The Spot

If you were to look around a school campus, doesn't matter which one, but this one in particular, you will see groups of students gathered at their own "spot". Sometimes by ethnicity or by interests, each group of friends has a certain spot they like to hang out at. A place that they can call their own, their territory. My friends and I, or our group, has found its place on the side of Alexander Hall. The other day I situated myself at the spot and just observed our group of friends. I tried to take note of everything that went on. The one main thing that I noticed was that at the time I was there, it was much quieter than usual. A few of the guys were eating their usual Jack in the Box french fries and finishing up their fast food lunches. Which reminds me, I found out by one of my sophmore friends that next year they will not be getting privilege cards. Apparently it was the Juniors' faults this year. They said that the class abused the privilege and therefore ruined it for next years Juniors...oops. But hey, I didn't even turn in the form to get the card so I didn't do anything. Anyways, sorry. Going back to what I observed, one of them was playing his PSP. I'm guessing it was a one-player game because the rest of the gamers were in class. That is part of the reason why we are such a loud group because when all the guys start playing their games, there is yelling and screaming. The games consume them. Everyone had scattered themselves along the walls because of the instant back rest, I guess. When I separated myself from the group, my whole perspective changed. I had never really seen and observed our group from the outside looking in. Seeing our spot and group of friends from an onlooker's point of view was different. It was hard to see things that I didn't know already. Like we are usually loud and wierd, but that day was extremely quiet. Nobody was yelling at their PSP or on a sugar high. That day, we were more like what I see other groups as.

Rules Are Meant To Be Broken

Yesterday, the family celebrated my sister's birthday, her nineteenth birthday. I can't believe she's that old, where have the years gone. I can speak for myself when I say that the years are going by faster and faster right before our eyes. I always say to myself that oh, my eighteenth birthday is distances away, but it will creep up and pass before I realize it has. That's how it always is. To celebrate, we went out to Chili's. I haven't gone to Chili's for the longest time so I went ready to eat. When my parents and I got a table, all that was missing was my sister (the person we were celebrating) and her boyfriend. To pass the time, I flipped through the drink booklet that was on the table. It all looked so good, the way that they were presented on the pages, but I knew that they contained alcohol and were out of the question. I'm not old enough. Age has put limitations on so many things that sometimes I think it's unfair. But I follow them anyways, because I know it is there for a reason, at least I tell myself there is. When we were reading the public interest articles in composition class, the discussion we had about binge drinking was very interesting and true. One of the points that was brought up was that the reason and driving force that causes so many underage people to try drinking or other illegal things is the law that says they can't do whatever it is they are doing. Just the fact that there is a law, something telling them that they can't do something, is insentive to break it. After thinking about it a little, I began to think it was the truth. I mean, if you are told to not do something, you are going to want to do it no matter what. Kids are experts at this. If you say don't look in the bag, they go and do it anyway. Laws and rules are going to be broken.

You're Never Too Old

For Easter this past Sunday, my family and I went to my aunty's (my grandma's sister, so not really aunty, but I call everyone aunty) house for the usual lunch and dinner get-together. These get-togethers are always so much fun because only during special occassions does the enitre family get to see eachother. It's time for catching up with what's new and just spending time with the little kiddies. Ok, they aren't that little, most of them are pretty grown up but they are still little kids at heart. This Easter get-together was the best yet. There was an addition to the family, my aunty's new puppy, Kona. He is a chiahuahua terrior mix and is the cutest little thing. I guess he was on good behavior because my cousins were saying that him and Sparkles (their other dog and my dog's sister) would always fight. According to them, Kona is a frisky dog that requires all the attention. I just saw a little brown pup who was a sleepy head, sleeping the second he hit something soft. Another thing that made this Easter gathering so enjoyable was that I got to go on a egg hunt. It was a of couple years ago when my parents broke the news to me, "Chris, you are too old to go hunting for eggs, you have to help hide them now and watch the little kids find them, ok." From then on, I could only watch the kids chase after the stationary eggs. I enjoyed it all, seeing the smiles on their faces when they found an egg, but I wished I could go back out there. This past Easter, I got the chance. After all the real and plastic eggs were found by the kids, my aunty told me that there were eggs especially for the older kids, those who tended to be more aggressive. My sister (who is two years older than me, may I add) and her boyfriend also joined in on the hunt. The adults said that they were going to make it hard because we were older. As I stepped outside, I didn't realize that they were that serious. There were plastic eggs hiding on top the pilars of the house and in the tree branches. I literally had to jump as high as I could to reach those. Also, they would hide the eggs so well in its surroundings, it was really difficult. There was one that I found that was even burried beneath the gravel rocks in the yard. There was an incident with my sister over one of the plastic eggs. It was hidden on the car and both my sister and I spotted it. We raced towards it and when we reached the car, I ended up between the car and my sister. It was very painful, all for what, an egg. At the end of the hunt, I ended up with ten dollars and candy. It was well worth the racing and sweat. My parents said that I was too old, but this past weekend I got to be a kid again. I think there is a kid in every single person no matter how old you may be. You are never to old to have fun, especially to go on an Easter egg hunt.

A Simple "Thank You"

When was the last time you said "thank you" to someone? To your parents, a teacher, or a friend? A simple "thank you" can have such a great impact on a person, sometimes more than you would expect. When someone thanks you after doing a favor or good deed, don't you just feel good. Good that you helped someone out. Your spirits seem to raise and sometimes, an occasional smile on your face. I have always tried to make an effort to thank people for helping me out or something, but I didn't truly understand how much weight and meaning those two little words beared.
This past Sunday at church, Pastor Wayne talked about the power of words. He said that the one thing that everyone has in common is the "hunger for sincere appreciation". He told a story about how even people who do heroic acts need appreciation whether it is just a simple "thank you". It is a story that will remain in my heart. It was around the 1860's when a passenger boat was crossing Lake Michigan, going from Chicago to Milwaukee. A lumber schooner collided with it and caused the boat to sink, killing 279 people. It wasn't far from land and a North Western University student named Edward Spence was on shore and saw the whole thing happen. He dove into the water and tried to save as many people as he could. He made seventeen trips back and forth, saving seventeen people. Unfortunately, on the seventeenth returning trip, he went unconsious from the freezing cold water. For the rest of his life, he was paralyzed from the waist down. Many years later, the univeristy awarded him a plaque honoring his bravery and courage. When a newspaper interviewed him for an article, they asked him, "What is the one thing that has stuck with you about the whole experience?" He took a moment and answered, "The one thing that has remained with me for all these years is that, not one of those seventeen people ever said 'thank you'".

Music of Our Lives

As I was sitting on the side of Alexander Hall the other day, all that could be heard was the constant opening and closing of those swinging doors, distant footsteps of students walking by, and the sound of an ukelele. As I focused on the chords and strumming of the strings, I couldn't help but think about how much music has become a part of our everyday lives. If you were to ask anyone when the last time they heard or played music, probably everyone would say at the most, today. Try to imagine what it would be like without the sound of music, I know that's the title of the famous musical, "The Sound of Music", but really, what would life be like without music. It just wouldn't be the same. People have based their entire lives off of music, artists, composers, etc. Like in the documentary "Rize", music and dance was all that those people had. In the place that they lived in, the kind of place that if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time, it could cost you your life. In that kind of neighborhood, dancing was their life, their identity. One of the guys in the documentary said that music was an outlet for them. Each person's life has been touched by music in some shape or form. Whether it was a way of life or just something that brings you joy. My sister just bought the "Happy Feet" DVD and we were watching it at our grandma's house last night. My favorite part is when the baby penguins were together and they had to close their eyes and find their inner song. Mumble couldn't sing but he could dance. It's just who he is. Throughout the movie, my baby cousin who's a little older than two years old, would periodically stand up and start dancing. He would jump and hop all over the place and even raise his hands like the penguins were doing with their flippers. It was such a cute sight to see. All of us couldn't help but to admire him and cheer him on. My aunty even grapped her video camera and video tapped his little dances.
Music is something everyone knows. Everyone has listened to it, turned to it when there was nothing else to turn to, danced to it, sung to it, or just lived by it. It's a fact of life, music is everywhere. It has embedded itself into our hearts and into our souls. It's the music of our lives.