Best Year(s)

A very random thought occured to me while I was taking a shower this morning - what is the best year of my life? I'm thinking that seeing how most of my life has been spent inside a school, I am going to say that years can include school year timeframes (like September to August). I'm going to seperate this into a two categories. Pre-College and College.

The Pre-College one is easy for me. Senior Year of High School. Kings of the school. Year of major senioritis and everything else that goes with it. 2001-2002 was the best year of my life at that time. This was the year that I finally played in the State Tennis finals and even though we lost in the second round (I played 3 doubles), it was a fun season and capped off my tennis career nicely. My friends and I had gym class last hour our senior year, which meant lots of goofing off and pretty much staying out of the way of everyone else. Mrs. Paige (our gym teacher) told us at the beginning of the year that as long as we didn't get into trouble and stayed out of the way, we'd get an A. This meant, leaving early many times, sitting in the weight room and doing nothing (except spotting Corey) and of course beating up on the smaller kids during prison ball on Fridays. We performed West Side Story this year (probably one of my favorite plays that we did). I graduated on my 18th birthday, which doesn't happen to many kids. I was cleared medically as far as my back is concerned this year. I was accepted into Western as a student and preparing for the next step in my life.

Now to the best year of my life since my senior year of high school. Sophmore Year of College. This was the year that I made many of the college friends that I still have today. We all lived on the same floor of French Hall (which wasn't always cool, but was convenient most of the time). This is when our Pain Train intermural teams took off (ok, the only team that truely took off was our wiffle ball team). We made trips up to East Hall all the time to smoke cigars and just shoot the bull. We had our first Thanksgiving dinner (after I won a turkey dinner at a hockey game) and promptly cooked and ate in the study lounge on the third floor. We went to many athletic events - as we lived right next to most of the stadiums. We made trips to Canada and Windsor Casino and enjoyed being legal outside of the United States. Most importantly, many of us were still in that stage of our college lives where we didn't have to cut out our social life yet. We had fun and that was the most important thing.

Drew and I always talk about what year of college we would do over if we could and each time we agree on Sophmore year. This was the year of many ups and downs (for me personally), but I would do it all over again if given the chance because just how great that year was.

Racing Thoughts

As I have posted earlier, I have been thinking a lot about my future (as so many 23-year olds do after the graduate college) and am really puzzled as to what my future has in store for me. I really have a ridiculous amount of time at work to think and oftentimes I think about my future and what I should do - for those of you that don't know, I work at a hospital sitting with patients in need of immediate care (overdoses, suicide, fall risks, confusion, etc.). Tonight was just one of those nights. I have concluded one thing and have stated this before. I do not want to work in health care. I have been at Borgess Medical Center for three years now and the job is generally pretty good, but it's not something I see myself doing for more than the next half a year. I have a degree and I intend on using it! At least, I hope so. I am thinking more and more about going back to school for writing and English-oriented things. There are a lot of writing jobs around the world and I feel as though I have some strengths in this area. My parents seem to feel the same way. More on this tomorrow, I am feeling pretty tired, but just punching some of my feelings out through the keys on this keyboard.

Oh and go Rockies. They lost 13-1 tonight, but I'm not jumping off the bandwagon just yet.

Sore Day at Western

Yesterday was a pretty long day. Western Michigan lost a real close game to Ball State (23 to 27) in which we led pretty much until the last 2 minutes. I also pulled or strained my groin running the campus classic (very uncomfortable). It was a pretty fun day otherwise. Beautiful weather and really a great day to watch football and hang outside. We tried tailgating, but not many people showed up and I had the wrong kind of charcoal - we never got it going until we got home later. My parents came over to watch the Michigan football game last night (they won 27 to 17) and all and all, it was a great homecoming weekend. My groin feels a lot better today and I don't need to limp around as much - which is always good.

It is another real warm and nice day again today and it is starting to make me wonder if we are just going to go from summer to winter this year. What happened to fall? Oh well, I will take this extended period of warm weather for sure. I think we may go out and get pumpkins and donuts today at a cider mill, so hopefully that happens.

Safety First

After last weekend, I am looking forward to a weekend of safety and fun. My parents are down here this weekend to help ensure that this happens. Hopefully all the homecoming festivities will happen without incident. I am running a 5K tomorrow morning that circles most of Western's campus (the Campus Classic). This is my third straight year running it and I am by far the most out of shape this year. My effort tomorrow will likely be more of a trot/walk at best. I believe that we are going to the Western game tomorrow afternoon (they are playing Ball State) and hopefully watch them win. They are near the top in the conference and need to keep playing well to make bowl play this winter.

My roommate Harrison and I went over to Detroit last night to see a Brand New-Thrice with my old roommate Robbie. It was a pretty sweet show. I personally felt rather old attending the concert with a bunch of middle and high school kids. The joys of getting older. It was fun none-the-less.

I work a bunch next week, but am going to try and get back to Detroit next weekend for the Eastern-Western game. More and more of my friends are located in that area now and it seems like if I want to see anyone outside of Kalamazoo, that is the area I am headed. No problem - I'd rather see them there than somewhere way out of the state.

Finally saving a little money for my trip next spring. Just hope that I don't have to buy any new phones soon - that really takes a chunk out of the savings.

Lesson Learned

What happened last night is not going to happen again. This is definitely a lesson learned. As a few people have told me today, this is just one of those turning points in your life that you look back on. I feel extremely lucky to have some good friends who would come to my rescue at an hour such as the one the other night. Hopefully I can move forward and just realize that things happen for a reason and that what happened won't happen again.

What I felt all day yesterday was a mixture of many things. I felt embarrassed, upset at myself and scared all at the same time. I'm glad that what happened is over with and I can just move on and look forward to some better moments. Again, I am extremely lucky for the friends and family that I have in my life right now. Thank you for your support.

I am looking forward to this weekend and what hopes to be a fun homecoming weekend here at Western. Now, I must go on a quest in search for a new (and hopefully not expensive) phone.

Week of Revelations

I just seem to be having one of those weeks. It has been up and down, left and right, backwards and forwards - you get the point. My mom made a comment today on the phone that left me thinking about it. She told me that Adam time is good once and awhile and she made this comment after I told her that I would be by myself most of Saturday evening. I told her that I pretty much have Adam time always because of my job. I basically sit in the hospital and do next to nothing most days. This leads to much boredom and thinking. Today was one of those days.

I came to one conclusion today if nothing else. After my lease is up here in Kalamazoo, it will be time for me to find a job of much more significance. I haven't ruled out going back to school or chasing some of the dreams that I have or even leaving Kalamazoo, but I am determined at actually doing something. Don't get me wrong. For my current situation, this job is great, but it is also something that I want to be doing much longer. I could be doing so much more with my time and talent (I know there isn't much talent, but there's got to be some - haha).

I really hope that this trip I take across the country will lead to something. At least open my eyes to other possibilities. I am constantly in a mind of thought these days about careers and what makes a good, solid and successful career. It fascinates me at what some people believe to be personal success and I hope that I can attain this one day.

It's really up to me right now to make something out of that piece of paper they mailed me 3 months ago. At least I know that I have the right mindset in chasing what I want.

Heroes of the Day: Apple Orchards and Cidar Mills, Mmmmm...

Up Above

If any of you are wondering about the new picture in my profile, here is your chance to wonder no-more. This is a shot of East Hall on Western Michigan University's campus in Kalamazoo, MI. I received this photo from my Aunt as "collection of the best pictures of the year" in 2006. Apparently the white in the clouds above are lightning bolts taking form. East Hall is located on East Campus and if you stand at the front (like in the picture) and look out you can see most of downtown Kalamazoo from an elevated position. You can even see fireworks from the Kalamazoo Kings games on summer nights.

East Hall is a pretty special place in Kalamazoo for many of my friends and I. We used to take trips up there all the time starting Freshman year. Many times we would take cigars up there and just sit back and shoot the bull. Other times it was a gathering place for all of our friends to meet up when we didn't live in the dorms anymore. I recall several times when we would run down the big hill and then try and scramble back up. We still visit East Hall at times even though most of my friends have moved away from Kalamazoo.

By the way: I have no clue who the girl in the picture is.

Glass Half-Empty or Glass Half-Full?

Something hit me yesterday when I least expected it to. I was working at Borgess and really just minding my own business (as the patient I was working with was fairly tempermental) when the nurse asked me if my patients water cup had any water in it. I told him that her cup was half-full. Almost immediately the nurse said, "Glass half-full. I like that. That says a lot about a person." Now, everyone knows about the whole glass half-empty and the glass half-full thing which usually shows what kind of attitude and position you might have on things. But, I did this totally without thinking and on the spot. Says a lot for a guy going through a period in his life where he's pretty unsure about what the future holds. And by that guy, I mean me.

Anyways, this weekend should be pretty low-key. Seems like everyone is heading out of town and doing something this weekend. Harry won't be back til midnight on Saturday and my sister is going to a wedding with Steve. I work Saturday morning, but the rest of the weekend is unplanned. Hope something exciting comes up. We'll see. Already not a fan of this cold weather, but I should brace myself for the long winter to come.

Already have some projections on how much my trip is going to cost and it doesn't look pretty. Might have to cut out some of the cities that I planned on visiting and just focus in on some of the key ones. Hopefully I can make it to the west coast. That is my target area.