All Good Things

Well folks, it is finally official. I am a graduate of the University of Oklahoma. I (figuratively) hold a degree from a major university. I finally did it. Wow.

Of course, graduation was emotional. The culmination of years of hard work always will always tug at the heart strings, no matter who you are. And the goodbyes are always hard and never fun.

But, rather than dwell on the sad stuff, it's time to look forward. Not too far forward, of course, since I will still be in Norman for the spring, after all. But still. I find that I spend too much time admiring the past. Which isn't necessarily a bad thing. The past has made me who I am and it was full of amazing times. But the future is more important.

Well crap, here I go getting all sappy and cheezy. No more of that.

So anyway, Christmas is basically here. How it got here so fast, I'll never know. But since finals ended so close to the Christmas season, I haven't really had time to sit down and make out a proper wish list. So folks, in no particular order, here are the things that hold the top 10 spots on my 2008 wish list (and we'll see how many of these things get crossed off by Christmas 2009):

10. I wish I knew how to play the piano. For real ya'll. I've always wanted to know how to play and I was this close (imagine me pinching my fingers together in the air) to taking a piano class while at OU. Dang. But you're never too old to learn, right?
9. I wish I had a plan for my life starting around August/September 2009. Oh that would be just dandy. Because the idea of being a bum for the rest of my life surprisingly isn't all that appealing.
8. I wish I had a new computer, cause this old '03 laptop just isn't cutting the mustard anymore.
7. I wish I had a puppy. Specifically one of these puppies. No lie, I would pee my pants if one of these showed up on my doorstep for Christmas.
6. I wish I could speak a crazy language. Like Russian. Or Croatian. For real. As soon as I finish up perfecting my Spanish skills (which, by the rate of how good I am now, is going to take a looooooooong time) I'm moving on to one of the more rando Euro languages.
5. I wish I could cook. Like, more than just pasta and hamburger helper. I wish I could just toss in a dash of this and add a splash of that and come up with my own delicious creations. Someone teach me.
4. I wish I had someone to kiss at midnight on New Year's Eve. I don't think this one really requires that much explanation.
3. I wish I had the ability to own a camera for more than 5 months without destroying it. Sadly, the camera that made it all the way through Europe with me met her end at the Chickasha Christmas lights due to me dropping her on a frozen sidewalk. It was a sad day.
2. I wish I could see the West Coast. It's really the only region of the USA that I haven't yet been to and I'm ready to go ahead and cross that one off the list.
1. I wish I was better looking. That would definitely help me out with #4 on the list. However, I doubt this one is going to magically happen.

And there you have it! So if you're looking for a last minute Christmas gift, you can try and get me something from my list. Some of it might be tough, but you can be creative. Offer cooking lessons. Offer to give me plastic surgery. Offer to kiss me on New Years.

Or you could always just buy me the puppy. :)

A Sigh of Relief

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhh...........

Aaaaaand finals are done. Finally. And I can finally rest easy. I don't know why, but this semester has stressed me out more than any other semester before. Sure classes were harder, and I had about a billion group meetings per week, but I would get so stressed out at times that I couldn't sleep at night. Ugh.

But it's all over now. Kind of. I guess the hard part starts now, with grad school applications, job searches, and generally trying to figure out what the hell I'm doing with my life.

But screw all that for now. I'm relishing the moment. I am a college graduate. And no one can take that away from me.

And let's not forget that Christmas is in a week. That's a pretty big deal, too.

The Year in Review

Today I found out that I'm getting a new laptop for Christmas, which has definitely been needed for a couple of years now. How nice that I get one now that I'm done with college. :) JK JK, I'm happy to get it in any case.

Anyway, the computer is not the important part of the story. I've started to organize all my files, music, photos, etc. from this old laptop so that I can transfer everything over quickly and easily, and in the process of organizing, I started going through all of my many, many photos that I have take over the years and, more specifically, over the course of this year. What caught my attention is that my life from January 1st until today has changed so drastically that it's almost like I'm living a completely different life.

So I decided that it would be really cool to put a picture up here, one for every month of this past year. Each picture represents a great memory or event from that month that I really feel like represent the month well. So, without further ado, here is my year in review:

January - This photo is actually from day numero uno, January 1st, 2008. I had gone on a nice, long road trip with a pretty good group of friends to Phoenix, Arizona to see the Sooners play in the Fiesta Bowl. And of course we couldn't pass up a trip to the Grand Canyon in the process. So here I am, perched on a ledge of the Grand Canyon. Not a bad way to start the year.

February - Of course my representation of February is of my amazing High School Leadership Conference exec. So many hours, days, weeks, months of preparation went into making this conference happen and I couldn't have possibly had a better exec with me to make it all happen. I miss HSLC a lot and looking at my exec makes me miss it all that much more.

March - This is a picture from the trip to NYC that Katie and I took together on Spring Break. It was a great trip in a lot of ways. We got to see a lot of things, we got to spend a lot of time together, and we got to realize a lot about the two of us. It was a great trip with a great girl and it's something that I will always look back on with fondness.

April - Looking back on my pictures from April, it was basically the month of Elizabeth and the Plastics. Which kinda sounds like a cool music group name. Anyway, plastics got May, so Elizabeth got April. She and I went to what seemed like 100 date parties that month, but really we just took each other to our final Phi Delt and Tri Delt date parties. Elizabeth always has been and always will be one of my very best friends on the face of the planet and we've had some of the absolute craziest times together. Never a dull moment.

May - My so-called "Plastics Month." haha How could any of us forget the oh-so-famous 8 (9, 10, 11, 12....) in '08? It is literally one of my favorite nights of college and life in general. This group of people (picture is minus Bebb, Eks Wye, Kelly, etc., but I had to pick and choose. And they don't read this anyway, so no harm, no foul.) also represents some of the best friends I've ever had and a time with all of us together, such as when this picture was taken, is guaranteed to be full of all kinds of debauchery. And also sorry to Ryan who joined us later in the night, but picture number 1 was the best one of the night. For various reasons.

June - My first picture at my University in Spain. Those first few days were so full of excitement, awkwardness, thrills, nervousness, and so much more. I can't even really explain it in perfect detail. But I had been waiting my entire life for this opportunity and it really changed me a lot.

July - This picture represents so well my life in Spain. I love love love it. For many reasons. First of all, I'm posing with a ton of friends who I had never met before going to Spain, yet I was having a blast with. We were taking part in one of the famous festivals of Spain, the Running of the Bulls, and taking in the culture as much as possible. Basically it represents the amazing times and the amazing friends that came from studying abroad.

August - This is a picture from Anne's house in Norway. Ever since I met Anne all those years ago in Calvin, we have met each other in various cities around the US. Yet I have always wanted to see Anne in her natural environment and meet her friends and family who I had heard about for years. So this picture represents a culmination of a friendship (that will still be going for years to come, of course). What a great time this was.

September - Honestly, I couldn't remember if this was end of August or beginning of September, but either way, it's close enough. But this was the first football game back at good old University of Oklahoma. I love this picture because it represents the fact that even though I had been gone so long, I still had a home and friends to come back to. Even though we had to evacuate the stadium in the process.

October - Of all my pictures from this month, this one is my favorite. Like I said, my life here changed a lot, and that included a whole new cast of friends. Here we have me, Nellie, William from France, and Jorge and Dini from Spain all dressed up for a Halloween party. I've loved getting to know these new people and I love the fact that we all feel like we've been friends forever. This was a particularly fun night as we all had fun partying in Norman.

November - I love this picture because it's from one of the last home games and these are all people that I have known forever. It's so great knowing that these people will always be in my life no matter how far apart we get and how long we're away from OU. And we will all always have a lot of love for our school.

December - Now as my college career is drawing to a close, and the holiday seasons are approaching, nothing in my life is more apparent than the importance of my family. So this is a picture of me and my almost-two-year-old nephew Colt that was actually just taken today. We both kinda look a little chubbier than we really are, but hey, we're not looking to impress anyone. But I love this picture because it shows that no matter how much change happens in my life or how crazy things get, my family will always be there.

So there you have it. A year in the life of Jordan. A lot has changed. A lot has stayed the same. And there is still so much to look forward to in the year to come.

I'm Done!

I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done I'm done!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, I'm not really done.

BUT, I did officially finish my Capstone class tonight! I studied for what seemed like a countless amount of hours for a final that was 3 essay questions over 5 months of material. And I can't lie when I say that I've been dreading it for quite some time.

But it's all over. And I'm done. And it feels goooooooooooood.

Not to mention that my Capstone professor went out and had drinks with a few of us after class. Which is pretty dang cool.

And now it's time for a break. Until my final presentation on Friday morning, of course. And my three finals after that. But you know, now that Capstone is done I feel like I can handle anything.

Hooray for graduating!

Starting Again

My oh my how time flies.

I find it hard to believe that it has been months since I wrote in this thing. Yet the proof lies in the fact that it took me several tries to log in seeing as how I had forgotten my password.

But the last time I wrote, I debated on whether or not I was going to keep up with this thing. I decided not to with the justification that nothing that exciting was going to happen in my life. Yet I failed to see that life isn't just exciting when you're jetting around the globe or seeing famous things. Life can be pretty dang amazing when it comes down to the daily and the ordinary. And in this transition stage of my life right now, I think things are amazing enough to get down on paper. Or screen. Whatever.

So in response to your gracious thank you's for returning to my blog (no worries, I can sense the gratitude from here) I can say......you're welcome.

Aaaaaaahhhhhh...........it's like slipping back into my favorite, most comfortable pair of shoes. Or a warm bath. Or something more manly. :/

So anyway, as I kinda already eluded to, things are crazy right now. And not just because of those dreaded finals (which just so happen to coincide with my first blog post in 4 months. Coincidence? Nope, definitely not.) but also because life is so absurdly ambiguous right now. Up until this point in my life I have always have the definite and the known to look forward to.

I'm done with middle school, next is high school.
I'm done with high school, next is college.
I'm done with this semester, now time to tackle next semester.

But now what's next?

Not to say that this is that unusual or unique, seeing as how every single person in the world gets the thrill of this stage of life. But it's so scary. Terrifying, actually. Yet it is also so wildly exciting. Where will I be in a year's time? Will I be joining my new friends in Spain to celebrate a Madrid Christmas? Will I be going to a co-workers Christmas party in Boston? Chicago? Dallas? Will I be sitting on my butt in Calvin, Oklahoma?

Hmm. I went a little too far with that one.

But the point is that I have NO clue what my next stage will be.

Am I scared? Oh yeah.
Am I uncertain? Undoubtedly so.
Am I ready? Definitely.

But now onto some definitely less serious stuff. My dear, sweet, amazing, beautiful friend Katie (who I miss very much, btw) was gracious enough to give my blog an award. And here it is.....

So apparently I'm fabulous. Or at least my blog is. Okay, sure. I'll give it a shot. So now I have to list my 5 addictions. Which now that I think about it, is kinda tough. But here goes nothing....

1. World of Warcraft!!!!!!!1!!!1!!!1!

Pwning n00bs.

Totally rad.

2. An organization I feel very strongly about....

Pistols for Pandas. It's only a matter of time before they take over anyway, people. We might as well arm them now.

3. The great American pastime

NASCAR.

Mobile homes.
Car fumes.
All the snuff a guy could want.

What more could you ask for?

4. The OTHER great American pastime...

Of course I'm talking about noodling!

There's nothing quite like sticking your arm in a dark river hole and waiting for a huge catfish to take a nibble.

5. And last but not least, and probably the most obvious....

BOOBIES!!!!!

Minds out of the gutter people.

PSYCHE!!!!!

Wow, all this lack of sleep from finals must REALLY be getting to me. Hmm.

So anyway, here are my REAL (current) 5 addictions, in no particular order:

1. Finding new music - no lie guys, I could pass an entire Saturday just browsing through iTunes or Pandora or some other music website and finding new stuff. Of course, I always have my backups that will never, ever get old, but man I love finding new, great music.

2. Travelling - If I could just pack up and live travelling from country to country for my entire life, I probably would. There is nothing I love more than seeing new places and meeting new people. Each and every place has so many amazing things, and finding those things have given me a ton of pleasure in my day.

3. Hanging out with friends - this is definitely not new. It's really not all that shocking to see me choose hanging out with friends rather than studying for a test the next day or working on important projects. The way I see it, my friends are going to be there forever, but that class will be over in a month or two. Sure, grades last forever, but I've really started to care about those little letters less and less.

4. Twilight - I know, I know. I should not be reading romance novels written for 13 year old girls. BUT, at least I have a story for how I got hooked. It all started when I was backpacking through Denmark and Sweden all alone. I was starting to get lonely and I really, really wanted to see something in English, so I made my way to a bookstore in Copenhagen. And the only, and I repeat the only book they had in English was Twilight. So I bought it, read it, and the addiction was on. It's serious too, ya'll. I even went to see the midnight premier.

5. Spain - I hate being one of those weirdos who lives in a foreign country for just a short period of time and then can't stop talking about it. But wow. I freaking love Spain. The culture, the music, the food, the people, EVERYTHING. I am dying to go back, and hopefully I'll get that chance over the next year. All in due time.

So there you have it, folks. My first blog post in several months. And possibly my most random post ever. But hey, no one ever said I had to stick to a certain method of writing, right?

For those of you who read this, I really do hope all is well and I hope to hear from/see/hug each and every one of you soon!