To Excel at Excelling - Humanities Goal

My purpose in life is make use of everything I have. I want to utilize every asset I have to its greatest potential. Over the years I've developed certain skills, viewed things from many different vantage points, and constructed my own opinion on many things. To choose a future for myself that doesn't make use of as many of these different ingredients of me would just be a waste. Somehow, I ended up with this crazy desire to be a doctor. Surely this will utilize every drop of blood, sweat, and tears I could possibly muster, and more.



Becoming a physician will be a long journey indeed, but well worth it. I will be the first person in my family to attend a four year college, medical school, and receive an M.D. So as you can see, I should feel some pressure. But as I stated earlier, I've developed a few skills over the years. One of them being the invulnerability to stress and anxiety. While some kids stress out and rock back and forth in the corner during finals week, I sit back and coast through like it's no big deal. We'll see how well this goes next year though, as it may come back to bite me.

For years my parents and teachers have been telling me school will get harder. I'm still waiting. If this persists, it's just logical for me to pursue one of most competitive, intellectually challenging professions in the world. Right? Not everyone can do what I do, set my head down on a desk and soak up information like a sponge until the chapter test. This "talent" should not go to waste. I owe it to those people that have to try to succeed. It wouldn't fair to have such a valuable ability, and then go into the Community Sanitation Services.

Another factor to why I want to be a doctor is majorly governed by my ego. Yes, I know, that's a very bad thing. I've never been good with following directions, being below people, or being wrong. With a passionate hate for being wrong, I make it a point to absorb as much information as I can from my classes not so I can maintain my 4.0, but so I can have the right tools available for when I but heads with that other person whose ego is as big as mine. I've always had a problem with authority, so the obvious answer to this dilemma is to get as high up on the food chain as possible. It's a good thing I'm not afraid of heights.

So now for the icing on the cake. The best job you can have is a job you love, and a job you enjoy doing every day. I have an odd love for puzzles, comparable for a math teachers love for numbers. So a job revolving around the basis of figuring a problem out seems perfect for me. For years I have wished to be just like Hugh Laurie in House, walking around in jeans and a T-shirt getting paid big bucks to be a sarcastic jerk and never be wrong when it comes to solving a patients deadly predicament. Unfortunately, we can't have our cake and eat it too.

My future is starting to come into focus. I have already decided on my post high school plans. I will be attending Chadron State College for pre-med and will receive a B.S. degree in Human Biology. I will then transfer to UNMC and enroll in a graduate program for my M.D. After receiving my degree, I will return to rural Nebraska and hope to get a job in the Aurora Clinic or in a nearby clinic. Because of my career plan, I am going to apply for the RHOP program, which guarantees me a spot in the medical center, taking a lot of the competition out of getting into UNMC.



After my 8 year trek through school and finding a job, I hope to start a family shortly after. I want to settle down in the small town environment so that my children can have some of the same experiences that I had as I was growing up. I feel like a small town can breed a much higher quality citizen than any of the over populated metro areas, as everyone in a small community tries to boost everyone up when it comes to their futures, instead of a the massive free for all in a larger community. 

God we look good, goin' down in flames

     Some people have no idea where they are, nor where they are going. Fortunately, I know the answer to both of these. I'm approaching the edge of the simple life, about to take the make it or break it leap to the next stage of my life. With only months left, I can feel the heat. I can feel the mob of nay-Sayers approach ever so swiftly, telling me how I can not succeed, how the future I desire is not possible, silly even. Nevertheless, I keep heading for my goal. I can't slow down, I can't hold back, even though I wish I could. There is no time to construct a fall back plan, no time to think about what will happen if I don't make it, because not succeeding is not an option. If I don't make the leap for my future, I will be trampled by the nay-Sayers. If I stop and think about some other way to cross this chasm, I will be trampled. So that leaves me here, rushing away from the mob, in a crazed day dream to prove them wrong, while fighting the urge to panic. I envy those with bridges accross their canyons, or safety nets to keep them from falling all the way to the bottom, as I do not have the connections or the heritage to constitute such an effortless transition to adulthood. Where am I? I am at the edge, ready to leap. 

     That concludes my metaphor of where my mind is, now lets look at the physical aspect of my life, and where I am in that sense. I live in the little town of aurora, my father's house is about a block from the Child Care Center, and my mother lives about three blocks from the school. I am supposed to switch homes every two weeks, but it just depends on how lazy I am and if I feel like packing up and moving all of my junk. My parents have been divorced for quite some time now, I can barely remember the times when they were together. It doesn't bother me though, together or apart, they're the same people. I'd also like to add that I am definitely not like some people who use this as an excuse to do stupid things, like this new YOLO crap. "Oh no, I come from a broken home, there's no way I can do anything with my life."

     Aurora is a unique community, everyone knows everything about everyone. Which at some times is quite unnerving. It's also sad to see the many run down areas of the town, cars parked on the front lawn, trashy trailer houses, houses with the siding peeling off. Someday, I hope this town will begin to recover. I hope our slums shrink and our people grow content. I hope everyone will have the resources to be happy.
   
     I attend Aurora High School, which is in my opinion (even after looking at the awful lunch, plethora of immature students, and the few iffy instructors), is the number one school in the state, if not the nation.  Contrary to my overall view of the school, I simply can not wait until I graduate and can be on my way to college.

     Speaking of the state, all of this is part of Nebraska incase you didn't know. A place relatively unknown in the minds other Americans. However boring and unknown this state really is can be balanced by the fact that nothing big really happens here to upset our daily lives, no big political occurrences ever upset the daily routines of the people, and no terrorists ever feel like nuking our cornfields, which is nice for those who like to mind their own business and just want continue on with their lives. Unfortunately, I hate corn, I can't stand rednecks, and farms are dirty. How I can I be so content in this little hick state nestled in the center of America? I ask myself the same thing every day.

     Where am I right now? Right now I am in the car on the six hour journey to Chadron to tour their campus, chat with the pre-med students, and have lunch with the RHOP rep, while finishing up this blog post on my Droid. The cause for my future thumb arthritis will not be a mystery. Also, because I'm using the blogger app on my phone, I haven't figured out how to add pictures, so they will be in separate posts. 

Who am I?

Who am I?

     I stroll through my life one day at a time, and spend a few minutes here and there thinking about the past, and what the future has in store for me. The past few weeks, Dr. English has given us multiple different assignments to help us answer the first of our three blog questions: Who am i?

^My Deep map^

     Our first project was this here fancy shmancy deep map. Although most people's maps were quite elegant and elaborate, mine was more simple, plain, and down to earth. I like to think that my map shows that I'm more of a logical thinker than a creative artist. My deep map may look like a bunch of random quotes, but i divided them into five different categories, or puzzle pieces, if you will, that can help you piece together how they describe my personality. Each quote reveals a little bit of how I think, and the beliefs I hold. I look for loyal friends, not fair-weather acquaintances. I value logic, reasoning, and intelligence very highly, and my dream for the world is that one day, everyone will be ambitious enough to learn as much as they can. My morals are based on what I believe are important. I do not live by a book or stories that have been passed down. I base my actions what I believe to be the right thing to do. The career I seek, which happens to be in the field of medicine,  is heavily considered a position of nontraditional leadership, most doctors help their community out in various ways, setting examples for other professionals. The second quote under the career piece talks about enjoying your line of work, and because I enjoy anything related to science, I hope I will enjoy a career in the medical field. The final piece, Future, contains my favorite quote from Mark Twain. After reading it, I really started to think about my future, and how I can make a difference. I only have one chance to help the human race and make the world a better place, I better not screw it up. It also made me think deeper into my afterlife. To me, afterlife is your reputation that follows your name after you die, not some happy place with lots of virgins or flying people holding harps. It made me think about what I'm going to do to ensure an afterlife for myself, what I can do to make myself known and stay in existence after my time expires.

Swing Life Away - Rise Against

Our second assignment was to create a life soundtrack. The life soundtrack was 10 songs that we can relate to in some way, and the song at the top of my list was Swing Life Away. I chose this song because of the overall mood, and the fact that Rise Against is my all time favorite band. To me, this song expresses how you don't need any spectacular recognition, a high ranking job, or a nice car to go through life happily. I could swing my life away with someone I loved, even if i lived off of minimum wage. I have plans for myself, big plans. However, I would make the most of my life if my plans turned out to be far more than I could handle. My other 9 songs show various other views of my personality. Five of my ten songs talk about how flawed our nation is in one way or another, which symbolizes that half of everything that goes through my head is a complaint about how disappointed I am in the nation or the world as a whole, and also demonstrates how I perceive certain aspects of my life. It also shows I'm not the most optimistic person you'll meet, so it's a good thing I don't claim to be one. The final four songs all relate to how I interact with the people in my life, and my reactions to what they have to say to me.

^Family Artifact^

      Well, for the record, this picture was ripped off from Google images, but that's not important. What is important, is that for every holiday get together I have with my mother's side of the family, my grandmother ALWAYS brings apple pie. So I thought it would be an appropriate artifact to use for our third assignment: examination of a family tradition. Unfortunately, grandma didn't have any fresh baked pies in the vicinity, which is where Google came into play. I'm not quite sure how this affects me as a person, or how it helps explain who I am, but I had to incorporate a picture in some way to adhere to the Dr. English protocol of blog posting. Mission Accomplished.