Only the next two longest weeks of my life in front of me...Not to wish my life away, but I wish that they will pass quickly.

I have been talking to a lot of people recently about classes they will take next semester, and I have recomended several good classes that I have taken over the last two and a half years to several people who I know would benefit largely from these classes. As I have been doing this, I have noticed an amazingly disturbing trend...People are afraid of taking challenging courses because they do not want to put forth the effort or the work, or because they are afraid of failure. People refuse to take Chemistry or Calculus because it's "hard". They are relying upon a stereotype that has been placed on these subjects that make them impossible to pass. And while I do agree that some people just aren't cut out to take these courses, I recommend them to a lot of people because not only can the broaden your personal horizons on how the world works, but if you take the right outlook on them, they can be very fun! I struggled a lot when I took Calculus two, but that does not mean that I didn't still enjoy it immensely. Some people refuse to take a Dickey class because of the amount of material that he covers and how difficult it is to keep up with him. Who really cares about that anyways? So long as you learn something.

Then, I realized that I am motivated by quite a different factor than a lot of people. While a lot of people take the easy classes, the ones that they can breeze through and get an A in, they don't really care about actually learning. I take the harder classes, I take Dickey, and Payne, and Smith, and anyone else you wanna throw at me, and I will enjoy it, because they are the ones that force me to learn something new!

These are the classes that help you understand the amazing and awestruck preciseness with which God has created the earth and humankind. Take a molecule of water, for instance. I doubt that I can explain this on here for your understanding, but because of it's highly unique molecular structure it can have the specific properties that it has. No other substance increases in size when it is frozen, no other substance reacts the way that water does. If this molecule was not like this, then so many things just wouldn't work. A water molecule alone, can explain creation, or at least divine intervention for people that don't understand. And I wouldn't know this, if I had been too afraid to take chemistry.

So, I ask you this...are you afraid to take a challenge because it might be just that...challenging? What you put into something is an exact replica of what you will get out of it. So, if you take the easy classes just to get the grade, you will get only that, the grade.

Think about it. -SB

It seems that I have set a trend, and I doubt that anyone would believe that I was the one that was responsible for it. I have noticed that more and more people are using the word "junk", and I can tell you that I was the first person to use that word. The first couple of times that I did use it, people thought I was weird. If you, yourself, use this word, then you can say that you now know the person who first started using it.

You probably don't believe me, after all, how many people can really say that they are responsible for something that becomes wide-spread trend. But, there are at least two people who would believe me: Christopher, of course, and Austin Royalty. So, if you doubt my word, just don't doubt theirs as well. I promise that I used it first.

Although I did not always use it by itself, I would say things like, "junk-face" or other such combination of words. But, it is still my word, and at least every time that I hear someone else say it, I can have the self-satisfaction, that they got it from me.

Arachnaphobia--fear of spiders

Socialphobia--fear of social situations

Aerophobia--fear of flying

Agoraphobia--fear of open spaces

Claustophobia--fear of enclosed spaces

Emetophobia--fear of vomiting

Acrophobia--fear of heights

Cancerphobia--fear of getting cancer

Brontophobia--fear of thunderstorms

Necrophobia--fear of any kind of death (yours or others)

Obviously, most of these seem irrational, and I could go down the list of why they are irrational. But, that would be partly pointless, because I am sure that you can figure out on your own that it really makes no sense to be afraid of such things. However, what signifies them as phobias, is an irrational fear of it. These may be fears that have been developed over time by some event in a persons life, or just a common fear of the unknown (because everyone is afraid of the unknown). All of us have an irrational fear of something. It may not be to the extreme of a phobia, but it is definitely something that we do not want to mess with.

At one point, I would've told you that my greatest fear was tornado's. However, that fear has now changed. Having Christopher in my life as a constant encourager has caused me to grow so much closer to God in such a short amount of time. Now, my greatest fear is losing that encouragement and that help. The reason that I can now say that tornado's are no longer my greatest fear, is because I know that God controls the weather in the first place. After all, can you name one thing that ever happens that God doesn't have his hand in? The same idea can be said of any irrational fear, or even phobia, that any person may experience.

This does not mean that i can help myself from becoming nervously anxious, or that I can keep the color in my face when I hear those dreadful sirens (that surprisingly don't exist in Florida). But, it does mean that I can put my trust in God, and I can work down that fear (that has almost become instinct), and I can know that in the end, God will be glorified, and all will be well.

Can you guarantee yourself the same thing when faced with a fear of any magnitude?

-SB

Buffalo was a lot of fun. I got to meet some mostly decent characters (they would've been cool if they'd cleaned up their mouths and didn't smoke or drink). I learned some pretty life-exuberating things. Like, things that would improve my chances of successes and my ability to achieve great things. I also got to see the Mecca of Vector Marketing. Got to see the Cutco factory which was beyond amazing! I think the people that worked at the factory were more excited to see us than we were to see them, and they were just so thankful to their sales representatives for giving them concrete job security (in that they all had to work overtime to get enough knives made to send to all the people that are buying them). Even though economy is at its all time low since the depression, Cutco and Vector Marketing is at its all time high since it was developed (1934, I think). It was pretty amazing!

I have come back to the world of FC just to have a load of junk thrown at me. I am still having problems with my adopt hours (because of some miscommunications that I need to get cleared up). I have made a terrible miscalculation of time, so now I have buckets load to get done before thanksgiving break (right now it's stressing me out, but by Friday, I will have finished it all, and thinking back, "it wasn't that much work to do"). Didn't get much sleep last night, but it was good to have my doggy back. He slept right on top of me all night, and if I would move, he would move to be as close as he possibly could. I loved that feeling of being missed like that.

The thought of thanksgiving sort of depresses me this year. Just the idea of not being with any of my family, is not only a foreign concept to me, but it leaves me quite homesick. I know that I will probably still have a good friend with some good friends, but I do believe this has been the longest that I have ever been away from home (officially), and I know that a lot of you might be like, "well, you're married, you're not suppose to be under your parents anymore," or a bunch of junk that people often tell me about such concepts of being married. Well, that doesn't mean that I don't still miss my parents, and all of my siblings, and the people that have known me throughout my entire life.

Anyways, I have things that need to get done, and I have wasted enough of your time with my woes. I do wish all of you an amazing thanksgiving, and for those of you weirdos that only eat Turkey MAYBE twice a year, try to enjoy it as much as yours truly always does.

-SB