My Scrapbook

It was about three or four years ago on a Thanksgiving night when I found myself sitting on a 50 year old baby blue couch in Grandma’s living room. Finally being alone, I nonchalantly stretched out my gut and started picking at turkey scraps stuck between my teeth. I decided to rest my eyes for a while from an exciting and long day of Macy’s Day Parade watching, relative/friend visiting, and 40 degree weather backyard football. I let out a loud groan then lay down to sleep off some of the tryptophan. After about a half hour I finally arose and sat for a while, zoned-out, staring at the wooden coffee table and its embellishments. There they were: four large scrapbooks of my family’s history; a countless number of Polaroid’s and portraits just sitting there waiting for someone to look at them again.

I loved coming to this room in my grandma’s house; I loved staring at these pictures over and over again for hours on end, thinking about what it would’ve been like to stand at the Grand-Canyon forty years ago with my aunts and uncles beside me and at the same age I am- I wonder was life was like back then. I wonder what it would’ve been like, saying goodbye to my Grandfather as he caught a train to be sent off to basic before being sent off to France. I wonder what it would’ve been like to stand next to my mom and dad as they huddled around their first and newborn son- my oldest brother- 26 years ago. These thoughts may seem odd but they’re what get me going; they are the thoughts that make me think about what my family scrapbook is going to look like 60, 70, 80 years from now when my grandson walks in to my living room to better understand his heritage.

Late that night, after all the goodbyes and after the last of the Apple Crusty was gone, I headed home. I couldn’t get it out of my head; I even turned down my music to think clearly about how awesome I wanted my scrapbooks to look. My creative side was bangin’ on all cylinders at this point; I not only wanted scrapbooks with pictures, I wanted photo montages, video montages, journal entries from anyone in my family who has a journal. “It’s gonna be big, it’s gonna be ridiculous” I kept telling myself. I wanted it to consist of thousands of pictures from eighty years ago today, as well as tens of thousands of pictures from today on out, so, starting on this project as soon as possible would be the best idea.

I decided for the first chunk of my project, I wouldn’t be making a scrapbook but rather a scrapbook/photo and video montage/movie clip DVD. I started off easy; my mom had thousands of pictures from the last 20 or so years stuffed in several old shoe boxes under her bed- it was my job to start sorting through them all. I woke up late Friday morning, brewed together a large bowl of corn-pops and got to work. With the radio blastin’ and a stomach now full of Pop’s, I was makin’ progress. I was sortin’ pictures, left and right like no tomorrow to whatever beat of “today’s best music hits” was giving me. After finally sorting through the never ending mound of still frames I took a break and sat back for a while.

“What am I getting myself into,” I’d been building upon my so-thought ingenious ideas for the last 12 hours and hadn’t really stepped back to take in the enormity of Project: Scrapbook until now. When I had finally stepped back to take in the big picture I sighed; it was an incredible idea but seemed almost impossible to finish- or at least in the next year or two that I had planned. I realized I just didn’t have the time. I would have to scan every single one of these pictures on to the computer, crop them, maybe tune them up a little bit and then organize them. Then, I would have to go through all of our home video cassettes, find some way to covert and upload them on to a computer, and chronologically organize, edit, cut, and paste everything in the way I wanted it to be. Next I would have to search for certain clips from good, inspirational and loving movies that would fit well with the Scrapbook genre, and find a way to legally incorporate them throughout my show. I figured the last step would be the organizing, the cutting and pasting of photos and videos and movie clips and songs- and then of course the credits. This would by far take the longest amount of time. All of this could only be possible with the use of a computer that was somewhat new (2004 and up), had a lot of space, a lot of memory and had its own video editing software program, none of which I had (at least until recently). I remembered hearing about how long it took my friend to make a 15 minute movie for his history class, he had a month to work on it and he said he worked on it for about 9 hours every weekend until it was due, and he was used to making movies, I wasn’t; I didn’t stand a chance.

I realized I had better think this whole thing over again, but for some reason I couldn’t; I couldn’t bear the thought, the thought of making just another boring old photo montage with a cheesy Five for Fighting song playing in the background, like everyone everywhere has done already. I just couldn’t drop this assignment. I was sick of starting things I couldn’t finish, and this was just too big to not finish. I wanted to finish this, I needed to finish this. I also later realized I wasn’t doing all of this for myself, I wasn’t doing this to impress anybody or for any grade, I was doing all of this for my family, past, future and present; for the people who mattered most in my life. I knew that they’d appreciate this movie so much if I put in as much time as I knew it would take, and more importantly I wanted to show them that I cared about every single one of them (which I admit I’m not the best at showing )- uncle, aunt, cousin, sister, brother- as much as they cared about me.

It’s been 4 years since I’ve started the project and I’m hardly anywhere near done. I can’t say that’ll be done anytime soon either. All I can say is that it hasn’t been completely forgotten about, just as family shouldn’t be forgotten about. Every day I think of something new to add in; another song, another movie clip. I just keep building and building, thinking of ways to make it perfect because in my mind It needs to be perfect. Plus I’m older now, technology is getting easier and easier to use (even for me), and my motivation and commitment to complete this undertaking hasn’t ceased. I’m representing what matter most in my heart by doing this, my own family, not a close group of friends, not the people I work with, my own loving family…

'Get Money'

I woke up at 1:30 pm this last Sunday; needless to say I had a late night- mainly due to the fact that our football team pulled out a ‘W’ over the Nebraskan Corn Huskers (or somthin’ like that) in a “make or break” game for our Hokies. Ironically that was the worst VT game I have seen in a long time, but a win is a win and that’s all that mattered after that last 2 minutes.
“What a headache…,” I mumbled as I slowly sat myself up, wiping the grease and crusty residue left over from the night before off my face. The room spun quickly for a moment, from getting up too quickly then settled back down. I felt gross, but at least totally rested which was a feeling a have not had in a long time. As I got down from my bed I noticed all of my pocketed items that I had thrown on my desk before going to sleep. There they were: a bent up football ticket, a dead phone, a Hokie passport and key, a lighter, a wallet, and a balled up 5 dollar bill. “I wonder how much I spent last night…,” I checked my wallet only to find empty space. “What!? This can’t be right. 5 measly dollars is all I have?” I remembered having at least 40 dollars withdrew from an on-campus ATM around 8:30 pm Saturday night. I remember not eating much that Saturday, so by night I was practically starving (especially having seen all those people at the game with turkey legs). All the restaurants were packed full so I decided 7-11 would be my haven for hunger. I wasn’t planning on spending more than 10 to 15 $ on everything but I was planning on getting a lot of grub. I bought 2 personal pizzas, BBQ chips, a monster energy drink, and some peach ring gummies. So that was 15 bucks at most. I recollected spending the rest on, one: repaying my brother for the football ticket, two: repaying my roommate for lunch last weekend, and three: a cup to fill up.
Money accumulates slowly and disappears very fast; I’ve realized this all throughout different times. “I wish I had more money” is what I think about all too much, “If only, if only.” Not just money to buy more food, more football tickets, and a little bit more of everything… just enough to be comfortable/happy; enough money to not have to worry about how much I’m spending on a triple-quarter pounder at McDonalds or how much I’m spending to buy the 4th season of Lost. I realized I would never, maybe in my entire life, have that kind of money (especially after college), and that got me down. It would remain (at least for the next 4 to 10 years) a dream- a very blurred dream.
I guess you could say I’ve never been the kid with all the money; the rich kid (the spoiled kid essentially). I’ve never been the kid whose parents buy them 12 new outfits from Hollister and A.E. every year, the kid who has the red Mazda 6 (who would later on wreck it backing out of a parking lot too quickly only to be rewarded with another one from Mom and Dad), or the kid who has the Xbox 360, PS3, The 3G iPhone, the 17-inch MacBook Pro, and the 42in Sony Plasma all five feet away from his bed. In fact I despised those kids yet I was close or even best friends with every one of them. I was far from their kind of lifestyles, though- the ‘dad’s wallet’ lifestyle- and it just pissed me off whenever I saw all of them taking their good-fortune for granted. I couldn’t blame them though, hopefully they’ll learn one day how it feels to make their own money and to pay for their own belongings.
I didn’t have it hard but at the same time I didn’t have it easy. I started working at the age of 14, busing at a fancy restaurant, 6 to 7 hour shifts after school four days a week for below minimum wage and hardly any tips. It sucked but I kept at it for about a year then quit just to go bus at another fancy restaurant closer to home and for a little bit better pay. I started to mow lawns during the summer, four lawns to be exact, on top of 5-day/week busing. I needed as much money as I could get. I had a trip to New Mexico for scouts I had to pay (1200$) for this summer and a trip to Germany (est. 2600$) the next summer that had to be paid for out of my pocket. I hated having to pay for everything; I’d make so much money and never get to spend it on little things I wanted. I was the kid who had to buy his ‘P.O.S’ car, pay for its gas, its checkups, its flat tires, its engine checks, and its insurance. Then of course there were all those cell phone bills and school lunches every day. It seemed like I was paying for just about everything. I wasn’t mad or bitter though, in fact I was fine with everything. I’m just glad I had breakfast, dinner and a roof over my head at night. I have to keep in mind that there are kids out there who have it just as “bad” -I guess you could say- as I do. And there is definitely no doubt that there are kids out there who have it twenty times worse than what I have to actually get through every day: kids who have to dig through the trash to savor a meal of what they call “lunch”, kids who spend their nights in the basement of a church or a beaten up house with no heat or running water, kids who have to worry about getting jumped or shot when they walked to school. Yes, I take these kids, these heroes to mind every time that I feel like I don’t have enough money- and then I feel like the spoiled brat.
But growing up in this state of condition has given me a plethora of wisdom that’ll someday save me in the future: learning how to save money and spend it only on things you need, to pack lunch as much as possible without getting sick of pb+j , to stay away from fast food restaurants that eat holes in my wallet more than anything else, to ride my bike to work and school whenever possible, etc…. There of course will be times when I splurge my money, but you have to every now and then in order to stay sane. I take breaks from work and use the money I earn to reward myself. There will be times when I need to go see a movie, or I need to go have dinner with my friends, or I need to see Blink 182 in concert. But of course I keep track of how I spend and make sure not to exceed a limit.
I’m here at Virginia-Tech (as I’m sure everybody else is) for one reason and that is to ensure a stable future, let alone a successful one for the life ahead of me. And although I won’t ever make as much as Tiger Woods who according to Forbes.com makes 110 million dollars a year (that’s about $3.49 a second), just to hit a white ball 350 yards while wearing a hat with a Nike check mark on it, or Shaq who makes 35 million a year just to dunk a (for him) grape-fruit sized ball into a basket a foot and a half over his head, or Michael Jordan who gets paid 45 million dollars to wear a tagless Hanes T-shirt or have clips of him playing basketball 15 years ago on TV, or even A-Rod who signed a 275 million dollar 10-year contract with the Yankees in 2007; although I’ll never make as much as them, I’ll still make enough to live happily, and for now I’ll continue to work hard during the summer to pay for only a small fraction of my tuition and leave the rest to loans, grants and fate. I don’t have enough to pay for college right now but know someday after a lot of hard work and integrity, money won’t be the issue (at least for the most part).

Na'Leans!

Nothing like it. Going to New Orleans that summer was by far one of the best decisions I’ve ever made (next to coming to Virginia Tech). My church attends these Lutheran ‘Youth Gatherings’ that take place every three years, for Lutheran high school students across the country. It’s a time to meet people, to give back to the community, and to serve the Lord. The event is hosted by any city large enough to comfortably withhold a very rapid population increase of about 35 to 40 thousand kids, plus adult leaders. That being said, the city needs to have enough hotel rooms, a big enough arena/stadium, and a big enough convention center to fit this crowd in- not to mention plenty of restaurants to accommodate these hungry people’s appetites whenever needed. You can’t really understand the feeling of being close to and among 40,000 kids, every day of the week if you’re not there; it’s like high-def, you’re just not getting it. It’s not just like college; you’re not just walking by these people, completely ignoring them shutting yourself off from everyone with ‘The Carter III’ blaring through your ears until class starts. No, at the Youth Gathering it’s different, it’s much more different. At the Youth Gathering you notice people, you interact with people, and you go to the Superdome and interaction center twice or more a day with these people. You remember faces and names of every person you meet. You exchange hugs, phone numbers, and facebook information with kids you met just for a minute in your hotel lobby, maybe see them once or twice more for lunch and then never see them again because they live 2,000 miles west of where you live. And yet you’ll still stay in contact with them until the day you die. That’s just the way it was- crazy right? The atmosphere of this place was absolutly unbelievable. I’ll never in a million years find this many people who are just as, or even close to being so nice, so giving, so happy and so loving- I loved it and didn’t want to leave.
The whole ordeal started years in advance, three years in fact. Right after the last one had ended in San Antonio, Texas. We started planning, coming up with fundraising schemes, traveling methods of getting there and back, listing the names of people most likely to go and not go this time around, and so on (they were spur of the moment ideas but legitimate planning nonetheless). The ELCA (Evangelical Lutheran Church in America) already has arranged where the next Gathering’s going to be about 5 years in advance. So two years before San Antonio, we already knew where our next plot of adventure would be. Then a little girl named Katrina came along and kind of put that image on hold. So where would it be? No one, knew how long it would take New Orleans to completely recover, I mean, it was under 9 or so feet of still water. And Time magazines photos of “Katrina plus 1 year” weren’t very promising pictures that NOLA would have us as their guests in two years. Cars were still in trees, roads and sidewalks were still pulverized, houses and buildings still lay shambles all over the streets, and a lot of NOLA’s citizens were still homeless. Despite all of these appalling facts, New Orleans carried out her promise of hosting the 2009 Gathering.
18,000 dollars- that’s how much money it cost for all 17 of us from Hagerstown to go. That’s a lot of fundraising- and a lot of fundraising is what took place from the months of July 2008 to June 2009. We’d have bake sales almost every Sunday. Chocolate chip, sugar, oatmeal raisin, you name it we’d have it, 1 dollar four a bag of four. We’d have lunches composed of hundreds of cheap Sam’s Club hot dogs and ruffle’s potato chips after the 10 o’clock service. There was even a day when all of us gathered in the church’s kitchen one Saturday morning to dip cherries and pretzels into chocolate for 8 hours straight. We went through hell to raise that 18 thousand dollars. “It’ll be totally worth it,” we kept telling ourselves.
The day finally came, we were headed to Nalins! All packed up, backwards hat on, and cargo-short pockets stuffed packed with my phone, sunglasses, sunscreen, iPod, and wallet. We got to the airport, boarded the plane and by 4pm we were swimming in the Deep South heat and humidity. The first night was just a break-in night. After we unpacked everything in our luxurious hotel rooms at the Monteleon, we decided to go out on the town. The town was beautiful! So artsy and colorful and not caved in like so many other skyscraper cities- no building was painted white either, all dull yellow, red, green, purple, or blue with iron pillars and decks- the sidewalks were made of brick, there were exquisite pictures painted on the side of almost every building, there were a few street corner trio bands playing their jazz and blues medleys on their rustic, beat up guitars and trumpets, and the energy was alive. The food was of course phenomenal. There’s no other place that I’ll have shrimp for breakfast lunch and dinner and be totally fine with it. Every day seemed like the best day of the week. We would get up, shower, grab a quick bite to eat at the KFC down the road and then head to the convention center. The convention center was like 3 super-sized Walmarts stacked on top of each other then multiplied by 20 across. We played soccer, kickball volleyball and moon-bounce basketball inside of this place, we rappelled off three story walls, we rock-climbed and we of course made bracelets. It was impossible to do everything in that room in just one week. After wearing ourselves out on the moon bounce we’d get some lunch then chill at the hotel (which by the way had a pool and bar on the roof) for a few hours, get a nap or two and then head on over to the Superdome to rock out to some sick bands and listen to all the speakers from around the world give their spiel. Then after this, there would be dance parties and more crazy activities at 4 of the major hotels every night. The excitement didn’t stop until 1 in the morning.
On one of the 7 days we were there we had to take part in a service project, which could be anywhere from reading books to underprivileged children all day or picking up trash in a nearby park. Our church group got the environmental task of clearing out a lagoon at a community park. So, early Thursday morning (5am) we got up had some donuts and OJ to go and headed to the Superdome where one of the thirty charter buses was waiting to take our group to Joe Brown Park. After a thirty minute drive out of the city and into the suburbs, we arrived at Joe Brown Park. We thought the place was gonna look like hell when we got there; trash everywhere, trees down, but to our amazement it was the total opposite. Then we found out that that wasn’t the part of the park we were working on. The project leader led us to this lagoon/swamp that looked like it hadn’t been touched or walked on in years, you couldn’t see through any of it. “Grab a hoe, shovel, weed whacker and clippers and get started.” That’s all he said, and for about 6 hours, TLC (our church) and about 7 other charter buses full of kids in matching orange shirts, whacked away at vines, tall grass, dead trees, and weeds in 103 degree heat and humidity. I didn’t know I could sweat so much until that day.
The aftermath had everybody in awe; it looked like we had made a whole new park next to the old one. It’s amazing what that many people can do in one day, and the feeling you get when all is said and done is above gratifying. Then came our tour of the ninth-ward; the part of New Orleans that was hit the hardest during Katrina. We crossed the steel bridge and there it was. The bus fell silent for the next 20 minutes. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing, the houses were wrecked, bent, crooked and boarded up; the streets were pounded just like I had seen in the pictures. Torn down houses were left only with their concrete steps, driveways and foundations that had 8 ft. weeds and grass growing out of them. Yet still people lived back in here in this foul wretched place, in their warped, cracked and dead smelling houses that wouldn’t stand a chance of being fixed, and all of this 20 minutes away from the nearest church, food market and hospital. Why? Because it was their home and they wouldn’t live anywhere else. The levee’s were rebuilt but are still only strong enough to hold a category 2 or 3 hurricane. This got me going, I wanted so bad to help this place out, to rebuild everything, to fix these peoples lives, but I couldn’t. I would have to come back sometime, a couple years from now with another church or mission’s group- I promised myself I would. But for now it was time to leave the beautiful city of New Orleans. “So long,” we all said as the plane lifted off the ground and above clouds.
“To be honest… that was the best trip of my life,” Were the words that sailed out of my mouth after my uncle asked how the week went.” It was late; I’d say 12 or 1 am on a Tuesday night two months ago, when our plane finally landed back in BWI. “It was awesome, riveting, eye opening, electrifying, inspirational…,” adjectives kept popping in to my head; how was I going to describe everything that happened to the folk back home the next day, and in a timely manner. I decided to let go of the thought for the night, seeing that I had been up since six and had to go to work in about 7 hours. I switched on my iTouch, corked in my head phones and nestled down in to a bulky Chevy Suburban front seat. I still couldn’t wrap my mind around the fact that it was over, that a week’s time flew by in a matter of what seemed like 3 hours. All of that preparing, all of that fundraising, all of that waiting! It took so long just to get here and BAM, it was gone just like that. I was sad to say the least; I felt like a ten year old on December 26th. And it wasn’t just me; it was everybody who had traveled this long and brutal path to get to the Gathering; all 5 sleepy and drained kids behind me in that suburban, all 9 bushed and whacked kids in the commuter van behind us, and all three dog-tired and exhausted adult leaders who took on the burden of looking after 14 high schoolers for an entire week during their 2 and a half month break they had from teaching us. One day I’ll go back to that city, of course it won’t be the same without 40’000 other kids my age there, but still… best time of my life.

Live Your Life

What ever happened to the good ol’ days (or as some older folk call them), the day when everyone got their own enjoyment from telling jokes and stories to each other on the front porch or at a restaurant and not form their 50 inch plasma screens, the day when everyone listened to each other in person, face to face. The day when calling someone on the phone was the main way of communicating to a friend or loved one- actually talking, expressing emotions like sadness and happiness by the sound of their voice and not just a smiley or sad face. I’m not very old but I’m old enough to see a lot of these changes in the world and how it’s affecting everyone’s life. Nowadays it seems like people can’t take their hands off their i-Phones, their blackberries, their rumors and palm-pre’s, in fear of missing an oh so important text. Some cats argue that this is a good thing; I believe that today’s technology has done more harm than good.

Gadgets like the new 3G i-Phone and i-Touch, the PSP and PS3, and Xbox 360 have kids (and adults) across the globe drooling over the bright highly pixilated and glowing screens which seem to shut out the rest of the world. They attract their buyers with useless gadgets like the compass and the video recorder on the iPhone, and say that it’s “the most powerful, fastest iPhone yet,” (apple.com) I’m not saying I’ve never used these devices- believe me I’m a huge fan of the Xbox and iTouch- I’m just saying over usage can be extremely harmful to one’s self. One who spends more than 4 hours a day with these conveniences tends to lose a grip on reality, they start spending more and more time in their room’s becoming fat and lazy; blinds shut and stereo blasting, shutting out all forms of human life except for themselves. And there they sit on their nice leather computer arm chair, out of shape, eating a bag of Doritos for lunch and playing World of War craft III. Or they’ll lie on their floor at 4 in the afternoon, still in their morning sweatpants and beater, playing Halo 3 for Xbox 360 live, thus getting virtually nothing out of their day/ life except a few more gamer points. It’s sad and I’ve seen it happen to a few of my friends; friends I hardly see anymore because they can’t get out of this bubble they’ve trapped themselves in. They shut themselves off, basically become addicted to “gaming,” and sadly never quit. They lose most of their friends and never gain any back.

I like playing Xbox live just as much as any other guy my age- but for no more than an hour tops. I get bored, honestly, especially if it’s only me playing. However, playing Mario with a huge crew of friends is always a good time. But in that instance you’re interacting with one another; talking and having a good time. Even then, after playing for an hour I realize that there are so many other things I could be doing. I could be at the gym getting my sweat on, on the court and in the weight room. I could be at the pool, swimming around, laying out in the sun, playing cards with my friends under the pavilion, having a good time in general. I could be at the park playing volleyball or ultimate-Frisbee. I could be reading my book, taking in all sorts of knowledge. Or at a last resort I could be working; saving up money to pay for college tuition and other necessities. The point is, there are so many other things to do besides playing video games.

Texting- texting is another thing I get really irritated with. I personally get sick of texting after about 3 or four texts. It takes too much time out of my day. This is especially true when I’m trying focusing on something else, like reading a book, studying, someone else’s conversation, or watching football game on TV; I’m trying to focus on 3rd down and 4’ in the last quarter, not how to spell ‘shwasted’ or ‘wilin’ on T9word. For real though, if someone really needed to talk to you so bad that you have to text them back 200 plus times in one sitting don’t you think one phone call would’ve saved you a whole lot of time and trouble? Seriously now, my texts consist of “’yo wudup,’ ‘not much chillin, you?’ ‘same, tryin to chill?’ ‘yeah son I’ll be over in a sec’”. Texts longer than that I end up just calling the person and talking the matter over- all while still being able to shoot hoops in my driveway with one hand.

Not only is texting a waste of time but I feel it’s also considered rude, or impolite, to text while talking or listening to someone else. This may be a little off topic but I had to get it out: nothing pisses me off more than when I’m out on a date or with a friend (at a restaurant, movie, coffee shop, something like that) and then them texting somebody constantly, over and over (this has happened more than once by the way). I’m fine with two, three or even four texts while at dinner or while getting coffee, that’s totally acceptable and in fact implied; but it’s when they won’t even stop, like they don’t know they’re being a jackass when I’m trying to talk to them, spilling my guts and they’re focusing what a 2 line message on their phone is telling them. It’s seems like half the time I’m with them (the compulsive texters) consists of them texting somebody else. It’s like I’m not even there; like the person they’re texting is a lot more important than I am, the person they’re actually across the table from. It just makes me feel like they don’t want to spend time with me; they don’t want to catch up on life and everything that goes along with it. And basically it offends me, straight up, I get pissed and then I don’t feel like spending time with that person. I can understand why many teachers don’t like kid’s texting; they feel like they’re talking to nobody; like they’re words were not heard by anybody who has a phone out. I know how that feels and it sucks. One day, many years from now, the whole world is going to become silent, no one will have a voice, just really powerful thumbs to text and send messages. And again, if a conversation is so important that you need to constantly text him/her, then why not go ahead and call them? It seems so simple just to text, but when you’re with somebody else, calling that person your texting saves time, energy, and you from having pissed off friends.

I find it hard to believe that America is confused about why their kids are so obese, so lazy, and don’t know how to socialize and communicate through speech with anyone except their video game characters. The answer is right in front of you! Kick your kid in the ass if he’s 180 pounds and gaining at the age of 9. Tell them to go shoot some hoops or drop them off at the pool and make them walk home. Make them join a club (Scouts, Girls inc., Boys and Girls Club) just to meet people, hopefully future friends beside their own imaginary ones. Make them join a sport or two at school. Take away their Gamecube and PSP if they use them too much- and even if they don’t. Make them see the other side of life. I believe the younger you do this the better off they’ll be in the future.

So finally, I say to America, all you kids that are excessively obese, lazy, bored with life and have no friends: put down your phone, put down you’re iPod, put down your wireless controller, get up, be active; explore the world. Go hike up a mountain, go run a 5K marathon, and go use the rest of your body- give your thumbs a rest. Enjoy being young and flexible, having good health and tons of energy; my grandpa, a man with much wisdom, used to tell me how much he missed these blessings from long ago- and from what I’ve seen there’s no doubt they fade as time roles on. Go hang out with your friends instead of texting them (and listen to what they have to say if it’s not too much to ask). If you’re going to watch TV or a movie, at least watch it with someone else. “Spend as much time as you can not being alone,” my grandpa always said. In the words of Tim McGraw, “live like you were dying.”

Crazy Crystle

2:20pm, crystle makes her way across the scorching hot parade field to her 2:30 class, English 1105 in McBryde Hall. Not only is it a mile long walk from her dorm but it’s also a dreadful hike up three steep flights of stairs. You would think she’d be exhausted, or even the least bit tired- Not a chance- Crystle doesn’t even break a sweat. Having played softball for the past 14 years of her life, I guess you could say she’s used to the heat. She arrives early to class- as everyone else does- walks briskly and smoothly to the back of the petit sized classroom, takes a seat in a small chair connected to a desk and waits quietly and patiently for the lecture 5 minutes ahead of her. It’s a small class consisting of only about 17 kids; freshmen, waiting to take in an abundance of knowledge from their master. 55 minutes pass and just like that the class is over. The clicking of laptops being closed is sounding off throughout, book bags and notebooks are being closed, zipped open and shut and shuffled around, and Crystle is on her way back to her dorm room for a well deserved afternoon nap.

But not everything in Crystle’s life has run as smooth and nicely like it is here at tech. Crystle has had some tough times thrown (or hit) her way in the past. “One thing I have overcome in my life is 6 surgeries,” she said, “I had a spinal disease called scoliosis where my spine was in the shape of an “S” and it was corrected when I was 12.” Amongst this surgery she had to have two medal rods and screws attached to her spine to straighten it out. That’s surgery number one, the other five surgeries came from a severe and horrific accident that she faced two May’s ago. It was a hot steamy and normal day in Sterling Virginia; the sun was out, the crowd was seated and the teams were warmed up to play. Crystle takes the mound as she has done in the past so many times; just another game for Crystle, nothing big. Then it happened: she made her pitch and as soon as the ball rolled off her fingers the not so soft ball came rocketing back at her face. WHAMMY! Crystle went down; she had just been struck in the face by a 100mph line drive. “I had five broken bones,” she said, “about 8 stitches in my lip and I lost a tooth.” It’s been over a year since this accident has happened and she’s still not fully recovered. “I have one more surgery to go.” Now despite all of this trauma and suffering, she was back on the mound pitching and back to her normal activities again just two weeks later, as if nothing ever happened. I guess you could say she has some guts and just loves what she does, whatever it is, it makes her a G.

Crystle was born and raised in a little town called Sterling, in the northern part of Virginia- about a four hour drive from Blacksburg. A very outgoing girl says a close friend, “She can just walk up to someone and start talking to them, without even knowing them,” I guess that helps when you’re going to a college with about 30,000 kids, “She's not afraid of doing something silly, and so she doesn't get embarrassed easily.” Now 18 years old, Crystle has found herself here at tech in the field of IDST, pursuing her dream of becoming an elementary school teacher. “I came to tech because it was my dream school. Ever since I visited, I knew this is where I wanted to go”, she said in an earlier interview. And who wouldn’t want to go here! “With the largest number of degree offerings in Virginia, more than 125 campus buildings, a 2,600-acre main campus, off-campus educational facilities in six regions, a study-abroad site in Switzerland, and a 1,700-acre agriculture research farm” (Background, vt.edu) it’s basically a given that this is the best university on the east coast, and with that she had no choice but to come here.

Although school, studying and acquiring an elementary education degree are of extreme importance to her, Crystle has a much deeper aspect to her, a side you wouldn’t see just by looking or even talking to her. “I consider myself a family person. I am very close to all my siblings and parents,” which include an older brother and sister, and a younger sister. Getting along with some or all family members can take a lot of work, but for Crystle, the phrase “family first” comes naturally and she loves it. You just don’t find that bondage between families very often. “Spending time with the people you love and living life to the fullest is what is important to me,” she said. And not only that, she’s very deep into her religion. “She's very spiritual. She has a strong relationship with God, and loves it. She believes that there are so many good things in people and usually that's what she sees. This is what makes her so friendly,” says a close friend to Crystle.

After caring for her family and worshiping God, she becomes just an average college freshman; a kid, just like everyone else. “She can go out and be crazy, but she's always really serious when she needs to be,” says her best friend, Jessie. Her daily routine during the summer days consisted of many things you might have actually experienced: waking up late, working a few shifts during the week, hangin’ out with her best friend and going to each other’s house to chill and maybe watch a few movies. If none of that sounds familiar, then you’re not livin’ right. “Fun and really rambunctious,” is how her best friend describes her, “We laugh about anything and everything, and she's usually pretty happy. Her favorite movie of all time is: A Night at the Roxburry. She loves Will Ferrell.” Crystle can be found out on the softball mound pitching for the home team, or actually at home watching a Monday night football game with her dad and brother, or at her friend’s house glued to the TV watching late night final four basketball game going into the 3^rd overtime. “I love sports,” is how she put it. She just likes to be happy and have a good time. If that’s not enough, she even has her own fantasy football league! That’s right; Crystle has and runs her own fantasy foot ball league- incredible. And after her draft picks are complete and everyone in her league is dealt with she somehow finds time to go out and watch movies, listen to some music and just be with her friends. “Beautiful- I don't tell her enough, but she is. She is beautiful inside and out and I love her for that,” says Jessie- I think everyone can agree on that.