The Presentation

Our group gave our presentation today and it went very very well. I really do not think that it could have gone much better than what it did. After we presented the comittee didn't even have any questions for us, just coments about how impressed they were. We had a lot of information about the senior center that we are working at. My friend and I went to the senior center personally to understand more about it. They were also very happy with how we found a great way to get the community involved with our service. Finally, we all did a great job of public speaking which can be hard for some people. Everyone in the group did their part even if they were not great with public speaking. If we do not get into the Res I seriously would be shocked because like I said I don't think it could have went better

The Res

I am planning on living in the Res. next year with seven other guys. They all happen to play soccer, which might be a little weird for awhile but I think that I will get used to it. I really like all the guys that I will possibly be living with. The difficult thing about it is that we have to complete a service project, write a proposal, and give a presentation. I have done a lot of work with it already with organization. I contacted a person at the senior citizen center here in Waverly. I think that we would have a great service project there. She needs a lot of help with her day-to-day operations as well as organization of different events at the senior center. Hopefully, we can work on our proposal and gave a good presentation to impress the comittee. Then we get start to organize and get this service project rolling. They did a lot of help at the senior center so we are pretty excited to help out.

Green Bay Packers

I am a pretty big Green Bay Packers fan so this year has been pretty exciting so far. We are coming of a big Super Bowl win. It is really special because your team can't say that it is the best in the world very often. This year we are off to a great start and are undefeated so far. They have had a couple scares so far but it seems like every game I ha very confident that we are going to pull through and win even when it is close. Our quarterback is having one of the best seasons ever, so that is really exciting as well. The only thing that can stop us at this point is our defense. It is a very aggresive defense and every once in awhile that will backfire on you. We will just have to wait and see how everything turns out.

One Week Down

I finished my first week of practice and I thought that it went awesome! It really wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be. If we work hard as a team and encourage each other it ends up being easy. Coach Newsome always say "Do it right, do it light". That is definatly his philosophy. By doing it right, he means that we need to pick each other up and being postive. It also means doing the little things right. Like starting behind the line and finishing through the line. I thought that our team did a great job of working hard everyday. During the week there are always going to be days where you are not ready to go or you don't have very much energy. We really didn't have that this week. Even when we were not feeling the best, we pushed through it and encouraged each other to continue to work. I am having so much fun. It is much more enjoyable than I ever thought that it would be. I am loving it.

Track Practice

I had me first track practice on Monday. I thought that I would be really nervous about it but I was actually kind of excited. Practice is usually 4-6 in the W and the weight room. We started off with our warm up, which takes about 30 minutes. After that we did a ten minute run. It was fairly easy. Next, we finished with 12 sprints of about 150 meters. We had almost no rest in between and we tired out pretty quick. Coach wasn't very happy with us because we more worried about ourselves then the teammates around us. We thought that we were done at 12 but he extended it 15. He was again not happy after the extra three sprints so he moved it to 18. The final three sprints got a lot better. He wasn't disappointed that we weren't working hard enough but that we were not helping ourselves out by encouraging each other. We finished up with our practice in the weight room for about 45 minutes. Once, we started encouraging each other practice got a lot more fun. If it continues like that track is going to be a lot of fun.

This Week

It has been a really long week and I am very excited that it it the weekend. I found out that I did very good on both the tests that I completed before fall break. That should give me a great chance at getting the grade that I want in both of those classes. I have continued reading "State of Fear". My other concern is my room situation for next your. I have a really close friend that I want to room with next year but he is going to room with soccer players. I might room with him and some soccer players anyways. I can get along with pretty much anyone as long as they are not mean. He is looking at an 8 person room so that might be an interesting expirence for me. I am an only child so I am not used to being around a lot of people most of the time. It should be really fun though. I have a large group project that we are working on every Wednesday and with track practice starting next week, I am going to be very busy. It makes me very nervous but also really excited!

Friends

Me and my roomate have a lot in common. We both love basketball and football. We both are in sports here at wartburg. We both have girlfriends in high school. We have a lot to talk about and get along great. But there is one thing that makes our bond so great. One great thing. The T.V. show "Friends". I dont care what people think, I love that show. The awesome thing is my roomate does also. We watch it everyday from 3-4 p.m. and 10-12 at night. Everyone on our floor knows it too. People just dont come to our room during these hour. They know that it's "Friends" time. Anyways, I really like the show because I used to watch it with my parents and it brings back some good memories. I swear I have seen like every episode. At least I don't watch "Jersey Shore".

Intramurals

I had my first game of intramural basketball tonight. We played team starstruck, which consisted of guys that I swear have been in college for like 6 years. We lost lost by about 15 but we did pretty good considering we were all freshman. I bet we get about second overall in the league.I did pretty good and I scored quite a few points. Our team is actually pretty talented and worked fairly well together. We had never even really played together before so that was a good sign. I am really excited to play again because I think that I can make some pretty good friends on this team also. Team Geeks n' sneaks is gonna dominate this season, despite the early season loss.

Sports Management

I am taking the introduction to sports management class. The weird thing about it is that my mom is teaching it. I had my dad as a teacher in junior high so it won't be completely strange. I have a very good relationship with both of my parents. The class is very important to me because my major is sports management. It has a lot of interesting things about setting yourself up for the future and finding a job in the sports field. My mom hasn't called on me in class yet so that is a good thing. I sit in the back of the classroom because I don't want to draw any attention to myself or anything like that. My mom is a pretty good teacher because she is very outgoing and she likes to talk. I swear that she doesn't stop talking the entire class period.

Internships

I am very interested by the opportunity of doing interenships while I am at Wartburg. I plan on doing an internship in the athletic office next year during the fall because this year I am a second year and next year I will be a third year. Then after that I am looking at an internship at the Waterloo Blackhawks for the summer or possibly fall the next year. Finally my goal is to get an internship in Des Moines with the Iowa Energy, an NBA D-League team. My dream job is working within an NBA team. I research the Iowa Energy and discovered that the have an internship program. With track I will not be able to working during the basketball season but they have a summer program as well. I am very excited about this. I feel like my job would be so much fun if I worked for a professional sports team, mainly an NBA team. I know it will take a lot of work but it is what I really want to do.

50/50

This weekend I watched the movie 50/50. It was in theaters and I wanted to watch it for a long time. It is about a man that has some back pains. He goes to the doctor to discover that he has cancer. The doctors tell him that he only has a 50% chance of living. His girlfriend vows to help him through his battle with cancer. After sometime she starts showing signs that she doesn't care for him anymore. In order to show him that she cares about him, she gives him a dog named Skeletor. Skeletor is an old and boney dog she rescued from the pound. The dog is dying, similar to Adam, the man with cancer. Soon Adam finds out that his girlfriend is cheating on him. Soon after that a man that Adam met in chemotherapy died. These two events cause Adam to almost give up. I won't give away the ending but I really enjoyed this movie. It was very inspiring. It was a lot to do with overcoming adversity I really enjoy stories like this. I have not had to deal with cancer in my life before but it has to be extremely difficult. This movie really stuck out to me and I have been thinking about it a lot because it tells me that I should enjoy the life that I am living.

The Headphones

It was about the first week of school when it happened. I had bought new headphones in the summer from some of the money that I earned this summer. I love music because it puts me into my own world. The headphones that I got were supposed to me some of the best that are out right now. When I got them I was super excited. They had awesome sound and they looked sweet. But of course they had one flaw. Like I said before it happened about the first week of school. I picked up my headphones and the snapped. The headband just broke in two pieces. I tried to fix them with my own methods but of course I was not very successful. I finally got adjusted to the new feel of then headphones when they started rattling whenever the bass had any intensity. So I decided that they were done and I was in the market for a new pair. I looked and looked but I was so scared to spend and more money. What if I waste it on another bad pair. I finally found a pair that I couldn't pass up and they were a lot cheaper. So far I love them but they have a long way to go before I totally trust them. For now I'm happy.

The Weekend

I had a great weekend. I saw one of my friends that I haven't seen in three months. It was really cool because he has not changed at all. It was me and three of my closest friends and it was just like old times. I am happy that everything is going well with all my friends. They all seem really happy with there decisions about where to go. We also started planning a trip for the summer. We want to go to a concert or somewhere cool. Another one of my best friends went to school in San Diego. We were talking about going and visiting him at the end of the summer and taking him home with us for the summer. I don't know if something that big will ever happend but it would be so sweet! I think that he is really enjoying his time in California. I never thought that he would actually go there for college but he followed through on it. I also went to the Iowa football game. It was awesome as usual. When I got back to Waverly, I went to hang out with my friends before a couple of them went back to their respective colleges. I finished my homework on Sunday. Overall, very successful weekend.

The Mile

I had to run the mile to test out for track. I guess that this is the first year that everyone had to do it. I missed it the week before so I had to do it this week. Coach told everyone that they can help support me or run with if they want to. She also sent out an e-mail about it too. I was expecting a lot of people there helping me and running with me. I had never actually ran a timed mile before so I was pretty nervous about it. Friday, the day I was running it, came around and it was not going to be a fun day to run. It was extremely windy and suprisingly cold. I go to the weightroom and wait for everyone. 5 minutes. 10 minutes. Nothing. Then one guy shows up. He was a senior and he was really nice. But i was a bit disappointed but I understood that it was a Friday and it was cold and windy. I ran pretty well considering the conditions so I was happy. I felt like I was all caught up with the rest of the team. I was ready to get started doing everything that the team was doing. I am really excited about track and I think that a made a great decision for me personally. I just can't worry about what other people think of me.

Track Workouts

So this is my first week in track. I think that it is going pretty well. I'm really close with the head coach and I really like our strength coach. Another assistant coach is from Waverly and knows me very well also. I am a little bit behind on my workouts so I have to make some things up. I have maxed out for my bench press, front squat, power clean, and pushups on Monday and Tuesday. Today, I ran my 300 meter shuttles. It was pretty tough but I did my best for not being in anything close to track shape. Then I had my first workout with the team. I am really happy that I choose to go out for track because everyone is really nice. Marcus told me that the track team was like a family and I knew he was telling the truth but I didn't know how far it went. I have been out for less than a week and another athlete called me his brother. That actually really meant a lot to me. I am an only child so I would have no idea what it is like to have a brother. I thought it was really awesome.

UNI Homecoming

I am very excited about today because it is UNI homecoming. A lot of my friends will be back from their respective colleges and universities so it will be awesome to see them. I work from six a.m. to twelve this morning so I’m going to be a bit tired but I get to see some people that I haven’t seen in awhile so it will be worth it.

I miss a lot of people from my old high schools. Sometimes I really miss high school because of the friendships that I developed. I do like college but for me it is hard because I had such good friends that it is tough for me to try and make new ones. I feel like I won’t have friends as close as I did before. However I know that making friends takes time, maybe more time for a person like me who is kind of shy when I first meet new people. I know I will become more comfortable soon.

Track

A few days ago I chose to go out for track instead of basketball. It was a really hard decision because I love basketball. I gave it a lot of thought and talked a lot with my parents. Overall, I just didn't feel right about basketball and I know that my expirence with track will be a positive one. I don't always enjoy track but really it will all be worth it. Marcus says that the track team is like a family and we all care for each other. I am really excited. The most excited I have been in college so far. I wasn't this excited for basketball, I know that. I also know that I can't look back one my decision and wonder if it was the right one. I just have to focus on the future and what is ahead of me. I was nervous about telling Coach Peth my decision because we are close and we have know each other for a long time. He said that he respects my decision and that I am a great young man. I was very happy to hear him say that.

The Flu

I'm not sure how it happened. Maybe it was lack of sleep from staying up late studying for crazy amount of tests this week. Maybe it was the full week of basketball workouts. It could have been the fact that I had surgery last week and I should have taken more time for my body to recover. Maybe it is the weather and the winds as the land of Iowa prepares for the hard winter. Maybe it's the cold bug that I hear is going around campus. Either way I got it. I was finally finished with my tests for the week and the stress was gone. No more basketball for two days and I was happy. I texted my friend and asked if he wanted to watch a movie. We went to Family Video and got the instant classic movie called "Thor". As we were watching it the sickness just hit me. I was achy all over my body. It wasn't the soreness from lifting that I had become accustom to but achiness. After the movie I got to my dorm, after the long walk from "D" lot, finished some homework and passed out in my loft. It was by far the worst night in the dorms for me. I had to get up at least three times to go to the bathroom which I discovered is not fun when you’re sick and have a loft in your dorm. I got through Friday and I am just going to relax this weekend and try to recover this weekend.

Thursday

Finally, it is almost over. A week of incredible stress is finally at its low pooint for me. I have had three tests, including ones for Macroeconomics and Accounting. I spent a ton of time studying and it has really just drained my time this week. When I am free it seems like the only thing that I want, or should, do is sleep or study. But I am busy now so that means soon things will start to slow down and I can continue to try and stay on top of things. The thing that makes it so much harder is basketball because we have been working our butts off lately. We are all really sore and also kind of tired of running around to different activities all the time. I am think that we might be less busy during the actually season. I'm not including the travel for games and such but it is still very time consuming. Its alright though, I did very well on my test from what I can tell. I haven't got any of them back yet but I woudn't be suprised if they were all A's. Maybe even one prefect! But thats why I spent all that time studying I guess. Better get ready to do it again next week!

About 3 Weeks Down

Its been about 3 weeks of school so far. It seems like 3 monthes but maybe I'm just kidding myself. My first tests are this week and I am really nervous. I have been studying hard for my Econ test because I think that it will be my hardest class. I have an accounting test as well but I feel like I have a good grip on the material right now. It's a lot like what I did in high school. I was in high school accounting for two years so I have some pretty good expirence coming in. I am definatly stressing out right now trying to balance my school work with basketball activities. Sometimes I just think it would be easy to focus on school and do my 100% best. Then I would still have some more free time to do things that I enjoy. But I guess I do love basketball and I have so much fun playing it. I want to play this year and see what it will be like and I'll figure out how hard I will have to work to achieve my goals

My Car

                I have had a lot of issues with my car since I got it early in high school. I was rear ended one day after school my sophomore year. It wasn’t that bad but it wasn’t that fun. We also have a pretty tough garage to pull into at my house and I scraped the side of it. It also wasn’t that bad but that garage is really hard to pull into. I’m not trying to make excuses for myself however a teenager should not have to get into a garage like that every day. Lately my driving was a lot better and I avoided any major incidents. Late in the summer however I was pulling out of a parking lot and heading toward a stoplight. Suddenly, a large pick-up truck struck the right side of my car, knocking me into the left side of my car. His truck of course was fine and my car was not. The trunk was dented and the two doors on the right side were smashed. My side mirror was across the street. I got the guys insurance and went home to tell my parents. I called the insurance company and found out he gave me the wrong insurance card. It was not a great start to getting my car fixed. I went through an interview with the insurance investigators and ended up getting all the money that I deserved for the accident. The great thing about it was that the side of my car that got hit was the side that was already damaged so I got it all fixed. It’s like I Have a brand new car!

Jurassic Park

We have been watching the movie Jurassic Park in class and I think it is pretty awesome beacause I used to love the movie! When I was little I am pretty sure that I wanted to be a dinosaur so this movie was right up my alley. Anyways, after not seeing this movie for awhile I found it very interesting. There are a lot of science that even applies to issues that we are still dealing with today. It became clear to me that the movie and book were both ahead of their times. Topics such as cloning and genetic engineering apply to a lot of moral issues in today's society. Morality is another issue that caught my eye when I saw the film more recently. Whats right and what is wrong can be discussed through out the whole movie. Are we supposed to play God and recreate a spieces simply because we can? As Jeff Goldbulm's character said in the movie "... scientists were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should".

My Saturday

I had a pretty disappointing Saturday last weekend. It started off with work early at 5:30 and of course that means Friday is going to be an early night. I was ok with that because Iowa played Iowa State on Saturday and I was very excited about that! I am a diehard Iowa fan and I have had season tickets with my dad for four years now. So I work on some homework on Friday and prepare for what I think will be a glorious Saturday afternoon and night. First I had to get through work. I went to bed fairly early for a Friday night so I was ready as the sun came up. I put my W polo, a hooded sweatshirt, and khaki shorts on and headed out. I put my hood up because it was surprisingly cold and soon I realized that the doors to the W were locked. Fifteen minutes later campus security showed up and unlocked the doors. That just proved to me that you should try not to be too early, just early enough.

I worked from 12:30 and with kick off of the game being at 11:00 I was very frustrated. But I had it all planned out. DVR is a blessing for situations like this. I planned on watching the game at about 1:00 with some friends. I told my co-workers that I didn't want to know any news about the game and I'll admit that I probably wasn't very fun to work with near the end of my shift. Soon, however it was 12:30 and I was out of there! I had avoided talking to a lot of people for fear of them telling me the score. I turned my phone off to stay away from texts and internet. I stayed away from all televisions. I'm speed walking to my car. Almost time! "Hey Ryan! Games still tied 10-10. You can catch the second half!" said my boss. And Iowa ended up losing... great day.

The First Day

Today was basically my first day of college. I don’t feel as overwhelmed with the new thing as I thought I would be. My Macroeconomics 117 class is the one class that has me worried. It appears to be a very difficult class based on the subject, content of the class, and the professor. Professor Nota was very funny and seemed to keep the class very interesting. Either way it made me nervous to the point where I needed to hit the books right after class. I missed what the reading assignment was but I felt like if I read the first chapter and took good notes that I would be fine. I just think I am a bit behind because I didn't know a lot of the terms that were used in class today. Overall the classes went very well. I was extremely disappointed after work however when my new headphones broke. I think that they are fixable but I work hard for them and it honestly just made me angry. I guess that I'll get over at some point. I have Principals of Accounting tomorrow and a lecture for my Lifetime Wellness class. Also, I have a basketball meeting tomorrow. Everything is getting busier but that also means things are becoming more exciting! Right now I think I have a feeling of good nervousness!