PERSPECTIVE Perspective is everything. You can look at what other people are going through and think that you understand what they are going through. But most of the time you will not truly understand the fact of what they are going through until you get out of your comfort zone.
“Rather than love, than money, than fame, give me truth.” Walden
Valentine's Weekend Since Laura and I had to spend Valentine's Day with School and Work, we decided to take a quick trip to Southern Utah, and then to Las Vegas. The weather wasn't as warm as we would have liked it, but definitely a fun trip. The first of many trips this year. I am excited for our travels coming up this year, we have 2 big ones planned so far, but we will see what happens. I also made this video just for fun.
Changes Lots and lots of changes have been going on, Laura recently went on a trip to Asia, where she visited Singapore, Vietnam, Taiwan, Hong Kong, South Korea, Japan, and Shanghai. After all of that her boat got delayed, and her and her family missed their flights, so she ended up getting back 3 days before our wedding. But the wedding went off without a problem. Super fun day, with lots of great memories. After the wedding we were able to get to Tropic Utah safely, and spend an awesome weekend near Bryce Canyon National Park. We are just now getting situated in our house in Salt Lake City, but looking forward to changes.
OH AND FOR MY BIRTHDAY WE WENT SKIING AT BRIGHTON
Life Update
So it has been a while since I have updated my blog and there has been quite a bit happen. First of all I will be getting married in January, I got the opportunity to travel to Portugal, which will not be my last visit to Europe, as well as got to propose in Portugal.
Small Things
I am usually a very private person. Most people don't know what is going on in my life, or even where I am living. The first part is not by choice, the second part is just circumstances. But I do feel strongly about this topic. I have recently been going through some personal struggles, I won't go into detail, but lets just say I didn't understand what was going on, or why I felt the way I did. I thought it was normal. But one thing I have found that keeps me going is the small things, just finding my favorite hat to wear, or hearing a song that I forgot about that makes me happy. Below pictured are some things that have helped me. The first picture (to the right) is my friend Morgan, and what she is holding is a saying we joke about a lot. Especially on Sunday Nights, when I was not in school and everyone would be in school it would usually be about 11:30 and I would say that reminding everything that they have school tomorrow. But that saying has become more important to me as time as gone on. That even when I am having struggles one more sleep, and then it might be a better day. The next picture (middle) is her cat. I HATE cats. But there is something calming about Bear. Even when he bites. But it taught me to appreciate just holding an animal. The last picture is my friend Brandy and I on a trip to Victor ID. It was a small trip, but lots of good conversation, and that is what is important. Brandy is one of my most unlikely friends because of how we met and where we met, a girls apartment at BYU-Idaho. Most guys usually try to out alpha male each other in those situations, but me and and Brandy were just chill from the beginning. So to sum this blog entry up, its the small things that can bring happiness. You never know where they will come from or how long they will last so its just important to some them in while you can.
New Year New Me We hear this term every year, some people say it jokingly while others use it as a real motivation. In years past its been jokingly for me, but this year its real. Last year was less than ideal. But still a lot of great things happened. Met a lot of great people. Graduated College. Learned a lot more about myself. So for now my over all message of this blog post is to have a history of my goals for this year. My most important goal is Stay Stoked! This is my motto/ goal for the year. There is always something around the corner, something rad that will happen if you keep trying. So people remember things will get better, ups and downs will come, but over all its a good time. The pictures listed below sum up my goals for the year. Eat Cleaner, Travel more, and STAY STOKED!
Learning through Adversity In this past year I have had so many different learning experiences. I feel like I have had so many experiences compacted into this year. And at the time I couldn't see a happy ending. But now looking back on it I have come to realize that something you have to learn the hard way. Because it makes you a stronger person, and sometimes it either makes you or breaks you. You decide to do the harder right rather than the easier wrong. Then you look back and see that everything happened exactly as it should. Last Sunday I bear my testimony, I have not done this in 5 years. It started out that I wanted to give other people the opportunity to go and then as time went on I went through some trials, and didn't feel like it. But on Saturday I actually got the feeling that I needed to do this. I could barely sleep, and all through Sunday morning I felt the same. As I got up there, I didn't really know what to say, but I just talked about God's love and don't stop doing the little things. Then sat down quietly, I didn't think really anything of it. After Sacrament, an older lady sitting by me looked at me and thanked me for my testimony, and mentioned how much she needed that. Things don't just happen, they happen for a reason. Stay Grateful my friends.
Grateful Lots of things have happened since I last wrote in my blog. I lost my job, I got a new one 3 days later, and had some adventures. But the one thing I have kept on my mind is that I need to be more grateful. There is always something to be grateful for you in your life, and its just important to keep those things in mind. Trials in our lives only make us stronger. Learning to be content being alone makes you stronger. So to anyone who reads this keep in mind that trials make us stronger and we can learn from them. Grateful for my friends. Grateful for my family.....Also looking through old pictures helps anything.
ColoRADo I feel like the best way to get to know yourself is to travel. Getting out of your normal circumstances can change everything. Seeing new people and new places can really change your outlook. I recently had the opportunity to travel to Colorado for a little bit. Now its not far, but it was far enough. We started out the day by leaving at 7 pm. Driving straight to Ridgeway State Park arriving around 1:30 AM, which his just past Eldridge Colorado. We got up the next morning and continued our trip to Telluride Colorado. Telluride is a place I want to live someday. Everything looks really nice, and is just a cool atmosphere. Definitely a place I would put high on my list to visit again. Then we went from there to spend the next night at Mesa Verde National park, which is another thing I would put high up on my list to visit again. In my opinion one of the most under rated national parks. We finished our trip by spending the last day and night in Moab, UT. That is one of my favorite places to revisit, I feel like there is always something new to explore there. So to finish this GO SOMEWHERE,DO SOMETHING, AND GET OUT.
CLICK ON PICTURE FOR BIGGER BETTER VIEWS
Lessons Learned Well the day has finally come, Graduation Day. I decided not to walk in any graduation ceremonies, but I still felt very much apart of it. It was a great experience to see a lot of people who have worked so hard for something for a while. You could feel it on campus. The whole campus had a different energy today. I am grateful for all of the lessons I have learned from this University. Even though not all were good, and some were worse than bad. They have made me a better person, a stronger person, and that is something that I will be always be grateful for.
Been really busy lately finishing school and such but here are some pictures that I took a while back of home. Home is a special place to everyone but I feel like mine was a very different place. You were close to a larger city Salt Lake City, or complete country where I grew up. So it was a good hybrid of experiences. I feel blessed for getting to grow up in such a place where there was so much to do. So here is a little bit of it.
Mt. Nebo, Mona, UT
Burraston Ponds, Mona, UT
Burraston Ponds, Mona,UT
Don't let possessions possess you.
*Some recent thoughts I have on life* Lately I have been thinking about unhappiness, or discontent in and with our lives. One thing that comes to mind is objects. A lot of times we let these things possess us. The best times of my life was while I was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. There were a lot of different variables that went into why that was the happiest point of my life. But looking back on that experience I think one of the determining factors was the amount of possessions I had. I could fit my whole life into two suitcases. There is just something about doing more with less. I believe that is one of the keys to life. I would love to get back to that point in my life. So to whoever reads this take a quick moment to self examine your life, and look at what you own, and what owns you. I did that today, and I feel so much more at peace with things coming up in the future. Happiness is a choice. There is always the argument of depression, but there is always the choice to seek help, that is still a choice. So make the sacrifices to be happy. Wether its cutting out toxic people out of your life, or making yourself be less toxic to others. I know that is something I have had to work on, making myself less toxic to others. To my friends hope you have many wonderful days, and to my "enemies" I hope you do to. Because when you hold feeling of discontent or malice it really only hurts yourself.
Pettiness never was Happiness
One thing I have learned so far this year is the simple truth above. We can all benefit from remembering this simple thing. Remembering to get outside of ourselves and look at all the great things we have in our lives. Pettiness is a disease or a virus the spreads, and only creates negativity. I have met some amazing people in the last 5 months that have helped me more than they know. It simple ways they have helped me to re-discover who I am. There are so many people in this world, so many people to meet, and influence for the better. Its might just be a bad day, but not a bad life. Something that has helped me personally is finding hobbies that are my own. Either photography, weightlifting, or just listening to music by myself. But I believe that one of the true secrets to life is learning to be content with being by yourself. If anyone reads this I would appreciate some feed back on it. If you liked my blog, if i should keep doing it. If its trash. Or just talk of general philosophy is always appreciated.
PAST YEAR < NEW YEAR
This last year has been difficult to say the least. More difficult than many people know. Its not that I had terrible circumstances happen to me, or that I had physical injuries. But I lost who I was. I put too much faith in other people, and not enough faith in myself. I started to care too much about what other people were doing, and not enough about what I was doing. I got lost in caring too much for others, or more caring for things that are out of my control. So for a while I stopped. But the problem was I stopped caring about everyting, people, school, objects. I hid it for a while, but eventually I couldn't really hide it anymore. I didn't care about anything really. And in a strange way I felt like I had been thrown away. Like I wasn't important so why is anyting else? I still struggle from time to time, but nothing like I was. Luckily I met some great people recently who helped me through things. I can't really thank them enough for all the texts, or conversations. But I hope they realize how much they have really helped me. And I hope you know who you are, and how much you helped save me. I know those people helped me so much, but another thing that ended up helping me in a very strange way was music. I was sitting on my friends floor listening to a record. I record that influenced my life in a major way. I was sitting on the floor and suddenly I remembered who I was and am. Along with this realization I understood where all these feelings stemmed from. They come from trying to make others happy ahead of my own, and trying to be what people thought I should be not who I was. Once I realized this I started to remeber things that I like because I like them, not because other people do. Most of all not to impress girls, if they don't like me for who I am now, then that is their loss. I use to think that is what people said just to help other people feel better, but now I know it is real. So heres to looking to the New Year, and leaving behind negative thoughts, and negative people.