Put others down, To fill us up...Oppressing me will oppress you

I'm sure a lot of us can relate to this "TITLE". At one time or another we all fill down in our lives. It could be because a friend/family member let you down, your having a rough day, you mad, etc. When this happens we want to feel good. So, what do we do? We do thinks like make fun of other people and try to hurt someone(not in a physical way) to fill us up and make sure we feel good about ourselves. I used to be this way, but am not anymore. There are ways around this people. From my experiences when I am down which really doesn't happen often I Stay alone and think about things, go on an escapade(I have my spots), talk to a best friend about my situation, talk to God, or listen to music. All of those things distract me from even think about putting someone down to fill me up. I encourage you all to find different ways to build yourself back up rather than to turn to someone and tear them down to build yourself back up. In the end hurting someone else, will hurt you in other words "What goes around, comes back around"

What you see is what you get

"You should take me as I am". Almost a lot of the times at least for me "1st impressions are everything". I have a bad first impression, its probably bad for future encounters with that person. What I see from someone from the first impressions is what I get. I think not, I don't fully believe in this "quote at all". It's 50/50 for me. What you see is not always what you get!

Please let me know your thoughts via facebook, aim, twitter, or comment below(you don't have to be a user to comment).. FEEDBACK PLEASE!

SUMMA SUMMA SUMMA SUMMA TIME

It has been a very long, but good weekend with all of my friends. I'm not going to write about much just tell you about my summer a little so far. My summer has been great and I'm loving it. This past weekend was great. Friday I worked all morning and afternoon then went to Clifton w/ Huggs and did it big. On Saturday I had to get a new battery for my car ughh, then I went to a soccer tournament to see my Mom's team play. They tied 2-2. After that I went to a cook-out that was pretty sweet. Umm then went to a friends house and sat around a fire for a lil then headed out to Miami and did it big out there. Sunday I worked all day and after work I went to a flag football game hahah. They won their first game (1-4). Then came home and smashed on the food that my Dad grilled then went to a friends house to chill w/ the boys. Tonight, I'm going to my friends house to do it big w/ the boys. Tomorrow hopefully going to the Reds Game. The rest of the week I plan on watching my college baseball team play baseball for the national tournament in Mason on Wed and Thursday! I'll write something worth reading soon.....

Have a good day/night all!

Things aint always set in stone, Let me know

You followers of mine may have seen my "TITLE" on my facebook status more than a few times or my away message more than a few times. It comes from my favorite song by Kanye West called "Street Lights" If you have never heard it I highly suggest it. It's a great song from the words to the beats.

Anyways surprise surprise to everyone THINGS and PEOPLE change. I happen to be one of them. Yes, It is cool to picture where your life may be in a year with friends, a job, different activities etc. The truth is "THE FUTURE IS ALWAYS CHANGING". Things a lot of the time don't end up the way we see them in our head. I know this from experience and why my "TITLE" sticks out to me so much now in this point in my life. All good things must at some point come to an end. I really never look into the future anymore and imagine how it will be, because I don't want to see everything that I want to happen in my PERFECT WORLD just to see it never happen in other words I look at it as I don't want to let myself down.

So, just remember things and people change. Friendships may come to an halt, people who you see one day may not be there the next etc. So, "Things aint always set it stone, Let me know!!" And if they are........Let me know

Things must get WORSE, before they get BETTER

Things must get WORSE, before they get BETTER. Another way I thought of saying it was "It must rain, before we get a rainbow". This is very very true. I believe in it strongly through life experiences and I'm sure a lot of you also may find this true. I have found this saying true through a lot of life events, but I am only going to talk briefly about two of them:

Relationship with God- Growing up I grew up going to Church every Sunday, but I really didn't know to come God on my own till freshman/sophomore year in High School. Young Life camp of my Sophomore year changed my life and brought me real close to God. I started to slip and was tempted by things and influence's from friends did not help. I started to do and try things that I never said I would do or try and also friends and other outsiders thought I would never do or try. I started to become a failure to God. I was lost for a couple months in my life. It was a bad part of my life that I never want to go back to EVER. After all the bad happened came GOOD again. I was FOUND. Now, I'm closer and still getting closer to God as I type. It's a great life! You should try.

Relationship with friends- A couple of my best friends and I have been through a lot. A lot a lot. That only gets us to where we are today. I have had 3 best friends in the past that our relationship between each other got so bad that I really didn't think we would be best friends today. You must go through those stages for a relationship to get better. Some of the reasons may have been stupid, but other times they were very reasonable. I'm glad that I went through that stage in my life. It made me who I am today and also made our best friendship STRONGER THAN EVER! I am still best friends with 2 of the people and I see both of them being LIFE LONG FRIENDS, and the other one just kind of faded away. Everything happens for a reason.

I did not get into to much detail about either situation, but I just wanted you readers to really take "Things must get WORSE, before they get BETTER" into account. It is very true. I encourage you to think about a time in your life where something was worse than ever, and they eventually got better. It usually doesn't take a day or a week to heal these things. It takes time!

ECONOMY---Geeze, people it will keep getting worse, but it will get better!!

I put my walls up....Who will tear them down?

So, one of my good friends always sends me QOD(Quotes of the day). I get one probably like 4 times a week. I enjoy getting them and look forward to it everyday. I like all of them, but one really stuck out to me the other day that she sent me because it relates to me. It read "Sometimes people put up walls, not to keep people away, but to see who cares enough to tear those walls down". My initial reaction was like that is so deep then about 30 seconds later I said to myself " Wow, I do that to so many people". I talked about in a previous post about I like to only stay in my comfort zone and that's it, and I think that is a lot of why I put WALLS UP and don't like to let a lot of people in which plenty of outsiders have confronted me about in the past. In the end when it comes down to it I'm not trying to shut myself from the world or keep from letting people to get to know me, it's more like when I put those walls up who cares enough to tear down those walls as the quote says. There are a lot of people that have torn down those walls when I put them up, and basically all those people are my BEST FRIENDS!!! So, thanks to all of you for loving me so much when I put those walls up you tore those down. It means a lot and that's the difference between our friendship and others I may have.

If you give, something will come in return

This was brought upon me today at Church. Obviously, I have heard this before and I'm sure you have heard quotes very similar to this. It just refreshed my brain this morning. If you give something, you will receive something in return. It doesn't matter what or to who you give too. You can be giving to the poor, the church, friends, family etc. The only problem now is what do we receive in return when we give ? A lot of times it's not what we EXPECT to be given to in return which is why a lot of people may or may not like or believe in this quote. It can be something very little that we may not notice or something big that we definitely notice. Either way something will always be coming your way in return. So, I encourage everyone and I need to be motivated to GIVE instead of the one that is always RECEIVING, because in the end when you GIVE you will RECEIVE. So, you will be RECEIVING either way, but it's the first step of GIVING we need to push to ourselves and others. WWJD?

Best friend traits

I'm the kind of person that doesn't like to go outside of my comfort zone at all. I like to keep a few keep close to me and that's okay with me. Everyone else is either just there or means a little to me. The ones I do care about the most are who I call my "BEST FRIENDS". Best friends take time to establish for me, and there are somethings I look in people to call them a best friend. Not in any kind of order:

1). Loyalty- This pretty much speaks for itself

2). Trust- Trust is VERY BIG thing for me. If your my best friend I have to be able to "trust you". If that trust ever breaks I'm the kind of person that will never trust you again or will take a VERY LONG time to regain that trust. I don't care who you are.

3). Funny/Serious- a best friend that is funny and can make me laugh, but at the same time when it comes down to I can be serious with and feel comfortable having a deep conversations with.

4.)Both Ways- I don't know a word for this, but "It takes two". A best friend that I don't have to call/text all the time. I'm the kind of person where my best friends usually always call/text me first to plan something growing up. So, now I'm always in that routine, but I still make a big effort to be that person. So, everything goes both ways.

I have all the best friends I want or need in this world right now. They all have these traits above that I just listed. Some of my best friends I have been friends with forever and some just a year or two that I met in college. I love all my best friends to death, and I look forward to keep growing in each friendship I have.

As I look back.....

Well, Im at home for the summer maybe. I might be living in PA for the summer I will find out Monday. I have two papers left to turn in then I can say I am finally done with everything, but since I'm home and not at Geneva anymore I would just like to reflect, look back, and tell you some of my highlights of my sophomore year. I accomplished a lot of goals that I set for myself, I built some friendships, I made new friends, I am still and always will be a believer in the one that saved me(John 14:6), and lastly its another chapter done in my book, another phase, and another story to tell.

Highlights/Memories of my Sophomore year are as follows:

1. Leading goal scorer of the Geneva Men's soccer team
2. Recieving the offsenive player of the year award voted by my teammates
3. Honorable mentions and making 2nd team in the PAC and East Region
4. Scoring the first goal of the season vs. Wilmington which is a school that recruited me. Im still bitter we lost 2-1
5. Scoring 2 goals in our match vs. Roberts Wesleyan the biggest game of the year
6. Getting a good grade in Marketing which is my major
7. Being best friends with Lauren Ashley Londino the First
8. My walk with Christ
9. Buttermilk Falls get aways, sometimes with friends(Where I free my mind)
10.Let's just say "CAR NIGHTS"
11.LL being an "ALL AMERICAN" Congrats again
12.Car rides bumpin w/ Chris
13.Trips to Pittsburgh
14.Hookah!
15. Being young and reckless with my best friends
16.Lil Wayne concert with Chris and Leah
17. Britney Spears concert(Weekend when Kara and Courtney came to visit)
18. A lot more Highlights/Memories.....

My most memorable moment of the whole entire year and the most fun I prolly had was when I performed "Flashing Lights" by Kanye West at MGN(My Generation Night)

Looking back it has been a great year and I cant wait to see waht the fall semester has in store for me!

Hard work pays off....

This past week/weekend really showed me how "HARD WORK PAYS OFF". There were a couple different things that factored into everything not to mention I was not getting a lot to sleep last week due to so much going on, me thinking and worrying about things, etc.

1. I got the opportunity to help open MGN(My Generation Night) For those of you who don't know what this is, it is basically a big concert where people from Geneva take the stage and perform songs and do skits from our generation. This was on a Friday

2. Had a final in HR on Friday

3. Had a 15 min presentation to present to the class with my marketing group.

Well, by time Wednesday hit of last week I started to get worried about lot of things. MGN and me memorizing all the words to "Flashing Lights" by Kanye West, I absolutely had to get a good grade on my HR final, and lastly what role am I going to play in my 15 minute presentation with my group. While all of this is going on I kept in my "No stress, love, live life, proceed, progress". Well, Thursday hit and I was so nervous about all three things above. I had not a lot of time to study for my HR final, I had rehearsal for MGN tonight at the same time my Marketing group was meeting to practice presenting our marketing plan so I came late to that and did not get to practice for that. It was all to much and I did not know how I was going to handle it. Before I go any further let me tell you about my rehearsal. I get there and they tell me they want me to do the first verse. I was excited, but at the same time really nervous because previously "student activities" had to me I was only going to do the second verse so that put a lot more pressure on me. So, during rehearsals Im on stage and basically just kind of had the mic in my hand the whole time and rapped a few lines because I did not know any of the words. That is basically how that ended. So, I said the "BIG SHOW" is tomorrow and I don't know the words what am I going to do and by this time It was 10:30 pm and I still needed to study for my HR final and meet w/ my group. I met w/ my group and did not get to practice because I was so late. So, after everyone left I memorized the whole song. It didn't take me but 20 mins. It was only song I really listened to up till the big show. After that I went to my room and wrote out on note cards what I was going to say for the 15 mins presentation and also went over and practiced it that night, but still did not study for my final. I woke up early to study for it before class. I'm not sure how I did, but I think I did fairly well. The presentations we ended up getting a 94% on it aka an "A" I was extremely happy and lastly, MGN and my performance was an success. Said by many students at Geneva I was the best performance of the night.

So, I want to encourage you all to have no worries through tough times. Hard work pays off. In my situation I had 3 big things in one day and did fairly well in every situation. Strive for the best and NEVER GIVE UP! After the success comes smiles from all the hard work!