Sundays at the Arch House

Sundays have become more steadily my favorite day. I feel now that I am older, I realize how much of a physically, spiritually, and mentally rejuvenating day it is. I try my best not to do homework (definitely doesn't always happen that way) and because of this, after church, my roommates and I basically cook and do whatever the weather permits. (:

Sjfkdjfdklsa.

College is hard. This has been my go to sentence this week. Whyyy? I keep telling myself, "you can do hard things," and then it comes time to do them and I'm like, "no I can't!" And then my boss tells me I'm promoted and that I can work 5 extra hours a week and part of me is like "yay, more money" and then another part of me is like "darn, less time and more responsibility." It's good though. And I definitely can't complain because it is a blessing needed and fun to be a part of something bigger at work, but at the same time I wonder, can I really handle this? Throughout my college academics, there have been multiple times when I simply felt like a failure. And I don't want to feel that way anymore. I'm finally getting into my major classes and I don't want to fail. It's one of my greatest fears. But it's one that I've been facing alone and it's hard. College is hard.

Okay, that's all I'm going to whine about today. Because

The G-rand Canyon.

As you can probably already tell, I'm terrible at blogging. I shouldn't be surprised, this is how all of my journal entries are. Long periods of time and then long update entries on life from the past month or so. It's a little exhausting. Maybe I'll get better.

Things have been a little crazy as of late though. Back to school, finalizing schedules, moving in, promotions at work, homework, etc. Life keeps moving. It never stops. One day I'll catch up. Until then I'm hanging on as best I can and trying to enjoy the ride.

So, before I forget amongst other things, the Grand Canyon.

Enjoy:

Rejoice with your family in the beautiful land of life! ~Albert Einstein

Alright. So a lot has happened but I am trying to take it one post at a time.

I'm dying to post all of the pictures from my Grand Canyon road trip adventure with a couple of my great friends but I know that I have to first post about my family break before I forget!

My brother Caleb and his little family of Lisa and Tyce came to visit from Vegas and it was a good time all around. It was good to see them and to take a break from school and mostly work. 

 So, steel yourself, because you are about to be hit with a large amount of photos.

It Never Gets Easier. You Just Get Better.

This statement is false. I walk up the stairs to campus daily, it never gets easier and i still come up breathing three times as hard  as when I started and wishing for an escalator. Besides this though, I suppose it's true (:

Well, summer semester has ended and I can truthfully tell you that I really just don't like school. Which is odd, because I desperately love to learn. I hate the methods surrounding that learning I guess. The ideal learning environment for me would be doing I guess. Traveling for history, experimenting for science, reading for language and so forth. I'm sure this is the true for many others. What I dislike most about school is the fact that you have to go in order to get anywhere in life. You have to have a degree to be anybody. Lately, all I've wanted is to simply drop out. The things that I've learned and wanted in life don't seem to come from a classroom. Especially when loans and so much money are put into it. Why not spend the money instead on an international trip where I'm sure I could learn much more than I ever could at a prestigious university. While I feel that sitting in a classroom learning useless facts isn't the best for everybody, I'm not ignorant to the fact that schooling is necessary for many aspects in life. Maybe I'm just terrible at school and that's why I don't like it? I'll get better. That being said. I do like school in my own ways. I like having purpose that classes give, I like discussions, I like being a part of the mass of people walking towards campus, I like being able to relate to the fellow peer sitting a table over from me at the library who has been there for 6 hours, I like forming relationships with interesting professors, I like understanding ideas and then wanting the whole world to learn what I have just realized, and so forth. Weird.

Anyway, I feel like my posts have been depressing lately. You can call me Negative Nelly today I guess. That will change though. My upcoming post will include my short break and family. Get excited. Because it was relaxing and much needed and fun and just lovely.  

Thoughts

Lately I've been pretty annoyed with social tools and devices. Things such as facebook, twitter, instagram, pinterest, even blogger. It's all so selfish.  I'll admit this now. I'm being a bit of a hypocrite as I have a username and password to all named social mediums. I don't know though. It's just irritating to see so much me me me me posted everywhere. Pictures of yourself, posts for sympathy, pins of things that you want, status updates all intended to see how many "likes" and comments you can get. Is most of the population so insecure about themselves that they need to publicize everything in their life in order to attain attention? Is nothing sacred anymore? Nothing left to mystery?

As I say this, I do realize that these things are all used for good as well though. I just feel that it is being abused and has also created unneeded competition and wasted time. I say this from experience in wasted time and wanting notifications. Like anybody else, I enjoy seeing pictures of friends and their vacations, support groups, humorous posts/pictures, having people "like" my posts, seeing my page views go up. It's fun to see that people are interested in you. But to some extent, it's all fake and superficial. And it's disheartening to see. I can't really put that feeling into words at the moment so interpret it as you will.

Why don't we spend the time doing something worthwhile? Like going the extra mile in school. Or going for a run, planting a garden, folding some clothes, making a nutritious meal, calling an old friend, serving somebody else. Simply focusing on somebody other than yourself.

Once again, I'm being a hypocrite here as I sit at my desk and write this instead of doing some readings for my class. But I had to get these thoughts written out before I let them loose on some innocent bystander such as my roommate or her boyfriend.

Anyway, how about those Olympics? A truly joyful thing to witness. It's a dream of mine to see the Olympics in person. Hopefully one day it will happen. At the moment, my twelve inch laptop screen will have to do. 

Blue skies are coming, but I know that it's hard -- Noah and the Whale

As of late,  this song has been my escape: Blue Skies by Noah and the Whale

Just listen to it. I know you'll love it.