all need someone to talk to sometimes and that friend will always be there. 
     When you have a best friend of the opposite sex, you should treat them like ...

Life too tough, want to give up?

     Many times in our lives, we face adversity. You have too many things to do yet so little time. Some subject in school is making you feel like your insignificant and you just want to drop the class.
     Take a deep breath and just think about how far you have came. There's people around you that care about you. To be so busy, you have to be wanted by society. You must be talented at something you are doing. Be proud of your talents.
      My senior year, I became so overwhelmed with things. I felt like just giving up. It was early September and...