One of my favorites

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don't deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don't give way to hating,
And yet don't look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream - and not make dreams your master;
If you can think - and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you've spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build 'em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: "Hold on";

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings - nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds' worth of distance run -
Yours is the Earth and everything that's in it,
And - which is more - you'll be a Man my son!

Rudyard Kipling

Today I don't have a lot of interesting things to say. I guess what've been going around my head the most are a ton of questions that I don't really have the answers to yet. For example, this whole 'job after graduation' thing is pretty scary. I think I could feel a million times less stressed right now if I only knew what was going to happen after May 12. In my mind, I can see the calendar dates clearly up until then. And after May 12, it turns into a dark fog. I don't know if I'll still be in Des Moines, back in Minnesota, trying a new state... I think that I'd like to stay in Des Moines. I know there are so many people who want to escape the Midwest, especially Iowa, but it's really not that bad. I've actually grown to like Iowa.

I know that life won't stop after I graduate if I don't find a job, but for some reason it feels like it. It feels like if I don't find a job with my major that I'll get sucked into this black hole where it will be twice as difficult to come out and get back on the 'right path.' And as much as I love my parents, I do not want to live with them again. I'm sure worrying won't solve any of this and somehow something will figure itself out, but until then it's going to keep disrupting my peace of mind.

People Watching

Yesterday I was walking to, of all places, Carnegie when I noticed two guys walking in front of me. They were dressed in normal winter attire, but one of them had a limp. Now this is nothing extraordinary--I've seen limps before. So from lack of other things to do while walking, I studied their pace waiting for the guy without a limp to step out of sync from his friend, but he never did. In fact, he walked identically to his friend, resting longer on one foot, but without a limp. So this got me to thinking they must be such close friends or spend so much time together that the friend developed a sympathy limp. I've heard of this before where, in an extreme example, a husband develops a sympathy belly while his wife is pregnant. (My roommate told me this is probably just an excuse for a man's beer belly.) Either way, it's something to think about...

Overview

I am originally from Mankato, MN. I decided Des Moines was the perfect distance from home--I can still go home for the weekend and have my separate life in Des Moines. I'm the youngest of 4 kids. I have two brothers and one sister who are currently 38, 36, and 34 years old. It has been nice being the youngest. They all had different expectations of me, though. Jeff always pushed education, Dave pushed sports, and Lori, of course, wanted a sister to save her from her two brothers. I've become very close to all of them and family has always been a big part of my life. We tell each other almost everything, so secrets are hard to keep in this family. If I tell my sister something important, I can probably expect calls from my brothers and my mom within a day or two asking why I didn't tell them first.

I also have 8 nephews and nieces so my family is growing continually. It's fun to see how different all of their personalities are. I'm not asked to babysit much, but that's probably because I made it pretty clear to call me only as a last resort. I'm not a very big kid person, which I'm sure sounds horrible. I love my nieces and nephews, but I get along with them much better after they've learned to walk and talk. Then I can at least teach them new tricks to annoy their parents.

On the Way to Moline

Well, this weekend I am at my brother's house in Moline. On the way here I noticed a ton of hawks on highway signs and lamp posts. It always interests me when I see that because when you think of nature and a hawk, you imagine it sitting in a pine tree in the forest, not next to highway 80. So maybe I'll keep my eyes open to see if there's anymore instances of nature adapting to technology. That would be fun to photograph, too.

The Beginning

Welcome to the first blog I have ever created. More to come. I promise.