About an hour ago I read a great post by Kami Huyse that spoke my heart.
A topic that has been coming up quite a bit in conversations with my friends lately has been centered around the idea of interdependence. It started when my friend Nick Millar talked to me about his positive impression of Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Two chapters in, the idea of interdependence spoke to him the most. That excited me. It actually amped me to the point of being unable to sleep because another person started to believe what I want to shout on the rooftops. We’re nothing without community! It's the belief that has shaped my life.
Kami said something great in her post I want to highlight: “If we are completely honest with ourselves we will readily admit that we need others to succeed.”
I hope you believe that. Some people can be successful alone, it's true, but I believe it's those that lean on others and give back that make up the exceptional people in this world. Michael Phelps has talent, but he didn't win eight golds solely because he worked hard by himself. His work ethic and talent could've gotten him far, but not as far as he got with his coaches pushing him to his limits and a community challenging him, believing in him to be great, and encouraging him.
I'll take an example from my own life. All my life I skidded by on natural talent and going to one of the most prestigious and academically challenging schools in my area, it finally bit me in the butt. I didn't even graduate in the top 50% of my class. The Vice Principal of Academics even had a meeting with me my Senior year to tell that he was disappointed, explaining that upon admittance it was expected that I would graduate within the top 10% and that I had the lowest GPA among those taking honors classes. One of my biggest fears coming to college was that my lack of work ethic would carry over and it did. Even with all the "Survive Your Freshman Year" college books or me getting down on myself about finally shaping up and trying in school, I got nowhere. I ended up with a 3.0 while only taking 8 hours. I believed that I had the aptitude and vision to be successful, but I began to doubt it more and more. I needed help and my community responded. When I didn't believe in myself, they did. When I needed to hear the truth, they told me. When I wanted to give up, they made sure I didn't quit. I could've continued to underachieve, but they didn't let me. I'll never forget an e-mail I received from one of my favorite high school teachers, Dr. Gorman. Mark Twain has a quote that says he can "live on a compliment for two months," but his has been in my heart for four years. It's been a huge learning process and I'm still learning, but I'm proud to say that last semester I got a 3.78 and on Dean's List because of my community.
I surround myself with passionate people because I love learning from them. Whether it's Jeremy Wilburn inspiring me to pursue photography while sharing his heart with me and teaching me everything he knows or Aaron Valentine taking a moment when I was in Louisiana to teach me guitar or John Kelly who introduced me to what true community looks like, my community has made me who I am.
Kami concluded her post by challenging anybody reading to say thanks to their mentors, so here is a video thanks to some of my mentors and my community (twitter community shout-out included):
Let's make the choice to "do it" this year. Believe in yourself and make it happen.
I like quotes, so here are some to hopefully pump you up:
"Knowing is not enough; we must apply. Willing is not enough; we must do." - Leonardo Da Vinci
"Don't wait. The time will never be just right." - Napoleon Bonaparte
"Do not be daunted by the enormity of the world's grief. Do justly, now. Love mercy, now. Walk humbly, now. You are not obligated to complete the work, but neither are you free to abandon it." - The Talmud
Some people (okay maybe a few friends) have been asking me about the new website/blog I plan on launching soon. I haven't worked out all the details to be honest or exactly the picture of the content, but I figure I can offer a direction I hope it's heading.
I'm a really passionate guy. I'm also really about community. The great thing about passion is that it's so contagious. I have this friend Grace and she loves making jewelry out of hemp. It doesn't particularly interest me, but it always comes up. Sometimes her passion pumps me up so much I find myself going home and researching more and more thinking about if I should get into making hemp jewelry. ...then I realize again it's not my thing. So what is this about? Hopefully that. I love learning and have gotten into a lot of things...ranging from gaming, photography, nutrition, music, to social justice. Maybe you're wondering, man I'd love to get more into _______, but I don't know a starting point. Hopefully I can help. Maybe you just don't know what you're passionate about. I can't promise you I'll help, but let's explore it together. Maybe you enjoy something that I enjoy, but sometimes you get stale with it (like many do, including myself), hopefully we can help be motivators to each other. Maybe you just want to laugh (with me or at me) hopefully that'll happen. I want the site to have a face. You can get to know me and I hope to get to know you. I'd love to hear from reader input and integrate it into posts so we can all grow together. There you have it. It's not everything or very refined, but that's my vision in short.
Before I left Springfield for the year I went out to Sherman, IL with some friends and checked out Xavier Christmas Lights. I've heard that people drive from all over Illinois to check out the Christmas light show. They had their own FM Transmitter for Christmas music and the lights were synchronized with several different songs.
Here's a short video I put together so you can check it out: (Sorry for the poor audio)
Bonus points to whoever can name the song playing in the last couple of seconds of the video.
I finished my last final about 2 hours ago. Done. Thanks to my teachers for a great semester. I fly home to Oregon on Saturday. I can't wait!
Usually there's a blogger who posts about the first snow, but my camera is being repaired so I'll have to get back on that one. I would do the first snow of 2009, but I'll probably still be in Oregon.
This is about the best I can do right now...
Edit (3:35 PM):
I accidentally lied. I have a presentation tomorrow night.
