"something's watching over me...like sweet serendipity"

To be able to follow an artist's rise to "fame" is something that is great about music. Now, many artists tend to fall once they gain notoriety, or become something they are not. Yet, for some reason, Lee DeWyze seems to have grasped the very nature that made America fall in love with him when he was on American Idol. So, maybe I'm a hopeless optimist, but I think he'll be here a while, and I'll even bet he won't change who he is for the fame.

Class has been kicking my butt lately! It seems like I'm not gaining any motivation to get a head start on assignments, and seem to still be in "break mode" in terms of working on school work. Doesn't help that this week is the first full week of school! But, with some discipline and some motivation from within, this will be a semester to remember. Just maybe no near crash and burns this time? (lol)

One thing I'm really excited for is actually Mondays and Tuesdays. Originally, I thought these days would be kicking my butt in terms of classes and hours, but I may have judged things too early. I've really come to enjoy the classes I have and how each seems to fit me. Now if I can just find that fire that made me succeed late last semester and apply it to the start of this one!

Song of the day: "Sweet Serendipity"-Lee DeWyze

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcEG72N5No8

Dearest 2010, (part two)

So, in the last post I talked to you about how friends and relationships shaped my 2010 a lot. I failed to mention in my last post about a few great friends that have kept with me through everything and I wouldn't be anywhere without them. So, I'll give them a few heads up in here

Ryan Studemeyer: Great friend for many years. Without him, I would be lost and not having a sense of brotherhood that he's been able to give me. And, to make things interesting, he's now volunteered to be my workout partner for 2011. So, someone that takes my quirks and still wants to help me become a better person.

Christian Andersen: A great friend through work, but one who still extends himself to be a friend outside of work as well. There's been many times I've had issues (especially with women) since I've known him where I instinctively text or call him for advice. There have been days where I want to yell at him for being so sarcastic and crass, but it's worth it!

Now, on to the fun topics I promised to talk about: Money and Family

Money: Being the fact that I work in the restaurant business, money isn't predictable for me. I'm thoroughly blessed with parents who still provide for me and still love me enough to continue to do so. The hardest parts where times I didn't manage my money well and would have to resort to having to go to bed after work without eating for fear of spending any money on food. Worst parts would be times where I would come home from work, exhausted and hungry, to find I had no food to eat. Other times, I would happily eat a poptart so that way I could have something in my stomach.

Luckily, in the part of 2010 that I was staying at home or at University Oaks, I was able to better budget my money and was able to take the lessons of living on campus to heart. I'm glad that I was able to take what I learned and applied it to my spending habits. Now if I can just stop spending so much on music and video games....hmmm

Family: I try to live by the idea that "blood is thicker than water", in that my family is my pulse. Without my family, I wouldn't have anything left that would be tangible and secure. My family, God bless them, has their issues. But, as all great families do, we work through them all and still find some way to make everything we do together special. I'm blessed beyond belief that in 2010 my family got to help me through some things, which in turn helped me become more open with my parents. The best part was getting off my chest some issues of my past that I wanted so badly to tell them, but was so scared I would diminish in their eyes. But, my parents continued to shower me with love and made me realize that family is forever. "Can't live with them, sure as hell can't live without them" (as my professor told me once regarding family)

So, part two of my letter to 2010 is done. I still got more to go, albeit a short little debriefing on everything left that I have yet to touch on. Part three I'll talk about some memorable moments and what changes I have planned for 2011. Expect that entry sometime this weekend or maybe next weekend, but no promises. School starts soon and that is priority number one

Song of the post: "Song for the Broken"-Close Your Eyes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AR2wJ_2Xd_Q

One of my favorite bands that I discovered in 2010. Hope to see them soon live in SC or somewhere near here

Dearest 2010, (part one)

You were a year that brought change. You were a year that brought me down, brought me back up, became the epitome of a roller-coaster. You made everything in my life amazing at times, but then brought me back to places I didn't want to go. So, in honor of it being 2011, I feel necessity to pay respect to you and talk about what all went down

Friends: While I still lived on campus at USC, I had basically no friends near me. Ya, I had friends that were from work or those that lived near campus. But, once my roommates became workout and all night study addicts, I was screwed. Well, there was only Marques, but he rarely left his room! I may have become reclusive, but, I was more focused on my studies than anything. I'll get to how this affected my studies later

Come summer time, I was more focused on working and then the mission trip than anything. I would enjoy the nights out with friends at the local bars and such in Irmo, but past that it wasn't much of anything. I think the best nights were times I spent with friends just doing almost nothing.

Once I moved into my apartment downtown, my work friends were a lot closer. Plus, a lot of times I'd go to parties or host them, since I was downtown and away from campus. The best part was being able to just sit around and just chill before going to football games. Some of my best memories were hanging around with friends and just enjoying football season. Tailgating in the cold was not a great idea!

Love: If any year was not mine for any consistent relationship, 2010 was the epitome of that concept. For me to have a stable relationship wasn't seeming to be an attainable idea. After five tries, things never did work out for me.

Ya, ya, ya. Call me a man ho or whatever you want. The five ladies listed were from August through December of 2010. Two were just one time flings that I partially regret. One was one where I thought we would be a great couple, but it didn't turn out. One is a friendship that teeters on the ledge of more daily it seems. Another was one that was a relationship that lasted a couple of weeks but ended miserably for me.

So, that's part one of my letter to you 2010. I've got more for you. Specifically, I've got my thoughts on money and family. For now, here's one of my favorites songs in 2010 for whomever reads this

Song of the post: "Afterlife"-Avenged Sevenfold

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HIRNdveLnJI

You can thank Josh Schultz for getting me addicted to these guys

Back to the apartment!

So, I decided to do something sporadic. I decided to move back into my apartment a little ahead of the schedule I had previously planned. It's quiet around here right now, even with the new roommate. But, I'm liking the quiet right now. It's giving me a chance to move away from a lot of other things.

The hardest part for me with living at home was balancing work, family, and social time. I feel like I was cheated out of my break by Ruby Tuesday, as I was scheduled to work Tuesday-Saturday two weeks in a row. But, all in all, my break went pretty well

• My 22nd birthday!
• Christmas
• New Years
• Meeting new people at work, while still reconnecting with old friends

So, even though break is still "going on" I feel like a lot of what I was planning on doing for break is probably close to coming to a close. I'll post a separate entry of my recap of 2010, and I'm thinking it will be a good one since I've taken time to analyze what people have put in their entries on different blogs.

Song of the day: "Waiting for the End"-Linkin Park

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5qF_qbaWt3Q

I've been waiting far too long for good music like this from these guys