Mail time, mail time, maiiiiilllll tiiiiime.
The mail is here!

 

One of the more memorable moments of my life, for so many reasons, pictured above. My graduation was a fantastic occasion – spending that entire weekend with so many of my best friends and my extended family, celebrating a moment that was way more than four years in the making.

A couple weeks before that occasion, I got a phone call from the White House while I was working out at the gym. I was told that Mrs. Obama had heard about my time spent at Tech, and wanted to meet me. Yes, mind blown.  I had, in a very tongue-in-cheek way, actually e-mailed Mrs. Obama’s office earlier in the year, after they announced that she would be our commencement speaker, asking if I could potentially give her and her daughters a campus tour. I’m not sure if anyone ever read that message, but it turned out that through the several stories the university published about me and my time at Tech at the end of senior year, it attracted her and her speech writer’s attention. And so, the rest was history.

I sent a similar e-mail to Mr. Warner’s office, having met him previously as a member of Boy’s State (BRADLEEEYYYY!) in high school. I actually ended up getting an e-mail back, the next week – from a close friend of mine. Turned out that a former RA of mine, in Peddrew-Yates freshman year, works for Senator Warner now. He e-mailed me back and said that we would for sure set up a photo opportunity as commencement grew closer.

And so, at THAT point, the rest was history.  I got to have about a five minute meet and greet/mini-convo with the First Lady, gifted her one our Actively Caring bracelets, and then caught up with Senator Warner right after word, right before heading down to the field with THE man (Peter Velz incase you didn’t know), to enjoy a ton of photos and a fantastic commencement ceremony.

This week, I got a package at home from Sen. Warner, and then stopped by Dr. Spencer’s office as he packed up for retirment, to pick up a package from Mrs. Obama.

Lovely packages, if I do say so myself.

Father’s Day

Happy Father's Day, Pops!

 

Unfortunately, I can’t spend today with my Dad, but I called him this morning. It’s so remarkable how much meaning Father’s Day has, even though in my mind it is a bit commercialized. For me, a person who has a huge goal in life of being a great father, Father’s Day represents all of those times that you had to really have patience, and all of those times that you were really able to celebrate successes, too.

My Dad really does give the best advice of anyone I know. I know that when I call him and say “So, I need your advice,” he’ll sit there and listen, and not only tell me what he thinks I should do – but tell me what I think I want as well. And he’s almost always right – providing great pros and cons for both.

So here’s to the man that put up with me, who is always just a phone call away. Because, let’s be real – without our Dad’s none of us would be here. :)

Did it!

I keep a really detailed to do list. And when I mean detailed, I mean that I’ve had friends making fun of me for writing down to remember to clip my fingernails. But I am very proud to say that I have finally – YES, FINALLY – revamped my website with updated information, and transformed it from the website I used for Homecoming campaigning, into the site that I’ll use as a blog for both personal reflection and professional development.

I’ve had a few friends follow this model – and as I grow as a person, a student, a friend, a brother, a son, etc. – I can’t think of a better, more lasting way to be able to put all of my most meaningful thoughts in one place, to look at later, and to chuckle over.

And hey, It doesn’t hurt that WordPress has a fantastic iPhone application.

I uploaded the necessary documents to MediaFire, and spent time writing a couple things about myself – which believe it or not I actually hate doing.

For now, I’m going to turn my sleepless night to unpacking from the past week and half I spent at the beach before returning to work here in Blacksburg. Hopefully I’ll get everything organized and will be able to sleep in a clean bed room.

 

The Paper Clips Project.

“In our school, we have only 5 black kids and 1 Hispanic child. When we come up to someone who is not like us – we don’t have a clue.”

As I was getting in bed tonight, after sharing a dinner and a football games with a few friends, I read this quote online. It led me to a documentary that luckily was on Netflix Watch Instant. You better believe I began to watch it, and it made me so excited for the work that I do with the Community. There is nothing better than making people realize how important differences are.

Sometimes, I hear my friends talk about funny jokes that they’ve heard on TV shows, or celebrities that they follow. And while I read my fair share of Us Weekly and People, and sometimes am able to catch Weeds or Family Guy, I always feel like I’m not as in tune with pop culture as my friends are, becuase I never have enough time to watch stuff on TV, or on movies. But then I get the chance to see things like this, and it makes all of that envy vanish. This movie really moved me tonight. I love opportunities like this that can change your perception on so many things, and really REALLY matter.

What is six million? Paper Clips.

As I relax on this lovely Saturday evening…

And watching the Clemson/Virginia Tech game, I wanted to answer a question that I get asked pretty often. How do I stay so busy but still have the time to enjoy life, and not be super overwhelmed?

I always tell people that being busy isn’t difficult as long as you love everuything that you do. It’s so hard to get behind or feel overwhelmed if you look forward to the things you do. I also love new experiences and working with others, and as long as I get to do that then I’m happy! All of that being said, I decided to just write a post about what my typical Friday is like, since that was just yetserday and it’s the most recent week day that I can remember. For the most part, my Saturday consisted of laying in bed till about 11 a.m., waking up around noon to have friends over for the Duke game, and napping from the end of the game until about 7:30 when I woke up, showered, was GOING to get dressed to go out, but realized I was still kind of under the weather.

SO the result is rolling through an long to do list while also watching the Clemson vs. Georgia Tech game. Still not sure who I want to win here…but anyways, onto Friday.

So, on Friday I woke up around 10:30 a.m. for a meeting at 11:00 a.m. I am on the Council Executive Board for the YMCA at Virginia Tech, and I met wth several community members and YMCA @ VT members to discuss a task force surounding finding a new person to fill the “driector of Student pPrograms” role in the Y, a role that is integral in making sure that all of our student progams run well. After that, I grabbed lunch with a new friend, Nate, a guy who was integral in helping me out with all of my Homecoming campaigning. After that, I headed to Event Planning, where I work part time, to cover a shift for another co-worker.

During that shift, I had a meetinga t 2:00 to disucuss the transition of University Unions & Student Activities, a department of the Division of Student Affairs here at Tech, to Student Centers and Activities. After that, I took a quiz for one of my classes, Bee Brewing Science & Technology. I got a 100 on it, so I deemed myself as worthy of skipping class, and didn’t go to the 2:30 – 5:30 Friday evening meeting. I then went to meet up with a friend for dinner at 5:30 after a quick nap (my cold has been making me tired so quickly), and ended up not being able to find him. I actually had never met the guy before, but I was going to meet with him discussing a column he wrote for our school newspaper concerning how the Homecoming Court this year had limited diversit. We are planning on rescheduling of course. :)

After that, I ran home, checked some e-mails, showered, and then headed to the grocery store to grab a bottle of wine. I took that wine, which was  red Cabernet Sauvignon (SO GOOD) to a friends house where she had made dinner, so that was really nice. And then I headed to meet a friend on campus for the Soulstice concert, Fallin’ For Soulstice, with special guest – The Madison Project – JMU’s premiere male a capella group. That was a great concert, and I definitely enjoyed that. I headed from there, back to dinner, and then concluded my evening with a few more glasses of wine and some hookah.

A few other obstacles presented themselves toward the end of my night that prevented me from making it to a friend’s Halloween party, but my body doesn’t really like for me to have good Halloween’s anymore I’ve noticed!

BUT yeah, that’s my Friday in a nutshell! I did alot of procrastinating and e-mail starring last week, and now I’m going to take the time to rectify that whole situation.

Hope you guys enjoyed reading. I’m going to try to keep this blog up, but we will see how that goes. :)

<3