Youthful Life: X

Being a teenager is all about taking control of your own reputation. It's about being responsible and conscious of the way you portray yourself and the way people perceive you. We can all lie straight through our damn teeth and think that what others feel about us doesn't really matter, but let's be honest and speak the truth that it means a lot. Whether we're aware of it or not, we've got a reputation and a rapport to make or break. You'd better bet your notoriety on it.   It's defintely been the craziest few days ever hence the video blogs and pictures. Here's literally the quickest update on my life so far. Saturday morning was Greek Games - Phi Mu Delta did okay (we didn't win *cough cheating *cough went down) but we're fine with it. We weren't there to troll around like some hulking mass of primeval neanderthal or a frat daddy king, we were there to show true sportmanship and I was more than proud of us. We brought our quirky fun ...

Being a teenager is all about making the most out your college nights. it's about making memories, and making sure you're living your life to the fullest. It may sound cliché but YOLO is the damn motto, and that is doing right by yourself and living it up. You've got to bring your A-game at all times and leave it all on the dance floor (your ass had better be sweating like you popped a molly *apparently that's like a thing - I thought it was a weight loss supplement). Do you and do you right. These are supposed to be the best years of our lives, make sure they count. This is a night to remember. First and foremost, as I mentioned earlier this week - I've been straight booked solid and have little to no time to sleep properly much less dedicate tons of time writing my ridiculously long usual blog posts. As you've probably guessed, instead you've got another vlog (don't pretend you don't like seeing my face, hearing my voice, and experiencing my li...

Being a teenager is all about getting your priorities straight. A wise man once said, you make time what you feel is important. If you say you're busy that could mean that you're swamped like a bog in the bayou or that you honestly don't care enough to make time for what's being asked of you. A lot of times we say that other things are more important and that we cannot give our precious time to anything else. If it matters to you, you'll find the time and motivation to do something about it - just don't patronize others for feeling the same thing for a differ. I'm lacking in the sleep department, and need to make it my top item on my list of things to do - no more deprivation state).   You all know that I do the absolute utmost on a daily basis. I really should probably dial it down and get my life together before I just keel over and pass out ... permanently, but like Caesar (the great leader, not the salad) I'm way too ambitious to ever slow down....

Being a teenager is all about having hope. It's about knowing that things can and will always get better. There's nothing in this world that you'll face that you're already not capable of overcoming. Whether you believe in God or not, big G doesn't give you anything you can't handle. If it was insurmountable you wouldn't encounter it. Even on our darkest days, just the smallest glimmer of hope is enough to break through. We are limitless, if we only we are.   You're in for a special treat (as in, I'm way too sleep deprived to write a whole blog post) with a video blog recapping my weekend shenanigans. Highlights include Relay for Life (10 hours, yup I did it), tuxedo fitting (my brother's getting married), watching Pitch Perfect and even a clip of me doing the wobble with my fraternity brothers. Enjoy, give the video a thumbs up and subscribe to my channel and this blog. So that we as the recap part of my post. Here's the advice, br...

Being a teenager is all about noticing the little things. The small subtleties about a person that just make you want to know them more. You watch, observe, and contemplate when you see people doing amazing things just because they can. No fanfare or hubbub necessary but this is something remarkable. People going above and beyond their call of duty (yo, let me get my COD on). I've said it time and time again, "People will always surprise you, whether it's for better or worse, that's part of the surprise." This is little things. There are so many things that make each and every one of different from another. Everyone has something that sets them apart from everyone else in the world. There's the little things that people do that make them unique. Nobody else does the things you do, the way you do and that's something to be celebrated. People do way more than they have to and make an impact. They deserve to be recognized for all the courageous and quirky...

Being a teenager is all about protecting yourself. Nobody ever wants to be hurt, to be compromised or devastated. Every single day we have two kinds of interactions, either we feel good afterwards or feel bad afterwards when we come into contact with another person. In in other words, you either metaphorically dap me up or else you throw some hatorade all over me. We've all come up with our own ways of preventing from being thrown under the bus, avoiding awkwardness and doing whatever takes to not be uncomfortable. This is defense mechanisms. Defense mechanisms are deflection tools we all utilize to avoid uncomfortable situations. As college students it's our go to when it comes to avoiding feeling out place, unwanted or awkward. Everyone had their own way of doing it. The body language acrobatics we pull like awkwardness-ninjas. Popular practices include the pretending not to see people (guilty, as charged - I don't know if I should say hi or not), responding with one ...

Being a teenager is all about knowing that your point of view is just that ... your point of view. So many people walk around campus and the world in general thinking that their ideas and their perspective are automatically correct, and/or better than everyone else's. That's where you're wrong. Life is all about interacting with other people and coming to understand their outlook on the world which is bound to be different from yours. You don't have to accept it, just validate it - we're all entitled to what we want to think. This is vantage point. Let me start this post on a more solemn note. Every single time something nonsensical happens where individuals take the liberty of claiming other people's lives, in an act of terror nonetheless, I am always reminded of two things, perspective and hope. Can we all please take a second to remember what has happened in the past year, Aurora, CO ( "Rise" ) and Newtown, CT ( "Catastrophe" ) and no...