ReFirst

Today is the first day of school.  Today is the first day of school.

What?

I'm kind of confused and this is why: it feels like it's not the first day of school.  It feels like it's not the first day of school.

What?

I'm kind of confused and this is why: I feel like the entire summer was simply a week off, a "summer spring break" if you will.  I feel like I've returned to campus, did a little rearranging of my room, and *boom* right back at class on Monday.  That's another weird thing.  Today feels like Monday, in no way in the world could it be Wednesday, but hey, I don't control the calender; I look at the calender, and behold, it is Wednesday.

So, all that said, I am excited for this semester.  My schedule looks like it will work out very nicely, having all my classes in between the hours of noon and 5 (except PE) will be nice and hopefully I can get some sort of working job because my mornings are virtually free free free.  We'll see what happens.


Ok, so the picture you see above is an interesting one.  It is from exactly one year ago today, well kinda, first day of school at least.  I am wearing the exact same thing EXCEPT I added a little ornamentation, the argyle socks add a nice touch.  Here is the picture from a year ago. 

And here is the post from a year ago: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2009/08/leaf.html

It's interesting to read that post, because a year ago, I was a brand, spankin' new freshman at Biola University.  I'm not that brand, spankin' new freshman any more.  I know my way around campus, I have more than 0 friends at school, the list continues.  My emotional state, my psychological state, even the California state is at a completely different state today, August 25, 2010, than it was a year ago, August 26, 2010.  Now THAT is something I can't go into because if I went into extensive detail about every single thing that has changed since then, not only would you be here a long time reading, but I'd be here even a longer time writing, and, honestly, I don't really want to be here even a longer time writing.  FUN FACT: The post from last year was labeled "Leaf." I don't know why, I can't remember.  Here's the fact, I am accidentally listening to the band "The Album Leaf" right now, as I write.  Fun.


So, here, now, because this is the first day of school and it's a new segment of this blog, I will reexplain what this blog is all about.  I lied.  I did that a year ago, I'm just going to copy and paste from that post I linked above:

Let me explain what this blog is about for all my potential new readers in case it is not common knowledge. I started this blog at the beginning of my senior year in high school, simply to record the events I partook in for future remembrance. As the year progressed, I started to develop a name for myself. People were now expecting me to dress up on Wednesday, were now expecting me to dress up on holidays, were now expecting me to create a bigger, better blog entry every single week. Sometimes I wondered what caused the popularity, was it that someone decided to go against the trend? I was technically the oddball, not conforming to the style trends of society. Whatever the reason, the blog caught on and my dress antics were being noticed and now I am put in the spot of college; what do I do in college? Do I continue the blog? Do I continue dressing up? Do I do both? Do I do neither? I am here to tell you that as of right now, I am going to continue both, but, as always, we'll see what happens.

I hope this makes sense, especially to my fellow readers who are not used to, well, my style of writing. I write in stream of conscious meaning I don't edit, I don't outline, I don't, honestly, think before I write. I just go.

So that's the majority of the scoop.  Here's what I didn't write a year ago.  If you have been a follower of this blog, which I am extremely appreciative of, you will have realized I did not post consistently during the summer.  In fact, I posted very inconsistently during the summer.  There was absolutely no consistency about it.  So here's the thing, I have grown out of my habit, I have grown away from the consistency of synonymousy of Wednesday's and blog posts.  So, honestly, I don't know if I'll be in the mood to write these things, I don't know if I'll the inspiration to write these things, I don't know if I'll have the motivation to write these things.  Nevertheless, I am up today, writing one of these things right now, so that will tell you something.  I think it may be because I'm back and school and the blog writing habit is connected to school.  Let's hope.



I do want to tell you this: this blog post is not like it will be in the future.  Normally, I come up with stuff to write about during the week and write it down somewhere to remind me to write about it.  Sometimes I'll include video and/or photography and/or other forms of media for your enjoyment.  Here is a great example of what this blog was in its prime: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2009/11/diff-erent.html.  So that is what this blog potentially could be in the coming weeks, so keep your eyes peeled.


I'm going to interject; I just said "keep your eyes peeled" and that took me directly to Hume Lake, Friday recreation chapel, watching the Great Race rules video when Megan Fate is explaining the secret bonus point worthy objects around camp.  All of a sudden, Hume Lake memories flooded my mind.  I have a feeling this type of remembrance will happen quite often.




So that's the scoop.  That is what this blog is about.  I hope you, the reader, enjoy it.  I don't know if I would enjoy it if I, well, wasn't me.  I can't know that, it's an impossibility.  So there you have it, completeness.


Have a marvelous day today tomorrow and the day after tomorrow.  You probably should keep that mindset for the days after as well.  That'd be straight up krill.

Sum(mer) it up

The summer has officially ended.  Come Monday, I head back to Biola University to complete my 3rd semester of college.  I feel like I just left that place.  I feel like I just packed up my belongings, unpacked them into my home, and now I have to repack them again.  What's funny, is I feel like I have not been there in a long long time.  I feel like I've been away a while.  I have.

Come Monday, the summer is going to feel like it never existed.  It's a like a vacation.  You leave your house and when you return to your house, life goes on uninterrupted, unstilted, like your vacation never happened.  I feel like, come Monday, I am going to arrive at school, conversate with my Biola friends and feel like last school year is continuing perfectly uninterrupted.

Here's the thing: I don't want it to feel that way.  This summer has been arguably the best summer of my life, either because I haven't had anything exciting happen in all my summers, or because the 2010 summer was just that good.  I would argue for the latter.  Seriously, Hume Lake is one unique place.  Even though I have been going up there for my entire life, every single experience, something new comes about, something different arises, a learning opportunity presents itself.  This summer, I wasn't only up there for one week, I was up there for 11 and a half.  That's overwhelming in itself.  I honestly can not believe so much experiences can be packed into such a short time, but, ironically, so many memories were made that I can not pinpoint any specific one, which definitely sounds weird.  Let me explain: if you said "hey, what was one cool thing that happened in the last week of camp?" I would stammer and say "Uhh, let me think, umm....   I honestly don't know, I can't think of any one thing because there are too many cool things that STRAIGHT UP WENT DOWN!"  Here is where I would pause, I would think.  I may be the only one who is like this, but if I sat down and really thought about all the things that happened this summer, I probably could come up with a pretty good list.  However, right now, I'm putting myself on the spot, and can't really put my entire summer experience into a few words.

 We'll see how it goes.


A few posts ago (http://emliv.blogspot.com/2010/07/honest.htm - July 23), I talked about relationships and, well, I'll just let you read it again:

I've noticed Hume fuels a sense of sped up, hyper speed relationships.  Relationships are built incredibly fast at the beginning of the summer.  All of a sudden, "good" friends are made.  By the end of the summer, all these "good" friends of yours who you feel like you've known "forever" have really only been your friends for 3 months or so.  Maybe it's just me, I'm sorry I have have stuck "you" into this situation.  All I know is this: I fall into what I just described.  I honestly feel like I have already developed a number of solid relationships with the staff up here at Hume Lake.  Here's what I don't know: am I deceiving myself?  I have solid friendships that I've had with people for five plus years, how in the world can I describe a friendship I've made in less than 3 months with the same word (solid) as these "veteran" relationships?  I don't have a clue, and I don't have an answer.  Maybe it's fine.  Maybe these relationships really are solid, maybe they're not.  Either way, I know this: I like a lot the people up here and plan on keeping in touch.  We'll see what happens. 

This paragraph is still true.  Now that summer is over, I honestly feel like I have established a number of relationships that I will be continuing, possibly "forever" or whatever that word means.  Hume would not have been the same without the people I met, conversed with, and said goodbye to.  First of all, my department.  The Hume Lake media team was the PERFECT crew to work with.  Every individual I directly worked with was just that, an individual.  Everybody brought new, original ideas to the table and we all built off each other like a phat bigger-or-better scavenger hunt.  Not only did we work well together, we had a good time together and became friends, imagine that?  It was straight up an absolutely awesome working with the summer staffers and the full timers.  It was pleasure working with each and every one of you, especially all of you who read this.  Seriously, I'll never forget the REAL Hume Lake Yacht Club.

Now, there are many other people who I'd like to mention, but we'll see how that goes.  My roommates were straight up legit.  Even though we were only all awake at the same time in the room probably five times, it was super good time.  They were good guys and I'm glad I could put my stuff in the same room as them and we could be completely knocked out without acknowledging each other every night of the summer.  Those guys are pro.

Now, I greatly appreciate every single person I had a conversation with.  I don't care if it was one sentence or enough to fill a novel.  I seriously am so grateful that everybody I talked with took the time, whether short or long, to talk with me.  I enjoyed every second of it.  I know it sounds simple, but I don't want to overlook it.  If these people didn't exist, I would not have talked to a solitary person the entire summer, so saying this reigns importance.

And then I'd like to thank the people I had meaningful conversation with.  Meaningful conversation is so great, whether swapping jokes, talking about Christianity, or simply being overwhelmed by the massive amount of stars in the sky.  You know who you are.  Seriously.  I enjoyed sharing stories, I enjoyed sharing our lives.  I'm going to be honest right now, I don't know what to write right now.  I'm having a hard time putting my thoughts into text for you to read.  There is just too much...   Let's just put it this way, I hope I have more conversations with the people I had conversations with.


I believe that pretty much covers everybody.  I guess I could throw this in there: I am extremely appreciative to all the people I did not talk to.  All those people worked just as hard or harder than I did, they all had jobs to perform, and based upon the success of the summer, they all did their job.  I can't start thinking about the amount of responsibility every one person individually has.  It's incredible.


So now that does cover everybody.  This summer has been mind-boggling.  Straight up krill.  Seriously.  It went down in the history books.  In fact, open up the most popular 2011 history book that all the public school are buying and on page 433, there is a blurb on Hume Lake Summer 2010.  Not even kidding.
 




So, in all that, I am excited for the coming school year.  I believe it will be a good one.  In fact, I'll say this, I'm PUMPED!!

So good day, people of the internet. Have a great rest of your day, whether it's noon, 5 pm, 11 pm, or 2 in the morning. Utilize your time.

What? When?

It's week 9.  It's Thursday of week 9.  It's Thursday of week 9, 1 week left.  No joke, it's Thursday of week 9, 1 week left.  1 week left?

Here's the thing, time has flown.  Summer feels like the snap of two fingers, just like *snap* that.  It honestly feels like I was just moving in to my trailer, just learning the workflow of our video department, just meeting new people to talk with for 3 short months.  Just like *snap* that.

BUT, here is what gets me.  The hoedown feels like a LONG time ago.  The failed mountain climbing adventure seems like a LONG time ago.  The trip down the hill for my great-grandpa's birthday party feels like a LONG time ago.  Why?  I don't know.  The summer has flown by, just like *snap* that.

I feel like I have talked about this kinda of thing in recent post(s).  I honestly don't know, I just go.  Point is: this is definitely a summer to remember (as was last summer and probably the summer before).  But how will I remember it?  Will just simply remembering be enough?  You see, as is with virtually any situation, you learn things.  You remember                .......




You know, I don't really have a clue where I was going with this.

Man alive, this is really unlike any blog post I've ever written.  It's so off the cuff, raw.  Even though all the posts are straight up and unplanned, this one seems, well... I guess it feels like I have very little to write about so I'm blabbering OR I have a lot to write about, but I can't get myself to transcribe my thoughts into words.  I have a feeling it's the latter.  There really is a lot on my mind, actually "a lot" is a very relative term, so I may have a lot on my mind, but I may have a very small amount compared to what you might be thinking about.  I don't know what is on your mind, I may never know, and that is okay.

Here are two older posts:

1. Read about my Senior Ditch Day two years ago (Random, I know, I just picked one).  It's a good, interesting, random memory, worth a read for sure.     :: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2009/03/senior-ditch-day-2009.html

2. Read about almost exactly one year ago.  Quite the change of pace as far as summer goes.     :: http://emliv.blogspot.com/2009/08/awaited.html




So I thought looking through these would promote some sort of inspiration.  It didn't really.  I guess this will be the experimental post and really doesn't have anything good to say.

We had some fun last week:

I hope you enjoyed those.  You can view more here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/morganlott/




You know, all that was was a shameless plug.


This post kind of was a waste of time.  That's just how I feel.  Maybe you don't feel that way.  Maybe you really enjoyed yourself.

I'm just not feelin' it.  I'm sorry, I really am.  It's SUPER LAME for you to waste your time reading my collection of words.  I hope it wasn't a waste of time, but if it was, I wish you could have your minutes back.


 Again, I'm sorry.  I really am.






To end on a joyful note, you can expect a blog post in the coming weeks that will be much more put together then the one you just went through. 







Have a great day.  Have a brilliant day.  Tell someone you appreciate them.