Flash Back to Reality and Progression in Life

I know it has been awhile. A very long while. But I wanted to start blogging again. It give me peace of mind and helps me to set up some semblance of a schedule. Plus it helps my writing skills to stay at what they should be and to improve. The more a person writes, the easier it gets. Also, I have been reading a whole lot more lately and that makes a huge difference in writing too. I start to think in the style and diction of the author that I am studying, so it crops up in my writing and speaking. To me, it is a fascinating phenomenon. Anyway, life has been all over the place as of late. I spent the past summer working at Kidz Kamp. It was the best job that I have ever had. It almost convinced me to become a grade school teacher because of how rewarding it is to work with children. I loved every second of it and can't wait to do it again in the winter and next summer. Then I got to go to Kansas City to visit Grandad and all the other relatives on the Hughes side of the family. Grandad was much more talkative than I remember, but isn't eating nearly as much as he used to. He is very gaunt and skinny. I am worried about him and where his health will continue to go from here. After that, Grandma Hughes got us a staycation at the Arizona Grand Resort. It came with passes to the huge water park. There were two huge slides, a wave pool, and pool volleyball. Lots of fun with all the cousins and close family. It was a summer of pure freedom. I read more books than I have in years, saw a ton of movies, spent uber amounts of time with family and friends, and just loved life. Sadly, reality had to set in eventually and send me careening back down to earth and normal life. That reality in this instance was school. Don't get me wrong, I love school and I love learning. I just hate having to decide where that learning has its final destination. I hate picking where my ultimate field of study and understanding is going to reside. I want to learn a foreign language, spend further time basking in music, appreciate great art across all mediums, and understand why all the grand and miniscule components of the earth work they way they do through the application of science. All that is not possible through picking a major and one course of study in a college environment. I know I can spend a lifetime learning, but I love the learning environment of classes and discussion. Research and paper writing. And oddly enough textbook reading. But I can't have everything at this point in life. I need to have a social life, a reading life, a music life, a spiritual life, and a course of study. And to fit that all in, I need to pick a major and be satisfied with it. I can do that. If nothing so that I can get enough and sleep and not lose my sanity this school year. The major I have decided to focus on at this point in time is Middle Eastern Studies and Arabic. Kind of strange, huh? I agree. But I love politics and government, those are what made the most sense to me in high school and were the easiest to study as well. I am not putting all my chips in that basket though because I am also starting out prerequisites that would lead to dental and orthodontic school. Being an orthodontist might be the greatest family job that I can think of and work with. The pay is substantial and there is a lot of left over time to spend doing family activities and outings. The perfect career. Plus it fulfills parts of my patriarchal blessing that I have not been able to make sense of until I considered that for a career. In order to fit both in and everything else that I have going on, I need to come up with some sort of daily schedule and regiment. I hate having to do such things, being spontaneous is much more fun. But now is the time for responsibility and growth, not stagnation and indecision. I am going to write my draft of a schedule up here to help me stay accountable to it and we will see how it goes form there. 6:00 A.M. - wake up and eat a light breakfast, get dressed to work out, run to gym 6:30 A.M. - Start working out at gym, spend half hour on cardio (bike and elliptical machines) and half hour on conditioning (weight machines) 7:30 A.M. - jog back to apartment 8:00 A.M. - shower and get dressed and prepared for rest of day, read scriptures for 30 minutes 8:30 A.M. - walk to school and then begin class at 9 or finish homework/projects 9:00 - 5:00 - Classes, lunch, and homework. Try to get everything done that I can so I have the evenings free to work and play 11:00 P.M. - be in bed and starting the process that it takes to fall asleep I need to also budget for another 10 hours a week of work. I need to visit the temple twice a week - once for initiatories and once for an endowment session. I need to find a group of people that will go with me for both. I need to find time to practice the cello for an hour or so a day (and rent out a practice room to do it in). I need to leave enough time for a weekly shopping trip. I need to plan some sort of project to do with freshman friends that will take up semester. I need to plan a game/movie night weekly. Leave time open for Psych night. Anyway, lots of plans that I need to stay on top of and succeed in. Also, I need to stick to some sort of budget so I don't go broke. I can allow money to carry over if need be, but must stay as close to budget as possible so I can afford living, eating, and entertainment expenses. I think I can budget about $20 a week for food, $10 a week to eat out, and $10 a week for entertainment purposes. I need to create an excel spreadsheet so that I can keep track of expenses and make sure that I do not go over. Or I will be in serious trouble. I can do this though and succeed at it. I know if I pray and fast for help, anything is possible. I am fasting for financial stability today including getting the right job to help me afford the next year of school. Oh, adventure of the week: seeing a rattlesnake. We hiked Squaw Peak yesterday and on the way back down, there he was. Courtenay was walking with me, then Lora following. There was a strange sound (not nearly as loud as I had always thought it would be) and it reared its head. We all stopped and the snake backed off a little bit farther into the undergrowth allowing us to finish walking. It then came back to the trail to finish sunning I would assume. I have always wondered what the rattle would sound like and now I know. Life experience fulfilled. And now I know that snakes love to be on the path to sun themselves and that puts them into direct association with us. I have a couple of other goals for this school year as well. I want to document it with photos as I did before. I want to have a photo of the week and lots of photos to pick it out from. That way, I can always have a documentation of everything that went down during my life spent at BYU. I have a terrible memory for long term events and so that would help me quite a great deal. I love the photos that I took freshman year and looking at them to jog my memory of friends and experiences that were amazing and wonderful. I need to start dragging my camera everywhere again and taking pictures. I need to be more social this year as well. I need to make tons and tons of friends in this new ward that I live in as well as through the friends that I currently have. Will has a lot of great friends in his ward and work and they remind me a lot of the circles I use to hang out in during high school. People who are a total blast. Samuel also has friends I should meet and associate with as well as Aaron, Regan, and Jared. Kelly Ann. Lora and her friends. Nathan and his friends. Maureen Davis is back again too and I need to hang out with her as well as Kevin before he goes off and gets married at the end of this semester. I need to go on dates (multitudes of dates) to find the right person for me. And hopefully to convince her to like me back. That is pretty much all the time I have for right now, I need to finish getting ready for church this morning and meeting with bishopbric afterward. Then having family dinner with Lora, Nathan, and Angela with a movie or a game or something. Then there is ice cream night at Samuel's tonight at 9. Then I have to be in bed by 11 so I can start my schedule off right on the first day. I am praying that all this will succeed. And that everything will work out for the best! Ryan