Great news

My life has been very exciting lately. Today i got a haircut. Can you say "relief"? I have had it all chopped off. My main motive for doing this was the junior-senior on friday. I want my hair to look fly! I am so excited about it! I am presenting an award, but I'm not revealing anymore details than what has just been said. Other than that, all the hard work from internship searching has paid off and I have landed an internship where I live in Easley! I am going to be working in the human resources department at Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital. I love the staff that works there, and I used to go to school with the head director's son. The hospital is 5 min. from my house, so I could walk there if I had to! The internship is not going to be paid, but that's not going to be an issue since I will barely use up any gas to get there! I think that it's going to be a blast working there. The experience will look wonderful on my resume for future job opportunities. Anyways, I'm just finishing my semester here at Southern Wesleyan U. As of right now, I have a group paper and presentation, along with two tests left to complete. Speaking of stuff for next year, I have Sigma Delta training tomorrow. My class schedule is looking iffy, so I am concerned about whether there will be a section that Beth Roe can place me in (hopefully one of the Tuesday classes). We'll see.

It's that time of the year

So the end of the year is coming. Projects, homework coming out of the wazoo, woo-hoo! Don't ya just love all the excitement and craziness in the air? Well, my life isn't any different than the rest of ya'lls. I am trying to land an internship in human resources, while finishing up my classes, packing stuff to take home, and helping finalize things for the junior-senior banquet. Simple enough, huh? I'm just glad that I do not have as many tests to take as other people, nor do I have as many papers to finish like other people do. That I am thankful for. The one thing that I am dreading is my last econ. test. That class has not been very easy this semester. You want to talk about a challenge? Analyzing relationships between different factors and variables is definitely a challenege! What's funny is that even though everyone in that class considers me to be the smartest person, it definitely is not evident on the test grades that I've been making! I may speak up alot, ask questions, and give the right answers to the teacher's questions, but I am definitely not the best test-taker one the planet! Oh well, I least my writing skills can compensate for my bad test-taking skills. I could write a paper over a taking a test anyday. That's just the way I've always been. Well, I am going to go for a run. See ya'll later!

School is coming to an end

So school is coming to an end. Can you believe it? ONLY 3 WEEKS left!!!!!!!!! This is just insane to me, but then again I am not having a case of senioritis like the seniors are. That will happen to me in a year (Lord-willing). The question I pose is what will everyone else be doing for the summer? How will ya'll use that time to be beneficial? Will you help others out? Start a Bible group? Work to get some extra spending money? As far as I am concerned, I have yet to know about a local internship opportunity. The lady at People's National Bank has yet to call me or Mr. Mahony back. I met with Mr. Mahony yesterday and we called over to the Palmetto Baptist Health Center. Of all people that he decided to call, I would have never guessed that he was going to Mark Eisengrein, the development director. I know him! He's an elder at my church, and is a great man of God! Mr Eisengrein said that he would refer me to the human resources department over at Palmetto Health. We'll see what happens. Talk about a fabulous opportunity that could arise. I live 5 minutes away from the hospital. In fact, I could take a 20 minute bike ride to get there if I had to! Well, me and Mr. Mahony prayed about it after we were done talking. I guess it's all up to God as for what my summer plans will be. He may have intended for the doors to my other internships such as Food Lion to be shut, but maybe He'll have an opening for me somewhere else!

Hey everyone!

Hey ya'll! I hope that everyone has been doing well. It's that time of the year when everyone is busy with their schoolwork, etc. Fortunately, I am not so bad off in that area. Ya'll probably hate me now that I've said that. Oh well....anyways, I am having a movie night tonight with Tietje, Matt, and Cliffton. It should be fun. I never get to see them on Tuesday night because I got the Huddle House with everyone else. I guess they don't connect with everyone that goes to the Huddle House. I do know that Tietje is with his fiance, Matthew is doing homework, and Cliffton is doing who knows what. Anyways, I still want an internship in human resources. I do not want to waste another summer working at an hourly wage job. Internships are going to give me the practical experience that I am going to need when I go out into the work force. The problem is that I can't get the human resource people at any of these businesses to pick up the phone and talk to me. What is the issue with everyone?! I just want to talk to ya'll! So much for having clear communication with possible people that I may work with. Interpersonal Communication class has taught me this. I have to learn how other people communicate. Maybe these people have a very relaxed manner about communicating matters to one another. Maybe they do not and just do not want to talk to me. Whatever the case may be, I just want an answer!!!!!

more random thoughts

Well, I have tried writing down my thoughts on this blog before I go to bed, and it's been working. I get good sleep and I don't stay awake having anxious thoughts. Let me tell you what's on my mind right now. I am continuing working on my gender issues paper about eating disorders. I finally got a professional to answer my interview questions, and that has been a great asset. Praise the Lord! The paper is five pages long: I can write five pages easily. I am a writer-type person. As for human resources, I need to get two professionals to respond to my interview questions. Why can't people be more responsive to these things? It's like I have to hound them to get anything done. Speaking of getting things done, I attempted to set up an advising meeting with Dr. Moore and my mom. Guess what his response was? A regurgitation of what Joe Brockinton told all the Business students: the memo for the advising workshop. Dr. Moore, my mom and I want to talk with you personally. I am not going to get that attention from you at this workshop, and I don't appreciate you being impersonal in your response. On a totally different note, I hope that you are getting better Professor Bedsole. Whatever the illness, I hope that you don't get out of commission for too long. I thought that flu season and the stomach virus were gone by now, but apparently there is something still lurking around at SWU. I better stay clear, because my life is already crazy as it is. Speaking of crazy, my parents had to borrow my car because they were having issues with their cars. Now my car is having issues too! What is my world coming to? Oh well, at least I have the weekend to look forward to with Sigma Delta training. I am excited about that!

Blogging my thoughts before bedtime

The last few nights I've been up at different times of the night with thoughts in my head that keep me from sleeping. Thus, I have lost sleep due to doing this. Well, it just so happens that it is wellness week here at Southern Wesleyan, and I got to meet Tiffany Martin, the speaker in chapel today. She suggested that in order to better aide my situation, I should write my thoughts out before going to bed. Well, here is what's going on in my brain right now. I want to get my papers for Gender Issues and Human Resources done, but none of my people references that I need are available. I can't get anyone to pick up the phone at these places I call to speak with the right people. Is that too much to ask? I think not! It's just frustrating to know that I can be so close to getting these things accomplished, but I can't because I am lacking a few resources. As for my plans for tomorrow, I'm not sure if I'm going to Chris' church for the revival. It will be an interesting experience as I haven't seen a real Pentecostal service. haha. I have an interview with Beth Roe or Samantha Wilson tomorrow (not sure which one it is). I am hoping that goes well and I won't be too nervous. After all, I have been a Sigma Delta before and I do have the experience and edge over the new people that are trying out for it.

P.S.

P.S.-
Just to let everyone in Interpersonal Communications know, I am doing my movie project on the movie, "Mr. and Mrs. Smith" with Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. I have officially declared it.

Blogging

Yes, I am writing a journal entry about blogging in general. I like the idea of blogging. I like that you can express your feelings in writing without having to say them verbally. With that being said, the possibility of what you write down can be exposed to people that you want to read it, and people that you don't want to read it. Even if you fake what you say in a blog, people can still take what you are saying the wrong way. Readers may get confused about who the real person is that is writing the blog and not just a fake. Additionally, blogging can hurt other people. People may get offended by what soemone says in a blog and take it the wrong way. The way a person words something can bring on many different connotations to the meaning. Therefore, I think that we should be honest in what we say. I think that we should not change ourselves to be accepted by others, but we should be honest about what we are really like. Being hypocritical is always worse than being truthful, regardless of how bad something is. If you say you do something, then act the opposite of what you say, then you are living the life of a hypocrite. In the context of blogging, you are a hypocrite if you write down thoughts about yourself and your life that supposedly true, but turn out not to be true in real life.

Rejection

Well ya'll, it happened: I got rejected. The person who was going to room with me in the fall decided that he wants to live in the apartments. Now I have no one to lie with. I need a roommate: I don't have enough money to live in the apartments. Oh well, I guess I'll see what happens. It's a tense time at this time of year as people try to figure this dilemma out. Who they want to live with, who they don't. People try to find other people to live with who have similar interests, friendships, bed times, etc. However, the worst thing that could happen is that I get put with a transfer. Not all transfers are bad. Some of them are actually cool. God brings some really cool people to this school. However, some people that come here are clearly not here for the right reasons, and if I have to live with transfers next year, then I do not want to live with bad kids. I guess I should just pray to God about it. After all, all my issues should go to Him first. He is the priority in my life. It is a busy time in my life right now, but I'm going to sit back, relax, and enjoy the ride. Who knows what's in store for me next!

Losing contact with old friends

I have been so busy lately. In fact, I just realized that I have not contacted any of my friends from high school since winter break. What a terrible friend I am?! Horrible, ole' me! However, I guess it makes sense because I am in college and I am making new friends, along with spending time with people at college. Sometimes, I feel like I get so caught up with stuff related to schol that I loose track of what is really important. What is really important? Is is making the grades and doing well? Or is it keeping in touch with family, friends, and most importantly, God. I can't remember the last time that I had a quiet time with God. How sad is that. It seems like what happens is that I go on spiritual retreats and get pumped up and motivated to worship God. I have an emotional breakdown, and then I read my Bible for a few days, and then it goes away. I guess you could say that my spiritual life is at a low point right now. I really need to work on that. I have two days off from school this Friday and Monday, so maybe I can work on that some more. After all, we are not promised to live everyday. God has plans for our lives, and He may have an agenda that is different from mine.

Sorry!

Okay, so I haven't been on this blog thing in forever. All of ya'll must be so heartbroken (as well as the situation with my grade for this portion of the class =(. Anyways, let me update ya'll on my life up to this point. Currently, I am looking for a summer internship in human resources. I have been going on the internet and searching for different options, but unfortunately the majority of them are out of state. This means that I will have to inquire about housing (and at a relativley good price for a broke college kid too). However, the good news is that I can always look for jobs here in the area. I may not get compensated for doing intern work, but the experience is more valuable than the pay anyways! After all, the experience is what gets you better jobs which give you better pay. I think that makes a whole lot more sense to me! Anyways, aside that, I am finishing up projects for my classes. It seems like I am so close to the end of the semester that I can also feel it. I am excited about the Junior/Senior banquet. I need to get my vest to go with my tuxedo for it. Heather, the friend that I am going with, says that her dress is a pixie blue, which goes great with me. Also, there is talk around campus about housing next fall. To think about it, the options are not that great for the upperclassmen: you only have Mullinax or the apartments to choose between. Big decisions, huh? Not only that, but you can only have doubles first semester in the dorm, where I live now. Me and Matt are rooming together, but we'll have to join on with two other guys, so that's that. Well, I think that I've said enough for now. Bye!

Giving presentations

I think that I do very well at giving presentations. However, there are definitely some downfalls that I have when doing them. First of all, I don't enunciate my words nearly enough. In order for people to enjoy what you are presenting, they must understand what you are saying. I also blank sometimes when I present. I loose track of what I am saying and I do not make any sense unless I can get back on track. When that happens, it's just a whole bunch of mumble jumble that comes out of my mouth. One other thing that comes into play is that my accent can really be a hindrance. Being that I am a Southern boy, my twang in my accent makes it hard for people to understand what I am saying sometimes. I think that when I'm under stress, my twang comes out the most, regardless of what the situation is. To be honest, I really do not know why this is. Maybe it happens because I feel that I really need to express myself in order to get my point made. Maybe it's an inborn trait that I received from my Savannah, GA-born mother. Who knows?! Regardless of what the flaws are, presentations are just a part of life that we can constantly improve on to make ourselves look better to others.

My intenship

So I am really excited abou this internship possibility that I may have with Food Lion this summer. I am finishing everything up to get my application packet sent off in the mail and ready to go. Unfortunately, I do realize that I am giong head-to-head with some competition for these spots. Alot of these kids are going to be just as good as me in terms of extracurricular and grades; if not better. If I get selected for an interview, I am really going to have to step up my game. PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE! The only thing I am concerned about right not is getting my statement of interest polished and my recommendation letters from faculty members in the mail. After all, the due date is the Monday that we get back from spring break. In the end, even if I don't get this internship, it's not the end of the world for me. There are other opportunities out there for me. I just have to find them. The reality is that Americans live in a very competitive society. We like to do our best and go for the gold! Sometimes, I feel like I lose sight about what really matters: God. Why I should I worry about life if God already has a plan? After all, He is my Creator. It should be more about what HE wants and not what I want.

Spring break

So, spring break is coming up and I am excited! I am going down to Miami to visist my relatives (maybe even catch a tan: not). I have not been out of South Carolina on my break since a year ago when I went to London, and I think that it will definitely be refreshing for me. After all, Florida is warm all year long! To be honest, I'm not sure if I'm going to relax more or do more homework. I do have a paper and an outline due for two different classes a week after we get back. Well, thinking about that just answered my question: homework would be a definite "yes" while I'm down in Cuban land. I am just as excited for kids at SWU who are going overseas to Azerbaijan and London. What cultural experiences those will be! I have been giving advice to the people going to London about what to pack, what to do and not do while you are over there, etc. I just love talking about it because it brings back all the fun memories I had when I went to London. After all, it was the first time I had been over the Atlantic Ocean in my life (not to mention the first non-U.S. country that I have visited besides Canada!). Even though our break is coming at a time when we are freezing and cold from the blustering wind and rain, I am relieved that we have it. To be honest, I do not know any other schools in the country that have a break as early as ours. I guess not everyone can have the same break. Otherwise, the places that everyone goes would be jammed pack and inaccessible.

Culture

Discussing culture in one of the previous classes really interested me. Sometimes, I feel like we get so caught up in thinking that everything should be Americanized that we lose sight of respecting other cultures. We are not the only country that exists in the world! There are other other cultures. For example, as Americans, we think that in order to survive, we have to compete and be succesful. However, in countries such as Japan, loyalty and trust is valued more highly than competition. On the other hand, there are some American principles that are pretty standard worldwide. A great example is time for business meetings and appointments. Just about every culture that I know of considers being on time to business-related functions a must. On the other hand, not all countries consider being on time to a recreational function a must. In many European countries, when people get together for a party, even though the party may start at a certain time, people don't show up for the party till much later. In a way, this is an American concept too as people think it is the cool thing to show up fashionably late at an event and not be on time (unless you are coordinating the event, that is!). God made each culture different and unique. In order to love one another, we must be respectful of cultural differences across the world. On one final note, this is true for gestures. A good example is "giving the bird" or "flicking some one off." In america, it is represented by sticking up the middle finger. However, in Germany, flicking someone off can be done by showing the "peace sign." So when you travel or go to places with different cultures, please have a general understanding of what the culture is like and do not do something taboo.

Interviewing.......

Today I met with my intern coordinator to talk about internship possibilities. I told him that I thought that it would be practical for me to get advice on writing resumes and interviewing for internships. In terms of interviewing, he told me that I needed to work on my eye contact and not be so tense. Me? TENSE?! Since when have I ever been tense? I consider myself to be one of the most carefree people in the world. I guess all this tension with the homework for my classes has gotten to me lately. I need to cool it and not be so task-minded. As for the eye contact, I did tell him that I kept looking at the clock in his office because of a class I was going to have (this class actually!). Ironically enough, I have been told that sometimes I give too much eye contact and I stare at an individual too intensely. I'm just a messed up person. I guess I just need to not come off so tense and not be so intense in my eye contact. It's all about balancing out the extremes: not doing too much or too little of something. My personality doesn't help much either as I tend to be an overachiever. I am really starting to feel drained as I write this.....a nap or a massage could really benefit me right now.

Busyness

Lately, it just seems like I've been so busy. Honestly, it's probably just me being an overachiever. I do not like to procrastinate on anything that I'm assigned. Procrastination is something that abosolutely drives me up the wall. It's either that or the fact that I've actually been doing the assigned readings for my classes this semester. Who would have thought that reading might actually help me do better? That does sound retarded now that I think about it, but then again I am processing my thoughts as I write. I never thought that I would say this, but some of the stuff that I am learning is actually interesting. For example, I actually look forward to reading for my human resource management class because I find it to be interesting material. No offense to any of the material that I had to study for my general education courses, but I find my classes that are related to my career more interesting. After all, why do I care about the cell division process in Biology if I am a business major?! General education classes are for the benefit of laying foundations for future classes, so I guess I can see why we have to take them. I mean, how can we effectively write papers for upper-level courses in our majors if we do not learn how to in Freshman English?

I'm feeling better

The sickness is basically gone! YAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My voice is still improving, but other than that there are no issues that I'm facing. One interesting that I noticed is that I lost weight while I was sick. This usually only happens when I get a stomach virus. I guess since I was taking in less food than usual, this makes sense. I was eating soup and Jello for lunch and dinner for two days straight.....go figure. I'm actually hungry for real food. It's always interesting for me to make the transition from soft food back to real food. It feels awkward at first, but you gradually build yourself back up to eating real food. I have heard that a good percentage of the students over at Clemson are suffering from illnesses similar to mine. Whether it's the actual flu or a touch of it, illness has been in the news lately. All I can say is that my heart goes out to people like me who have been suffering from the "Carolina Crud" or are just now starting to suffer from it. My advice to anyone who is feeling sick: go out and buy food and ginger-ale, get a heating pad (since your back will be sore from lying down all the time), get some advil and decongestant medicine, and have some wet cloths ready when you burn up from fever. I just love to be the bear of bad things in life! (lol.)

I'm sick.....

I can't believe it has happened. The past two days I've had a fever off and on, chills (which I absolutely hate), and my back is sore when I lay down to long. I believe that this is referred to as the "Carolina Crud." My voice even sounds like a garbage disposal (boo hiss). Why did this have to happen to me? I guess I just have the luck of catching any contagious, especially the stomach virus. If you have that, then don't even bother coming in my direction. The point at which I have the stomach virus is when I'd rather be dead than alive. Apparently, I'm not the only one suffering from this calamity. When I went to see the nurse the other day, there were at least three other people with the same thing. Ya'll better watch out: there's a plague at SWU! I do have to admit that this is a first time experience for me at SWU. Hopefully it won't happen again. There are two things that I will do from here on out to prevent this "crud": put on hand sanitizer, and get eight hours of sleep a night. Will I be able to stick to this new plan, or will I yet again fail and get the infamous "crud"? We'll have to see.......................................

How life has been

Well, I can say that lately, life has been not been a breeze for me. In fact, it's more like a hurricane. I go from one event to another, and it seems like it never stops. However, I am gretful for the things that are going on in my life right now. I am making steps towards a career in human resources. I have been calling up professionals, applying for internships, and I'm even going to interview for an internship this week! There is just so much out there, but I need help limiting what I want to try to do (not to mention that Googling doesn't really slim down my options.) Regardless of all the busyness, I need to not lose hindsight of God and what is doing for me. He is opening doors and opportunities to network and connect. It's just unfortunate that I haven't been able to talk to Him much lately. Wow, I'm a loser. I need to try to straighten that out. I can do all the studying and working in the world, but God is what matters the most. He put me here on earth to fulfill His glory: regardless of my internship possibilities and shadowing human resource professionals.

An off-day

Today has been very-off and different for me. First of all, I normall get up at 8:15 in the morning to get ready for the day. Guess what? That didn't happen for me today. I swear that I had set my alarm clock on my cell phone for 8:15 a.m. , but I must have slept through it; not to mention the fact that yesterday I could have missed my 8:00 class if my roommate hadn't woken me up. The irony is that my alarm clock that is plugged into the wall was not set, yet it went off earlier in the morning. How in the world is that conceivable? Very weird. My eating habits get off too when I miss breakfast in the caf. I am the type of person who has to have breakfast related food regardless of how late I wake up. You can just imagine me eating oatmeal and peaches at 11:45 in the cafeteria. In fact, I was even telling people "Good morning." I surely was not "with-it"!With the power going out early in the morning yesterday and this happening, I'm wondering if this week will ever become more normal.

The type of person I am

I am a random person. I can come up with odd thoughts at the drop of a hat. I may say something that is completely unrelevant to a discussion at hand. For example, me and my cousin were talking about our favorite foods the other day, and I told her that this guy I went to high school with likes her and has a picture of her in his locker at school. How can someone go from a conversation about food to romantic interests? Hmmmm.....anyways, my random actions include not only weird conversations, but how I act when I'm out on errands. The other day in the grocery store, I started busted out the song "Hot Stuff' by Donna Summers. Yeh, one could imagine me acting like a disco star in the local Bilo (haha). I guess that along with my random self, I come off as an extraverted person too. I like to be around people, and not by myself. However, I do occasionally like to do stuff and not tell anyone what I'm doing; this could also mean that I am an adventurous person. Up to this point, you can see that what I am saying is not making sense; thus, contributing to my random part of my personality once again. I apparently have trouble being coherent and making sense, which I really need to work on. The warning signal for this that I get from my friends and family is one phrase: "What?" I want to improve this facet of my life and be able to be understood better by others. In conclusion, I hope that this entry has made some sort of sense to you. I have definitely become more aware of myself by writing down these thoughts.