It's amazing how much you can really get done in 24 hours. Stepping onto the bus to leave for the Cape, I knew maybe a fifth of the first-year Peer Mentors. A lot of the freshmen were just names to me, but by the time we got off the bus back at Stonehill, I knew everyone's names, and something about them. Twenty-four hours. Pretty awesome, huh? I can already tell that everyone is going to excel on this team, and that everyone will make a significant impact on not only their mentees, but the other Peer Mentors, as well. Which I'm totally pumped for. Because who doesn't love feeling humble?
One of the last activities we did was talk about three items that represented who we were, for two minutes. Doesn't seem like a lot of time, but I managed to run through my three items in about 30 seconds. That's because each item only represents a little bit of me - as I told the team, there are probably 300 things that represent me. Make yourself comfortable...
(in no particular order...)
1. My hair elastic. On my right wrist are a hair elastic, silly band shaped like a moon, and one of those friendship/rope/whatever bracelets. All from Vicki. I could probably have an entire blog dedicated to how much I think she's the greatest person ever, but a paragraph in one post will have to do for now. Because I have 299 things to go.
2/3. A picture of me and my sister, and me and my parents. The former is from the first day of school my junior year, and the latter from Senior Day of baseball season. I was one of the few people who didn't talk about family during the retreat, but that doesn't mean I don't love my family as much as I love anything.
4. A sinking ship. A gift from my AP Stats teacher in high school. We had a running joke all year that the ship that was our class was sinking, or otherwise known as throwing in the towel right before the AP Exam. A lot of the spring of my senior year felt like the ship was sinking, or wanted to, but for good reasons. Now, it serves as a reminder that there will always be a time for the ship to sink, but not right now.
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| Next in the collection? |
6. NHL12. No, seriously. I play NHL12 with all my friends, we all love it, and we get incredibly into it at times. It's some of the most fun I've had this year at college, and it definitely deserves a spot on this list.
7. My whiteboard. If my whiteboard doesn't have any writing on it, then something's wrong. And simultaneously fantastic, because I have nothing that I need to keep track of. Currently, it outlines all the work I have to do before this week is over. One of the last things I do before I leave for spring break will be to erase everything on it.
8. Tickets. I keep most of, if not all, of my tickets to sporting events, concerts, movies, and the like. Not really to remember every one I've gone to, but to just have all of them. I dunno....seems kinda weird now that it's in words.
9-11. Purple sunglasses, Razor scooter, winter hats. So much swag.
12-16. iPod, iTunes, guitar, piano, guitar picks. I could just say "music stuff" here, but I actually want to see how many things I can find that represent me. So, you're stuck with this. Music is a huge part of my life, both performance-wise and the enjoyment of. I've been saying I want to play at a Stonehill coffeehouse for a year and a half now, but have yet to get around to it. Maybe this should change...
17. House calendar. I always get a House calendar at Christmas for the next year, as well as the latest season of House (18) and The Office (19). I'm not sure how much longer the latter tradition will go on, but I live for House. One day, I'm going to watch each series from beginning to end. So pumped.
20. LOST. Lost, as I've maintained for almost three years now, is simultaneously the greatest and worst TV show of all time. A lot of brief quotes or phrases really stuck with me throughout the entire series, as well as a ton of the themes. Another show I want to see in its entirety once or twice more.
21. Books. Surprisingly enough, I do enjoy books. Find out more here.
22. A baseball. This was one of the items I actually brought with me, which says a lot about it being 22nd on the list. I loved baseball, still do, and always will, but nothing can compare to being on the mound with the ball in my hand. I had control of everyone's next move in the game, and I was going to make damn sure that it would be as beneficial to my team as possible. God, I miss baseball.
23. My Duke flag. I love Duke. If you don't know this, then I'm doing something wrong. This could also go under the category of I-love-this-enough-to-blog-about-it-all-the-time. But then, my blog would be "Every Day, One Room." Not as nice of a ring to it.
24-31. Step Brothers, Anchorman, Superbad, I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry, Inception, V for Vendetta, Major League, Cruel Intentions. These are only some of my favorite movies, and again, I could have a separate post talking about movies, but I won't. If you can't deduce from this list, I love movies that are funny, and I love movies that make you think. Kinda represents me perfectly, actually.
32. My quote book. And by quote book, I mean quote Word document. There are a few quotes that I absolutely love, that mean a lot to me, and are in a Word document on my computer. I might actually talk about this at a later date, so I'll hold off on too much detail.
33. Symbolism. Yes, I am aware that this isn't tangible, but allow me to explain. The title of my quote Word document is "I hate quotations. Tell me what you know." Ralph Waldo Emerson. Such an awesome, contradictory title.
34. A $1 casino chip. On the cruise our family (and a dozen others) went on, I won about $80 playing blackjack throughout the week (which sparked a blog post of mine). I decided that I'd also start collecting casino chips, too. Unfortunately my collection only stands at one right now, but I'm definitely hoping to add to it in the next year. (Editor's Note: Wait...I'm 21 in under a year? In NINE MONTHS? Wow. WOW. Life is scary.)
35. A picture from graduation. At home (I think) is a picture of my friends and teachers from high school. High school was super awesome for me, and if I could freeze a period of time forever, that would make a very strong case for the #1 spot. Although this college this is pretty cool, too...
36. Awake My Soul. I've decided that this will be the penultimate thing that represents me, because I have a cool ending set up. That, and I'm listening to Awake My Soul as I type this. (I put the Mumford & Sons album on instead of trying to find Orientation songs. Oops.) This song is just so beautiful. I know I talked about it a little in my Mumford & Sons post, but it's honestly one of my favorite songs ever. It just evokes that kind of emotion, you know? It's quiet yet powerful, until it becomes loud and powerful at the end. I can picture driving down the highway with any number of people that mean a lot to me, listening to this song at full volume, cracking a smile, and singing the hell out of the last chorus.
37. One Day, One Room. Yes, I'm going there. It's true though. I'm going there because this blog really does represent who I am. (Enter loud and powerful part.) I talk about so many different kinds of things here, but I could name any post and talk about it at length if I was prompted. That's how much this stuff means to me. Some people journal, others keep diaries, others write books. I have a blog.
38. The epiphany chuckle. In TV shows, books, whatever...in life, there are these moments where you're talking about something, and it reminds you of something completely different, yet totally relevant, and you can't help but give yourself a quick chuckle. That just happened to me. I was going to talk about what I said in my first blog post, about this blog being a place where I could write about whatever, so I went back to my first post. Room #1. The last two sentences of my first post? "So that's what this blog is. A series of rooms, or blog posts, and whatever is stuck inside of my blog posts adds up to what my blog is, which is essentially a representation of me."
Told you symbolism was awesome.
your blog posts are inspiring
ReplyDeleteyour very interesting matt.... lol
ReplyDelete