When You Fill Your Life With Why..

So, as many of you know, last week was Spring Break. This week has been crazy, so I didn't really blog about it, but nothing too exciting happened.

The Highlights:

 Driving down and back with Nick: My buddy Nick goes up to UVU, and he's one of the few friends I have that isn't currently on a mission. He and I had a full 12 hours in the car together (between down and back), and it was seriously great! It made the car ride go by so fast talking about movies, rapping along with Snoop Dogg, reminiscing about seminary/high school, and talking about the future. We had SO much fun! 

Jury Duty: That's right, over Spring Break I had to go in and fulfill my civic duty. I ended up getting dismissed after two full days at the court house .While the extra $30 was appreciated, the timing could not have been worse. The LAST way I wanted to spend my spring break was inside a court house in slacks and a collared shirt. 

The Beach: After getting dismissed from Jury Duty, Nick and I went to Zuma/ Point Dume beach. It was SO much fun. The water was far too cold to get in, but we laid out in the sun. And by we, I mean me, because Nick brings umbrellas to the beach. Umbrellas. I mean, I get he's a ginger, but that's like cheating yourself out of the beach. But hey to each their own, right? We hung out, read books, played ukulele, and just relaxed for a few hours. We had a really cool fog roll in out of nowhere, and that's when we decided to head back.  

The fog when it was rolling in

Then within 10 minutes it was EVERYWHERE, and really thick. It was kinda cool. 

The voyage to Loma Linda: Once again, I had to make the 2 hour drive down to Loma Linda, where I got my surgery. I got good news though, I'm all clear to go on my mission again! Once I get home in May, I'm just gonna hit submit! I'm so excited to FINALLY go out! Nothing's stopping me now! :)

Hanging out with Robert: My friend's family is moving into a fix-up house. They were needing some help, so I spent my Friday helping them out. It was pretty fun, and after that he and I hung out at my house and it even turned into a "Oh crap, it's like 1:30. Is it cool if I sleep here?" situation, like our hang outs tend to. 

So that was my spring break. Nowhere near as exciting for fun as last year, but I think I needed a more relaxing spring break this time. It wasn't the Spring Break I wanted, but it was the Spring Break I needed. </nerd> 

So I walk to school because my bike is currently out of commission, and I've been too lazy to fix it. My walk usually takes about 15 minutes to get to my classes in the morning, and about the same to get home. That means that I have 30 minutes  to myself where I can just think. This time has become seriously invaluable with me (that's probably why I have procrastinated fixing my bike). I can think of jokes, focus on relearning the day's lessons, think about life, etc. Since Spring Break I've done a lot of the last one. See while we were driving back, Nick mentioned that he loved Washington State, and that he was considering moving there when he was done with school. We figured out that he would be done with school when I got off my mission, and that made me really sad. I threw out the idea of possibly moving there with him after my mission, and the more we talked about the idea, the more fun it sounded like. I mean, the timing would work out great. I'll have my associate's degree when I leave for my mission, and I could go literally anywhere I wanted to. As he and I considered our "5 year plans" with Washington State included in them, he and I got very excited and it seemed like a good idea. I thought of the possibilities all of spring break. 

But, during my walks, logical me began to over-analyze the possibilities. I wouldn't have a scholarship of any kind, I'd have to worry about out of state tuition, I'd be much further from my family, and what's out there for me, anyway? Basically, I began to look for reasons not to do it, and the biggest question that fit into this category was why. Why would I completely uproot my life with no prospect of a job, leave behind friends and familiarity I have here in Utah, lose my scholarship, etc. The Why has bugged me and nagged at me every walk I've had. Then, finally, on Thursday I came to a bit of a realization. I was asking the wrong question. I was asking Why, when I should be asking why not? I remembered all those cheesy phrases: adventure begins where your comfort zone ends, etc. Then I made one up myself: If you fill your life with "why's", you're filling it with "what if's". I mean, if I were to graduate SUU, get a crappy job I hate, and go through a real rough patch, I think that I would probably keep wondering "what if I'd gone to Washington with Nick." I'd blame myself and be mad because I'd think the grass would be greener on the other side. And maybe it would be, but I'd never know because I'd never seized the opportunity. 

I don't know how that whole situation is gonna play out. A million variables go into it. I have to have my associate's degree before I leave, meaning I pass my math and science classes this semester, Nick has to be single, and move to Washington, I have to be in a financial situation to transfer, I have to figure out the transfer process, price it out, etc. I mean, it is really up in the air. But whether it ends up happening or not, I learned a very valuable lesson that I wanted you all to hear, because maybe it's something that you needed to hear. Maybe it'll make you do something you want to do, or take some offer you'd be inclined to turn down. But stop focusing on the why's, and focus on the why not's. Because I think that it'll make life much more exciting, if nothing else, if we take opportunities that life gives us. 

A Case for the Average

Well, it's 1:30 and I kept tossing and turning which means that I was thinking. So instead of just lying in bed I thought I'd blog my thoughts and feelings, then edit them to make sense in the morning.

Anyway, this is kind of a continuation of a paper I wrote in high school about mediocrity, and why it's not so bad. Lately I've been feeling--you guessed it-- mediocre. Average. Lackluster. Nothing awful, but nothing special. Unabashedly and unapologetically right in the middle. But is that such a bad thing?

I put it to you that it's not. I mean, look at the world around us. For you math people, you study averages like crazy. Ever since third grade we've been finding mean, median, and mode. The unspectacular, average numbers of a series of numbers given to us. As we grow older we are taught to find outliers; these extraordinary numbers that we are supposed to look out for. I couldn't tell you what outliers are because, to be frank, math and I are not on speaking terms. I don't talk about it unless the circumstances dictate, and it does the same courtesy to me. Thus far, the air of professionalism has been appreciated by both sides. But I know that more often than not, we look for averages. We're looking for bunches, groups of things, and the spectacular become suddenly ordinary.

But those are just numbers, right? What about people? I'm the first to admit that I don't like grouping people and numbers together. As I said, I'm not a big math person. I'm a touchy-feely right-side-brained person. I think that assigning numbers to people alienates them and hurts their feelings and makes them worse and blah  blah blah. But I think that in this situation, a case can be made that the same rules apply, and here's why.

We live in a society of averages. We look to actors and astronauts and politicians and sports stars and crazy people to feed our curiosity. We live our boring, mediocre lives. We trudge through the mundane, dreading the boring, and seeking excitement in the unfamiliar. So we look to these human outliers-- exceptional people to spice up the boring day-to-day. But for the most part, 99% of us move through our lives never impacting another 99% of the population. We go unnoticed, and just sit in the middle.

Kinda depressing, right? Well, sure, I guess it certainly could be if you're a glass-half-empty kinda person. Me? I'm not too interested in how much is in the cup-- full empty or otherwise. I figure "hey, I've got this cup with stuff in it. Is it delicious? Is it nasty? If I throw it on somebody, could that be funny? If I freeze it and lick it, would it taste better? Is there a way to market that to any audience and make money?" And that's why I don't sleep at night and instead end up blogging.

Anyway, I think that if you want to be depressed because you're not special, go for it. But here's why you shouldn't be. Ordinary people are those number averages. People focus on them the most, because they comprise most of our human population. I mean, when's the last time you met a famous person? Were they awesome? Did they blow your mind with their self-actualization and wealth of life experience? Or did their breath smell because they didn't brush their teeth and had a bit too much coffee?

But average people, we meet them every day. We pass them on the way to work. We sell them clothes, flip their burgers, celebrate their birthdays, mourn their deaths, babysit their kids, enjoy moments, and makes memories with these Average Joes. All without the notice of 99% of the human population. I've never met a truly famous person, so props to whoever has, but when/if I do, I'm sure I'll tell my kids all about it. I'll show them pictures of me making a funny face next to their exceptionally handsome/beautiful faces, or tell them about how funny this one thing they said was. But you know what else I'll tell my kids? I'll tell them all about my grandparents, my parents, my friends. I'll show them pictures from my high school years, my college years. I'll tell them the story of how I met their mother, the stupid things I did with friends, the sad times, the fun times and the just plain weird times. And you know what? In two or three generations, I'll bet their grand kids won't care less what famous person I ever talked to. They probably won't care much about my high school years, or about my parents or grandparents. But the values that were instilled in me by these average people? They transfer generation to generation. They are branded into our DNA, in our upbringing and how we think.

That's the thing about being average. We as the average are just as essential, if not more so,  those spectacular people. Think of it as a clock: with hundreds of cogs and screws and wood parts and a winder. Most of us have the calling in life of being a cog, just a little piece of the machine. But some of us, a very few. have the lucky life calling of being the guy that gets to wind the clock. They're extraordinary. They make the clock work, right? Because without one of us cogs, the machine would probably be fine. We are replaceable. But without all of us, the winder has nothing to wind. Without many of us interacting together, helping each other, lifting each other up, bein' all average and junk, the winder is sitting there looking like an idiot putting a piece of metal in a non-functional clock. Suddenly, that spectacular dude is looking pretty dumb, right?

So you. Go follow your dreams. Be all awesome and change lives and fix the world and end hunger and stuff. But if you don't... if suddenly you find your world becoming unbearably average, just remember how special being average is. Remember that without us normal cogs, we've got a bunch of stupid clock winders.

All those special people can have their special lives. They can go out there and be voices, and have people look up to them. They can be idolized by millions, and have people hang on their every word. They shoot for the moon, because even if they miss they land among the stars. They jump from the stratosphere and fall to Earth at ungodly speeds. They fly airplanes and dream of great, lofty things. They invent jet packs and hover boards (still holding out for these, actually) and fly with the birds.

Me? I write a blog that 9 people read. I fear the unexamined life, and instead live the thoroughly-examined life. Both my feet stay on the ground, right where they belong. I smile and wave at people I don't know, and have good days and bad days. I tell stories that people laugh at, and laugh when people tell me stories. And you know what? I'm just fine being a cog. Because I'll sit here and work and go unnoticed than to wind a broken clock any day of the week.

Hi, I'm Tommy, and I'm the world's worst blogger

Ever. Ever. EVER.
I only wrote three blog posts (including this one) this summer. You know, summer? That time when you have a crapload of spare time and spend more time wondering what you should do with this gratuitous amount of spare time that you have? Yeah, I blogged three times. The good news is that means this post will be extremely long, and I'll get to catch you up with a series of pictures and a wall of text. Are you ready kids? I can't hear you! OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh,

I live on my couch in my own house. I know, crappy segue, but it was the best I could do, and I love SpongeBob so why not, right? So, this is my biggest story from summer. I've been sleeping on my couch for about a month. Why you ask? Because my room is now occupied by a 17 year old Norwegian girl named Pia. My parents decided to take her on for a full school year, and they have to have their own room. So I've been sleeping on my couch for the past few weeks. It actually hasn't been terrible, except while I've been sunburnt. The couch is leather, so you know that thing where you skin sticks to leather if it's on it too long? Imagine that while you're peeling. Yeah. Gross, right? As well as painful. But honestly the couch is quite comfy, so I can't complain too badly.

And speaking of sunburns, I have had not one but TWO in the past week. In other words, me and the sun are not on speaking terms. He gets the kid this week, I get it next, and we'll just do that until Thanksgiving and Christmas when we can just fight it out. But seriously, it's bad. The first I got last Monday when I went to Sand Hollow with my friends. That one turned my back turned a nice hue of pink, then red, then blistering red. It was my first ever second degree burn! Who said the summer before you mission can't be exciting, huh? Well the second one I just got yesterday. I was refereeing and we get to wear these super-attractive shorts that don't even go to your knees, and the back of my knees got burned hardcore. So now I get the feeling I get to repeat steps 1-3. Whatever they were. 

The next exciting bit of news is that I got the chance to spend what is probably my last week in Utah for two years-- well, aside from my 8 week stint in the MTC that I'll talk about in a minute. Sarah's friend Natalie came out and so Adam, Sarah, Natalie, and myself spent a few days in Cedar, then drove up to Brigham City for the temple open house, then went to a Real Game on Saturday night. We spent the night with my grandparents then went back up to Roy Utah for Adam's Dad's stake conference where Richard G Scott was speaking. It was a real privilege and treat to hear from a member of the quorum of the 12 apostles, as well as to walk through the temple, seeing as how I will be doing that soon. Then I headed back to Cedar, where I got the chance to stay the night with Kaleigh, Dani, Melissa, the Courtneys, and Megan. They were nice enough to let me bum it on their couch for a little bit. That was awesome, because I got to see almost everybody I wanted to one last time. We went to Sand Hollow, celebrated Dani's birthday, had a mini jam session where I pretended I had talent, and best of all just hung out! Being able to just hang out with everybody one last time before I leave was definitely a blessing before coming home and getting a nice bit of news.

Last but certainly not least is that good news: My mission call. I can't believe it's actually here. Ever since I was in primary I've heard about missions, and known how important they were, but it wasn't until January that this process became a real possibility for me. I always thought I would be a missionary, but it didn't actually happen until recently for me. I've really been praying and studying my scriptures and taking steps towards being able to go. And now that my call is here, I am SO excited to leave. I don't look forward to leaving my family, my friends, my lifestyle, my schooling, writing, blogging (what I do of it anyway), practicing my ukulele, and everything else that I enjoy that I'll have to put on hold for two years. But I know that the sacrifice will be worth it. I'm excited to serve the people of the McAllen Texas mission, and I'm excited to learn Spanish. I'm especially excited to go through the temple, to learn the entirety of the gospel of Jesus Christ, and to bask in the happiness it brings when followed in exactness, as well as the opportunity to share it with others. Am I scared? Out of my freakin' mind. But for now my excitement is outweighing my fear, and I'll try to keep it there. 

Anyway, here's a bunch of pictures of the things I've talked about. I hope that you all have had a blessed summer, and that I can keep catching you up until I leave in October. I also hope you'll keep me in your prayers and, soon, your letter list. 

SUU signs!

We hiked Kanarraville falls

Our date to go see Wimpy Kid

The car broke down and we didn't have a jack, so we just took stupid pictures

We finally made it to the temple!

Real game!

Sand Hollow!

Fun pictures! 

We were having a lot of fun in the water

Group photo! 

"Best sides!"

The girls!