Tiny Adventures

I'm home for the weekend and that  means I got to help decorate the house for Christmas. When I was a kid, I LOVED setting up all the decorations. Still do! So I went out to the shed to get the various boxes and lo and behold: I found my brother's longboard. It sat there and mocked me for being a chicken and never taking it for a spin.

Ok, so I don't board. At all. I was always jealous of people who were good at any type of boarding activity, my brother being one of them, but I was bad at it. I wondered if I only thought I was bad at it, though, because had I ever actually tried it? Not really. When I was a kid, I'd hop on my brother's skateboard and then get scared that I'd lose my balance so I never really gave it a chance. 

So I dusted off that old longboard and started inching down the driveway. Then I took it to the sidewalks and the street, too. I lost my balance. I had to jump off of it a lot to avoid mailboxes. I looked stupid. Yeah, I still kind of sucked, but not as much as I thought I was going to suck. I tried something new and that's cool because trying new things helps you grow and I am all about growth. And you know what? I saw myself improve and learn things about it in less than 15 minutes. 

Anyway, I had a few ulterior motives for riding the longboard for the first time, but one of them was that my accounting class is requiring me to write a paper about my experience going on an adventure/doing something I normally wouldn't do. So I thought about it and realized that adventures don't necessarily have to mean you're going to the mountains or the open sea or something. They can take place in your own driveway, at the dinner table, or in your own head. I think that the act of trying something new is an adventure in itself. Just experiencing things for the first time is so cool and it's adventurous to get a little outside your comfort zone.

There's a Universe Inside of You

You know that inspirational picture of an iceberg that shows the top part that you see above water and then the massive part that you can't usually see underwater? Well, that's a real thing. I remember my life science teacher had it hanging on the wall when I was in seventh grade. If you don't know what I'm talking about, look up "inspirational iceberg picture" in Google and you'll understand. I could post it here, but I'm feeling lazy.

Ok, now you know what I'm talking about because you looked up the picture. Well, people are just like icebergs. The surface that most people see is only a tiny fraction of the entire iceberg. You have no idea how big that iceberg actually is when you see it's little peak floating along in the water. You have no idea how big a person's personality and thoughts and emotions are just by looking at them.

I was driving around town with a friend I hadn't seen in about a month and we were just catching up, and I realized that I didn't know him as well as I thought I did. In those few hours, I kept learning new things about him and realizing quirks about his personality that had never occurred to me before. I couldn't believe how little I actually knew about this person I called a "friend".

I also realized that I am probably an enigma to some people, even my friends and family. They might not realize that I'm an enigma, but I am. I think that of all the thoughts and feelings that go through my head on a daily basis, I express maybe 15% of them to others. I don't realize how little I share because, well, they're my thoughts and feelings and I recognize them silently. But then I start talking about someone or something and I come to the realization that I've kept a lot of those thoughts inside.

People are so complex, it's crazy. There's so much depth in every living soul and that's what gives us so much value. We are God's children so of course we are deep. One of my favorite song lyrics says "there's a universe inside of you" and I need to try to remember that when I'm talking to people. There's so much to know about a person and everyone deserves to feel like they are worth learning about. I'm going to try to express my feelings and emotions a little more, maybe bump it up to 20% or something crazy like that.

Anyway, I'm curious: what percentage of all the thoughts and feelings that run through your head do you think you actually express?

On The Wire

I'm a sucker for a good metaphor. I honestly think you can turn anything into a metaphor for something else if you think long enough.

Well, this week I saw these shoes hanging from a telephone wire, and I love those shoes (Vans Sk8-Hi's).

I was a little tiny bit outraged that someone would throw the best shoes ever over a telephone wire, never to be worn again. But here's my little metaphor for you. Actually wait, this isn't a metaphor, it's more of a life lesson (which is all I ever seem to preach talk about on here). Scratch the beginning of this post, it doesn't have to do with this picture. Or does it? I don't care, you decide.

But ok here is what I actually wanted to say: Maybe the person who threw those shoes over that wire did it because the shoes reminded him of his ex-girlfriend who broke his heart and he never wants to see them again (note: he lives in Salt Lake so he won't be back here anytime soon). Or maybe whoever did it has decided to go against societal norms and never again will wear shoes. Or maybe he is an artist and thought it would be beautiful and profound for only a reason he knows. Or maybe it was a drug dealer indicating that he is selling dope nearby (isn't that what it's supposed to mean?) 

Honestly I have no idea why those beautiful shoes were on the wire. And it made me realize this: we often see what we want to see. I love those shoes so I thought whoever would waste them is a dummy. But we usually don't know someone's full story. We only know our own. If we aren't so quick to judge, we can appreciate the beauty of a person, whatever the situation we're looking at may be. Now that I look at this picture, it looks so melancholy but beautiful at the same time and I love it. If we're not so quick to judge others, we can see their beauty.

Also, here's a survey about these shoes. Who likes 'em?

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/T6LGFT3

Ready or Not?

I'm in Moab, Utah right now with some of my best friends. They went skydiving and I stayed on the ground.

A couple weeks ago, my friend Michaela brought up the fact that it was going to be her birthday soon and she wanted to do something big. Skydiving. I have never ever ever ever wanted to go skydiving. I hate heights. It did not sound like a good time to me so I said that I'd go along, but I was not jumping out of a plane.

So there we are at Skydive Canyonlands at 10:30 am and all my friends are up in the sky and I start to get major FOMO (fear of missing out, if you didn't know). Why was I being such a chicken? When they finally came down, all of them were so stoked on the rush of it all. I was so jealous.

So I decided that I would do it. Not this year, because it is so cold now, but next spring, I plan to.

I think that it's ok that I didn't go this time. I wasn't ready and I might not have enjoyed it because I hadn't mentally prepared myself. But now that I've seen it happen and I actually have the desire to do it, I think I'm ready.

It's ok to not be ready for stuff, whether it be skydiving or whatever you're thinking of right now but feel too scared to do. But once a part of you actually wants to go do that thing you're scared of, you should work up the courage to do it. I don't actually know 100% what I'm talking about because I just realized today that I actually do want to skydive, but I think it's important to do things that you want to do (ya know, as long as it's moral and good and stuff). And doing things that scare you helps you grow.