End of Summer 2011, No Life?

It’s been a really busy summer and the lack of postings here proves it. Although nothing exciting or adventurous happened while staying in Killeen, I have to say that this has to be the most accomplished summer I’ve had so far. The 4.0 GPA score for 10 credit-hours alone is enough to give me a feeling of satisfaction. This summer has left me with a few thoughts here and there…

I’ve come to realize that I’m tired of being told that I need to “experience life.” I’m sick of people telling me to do this and that because “life is short” and I should do it before “it’s too late.” I don’t want to hear this anymore. There’s nothing for me to “experience” in life right now in my current state. I realize that such actions result in simply being ignorant toward what I need to do in order to live the rest of my life properly, which is finishing my degree in Computer Science and Mathematics. I no longer want to put my education at risk because I was too busy “living life.” It was never worth it and I won’t do it again.

With that said, I still understand that people need to breathe every once in a while and take it easy. I’m not exactly a robot, so I will take breaks. But from now on, every drop of blood, sweat, and tears will be committed towards finishing school. No matter how many exams I have to take, homework assignments I have to submit, or hours I have to study, I will commit to it to the fullest of my abilities. I will undoubtedly slave away because at the end of the day, seeing the highest scores and grades next to my name is so much more worth anything else I could have done during that time frame.

It may seem like a lot, but this is such a minuscule chapter of my life right now. If I can give up just 4 or 5 years of my life to education so that I can live the remaining majority of my life with true happiness, why wouldn’t I do it? Why wouldn’t I want to graduate as an engineer, earn a six-figure job, help my mom retire, buy her a new house, by myself a new house, support my (future) family and children, and travel the world all while helping move the world forward with the work that I do? It’s just day and night.

Since it’s technically the end of another semester, I decided to upload an updated degree plan. I don’t think anything like this is too personal to share, so I’ll be uploading an updated one at the end of every semester just to milestone and look back as the classes change from red to green. Looking at my degree plan, I’m thinking that I’ll be graduating in 2013, more than likely the winter. This is what happens when you don’t go straight to a university after high school and waste an entire year of college on 23 useless credit-hours that don’t go toward your degree plan. I guess that’s what happens when you “live life.” ;)

But yeah. Summer is over! I’m ready to leave! Killeen, I love you (kind of), but you’re bringing me down. I’ve been here too long and I will probably never be here for this long ever again.

Last Summer Here

I would think that summer time would allow for more free time, but I was mistaken. This is my busiest summer yet. While I haven’t really done anything exciting, I’ve stayed busy taking 10 credit hours of classes and working ~16 hours a week. Hectic? Yeah, just a bit, but it feels good knowing that I’m making up for lost time and failed opportunities. I haven’t had a summer this productive since 2008, right after graduating high school. I regret wasting time these past few summers, but it was an experience to say the least.

After this, I will have no reason to return for next summer. There is nothing left here that I need. Future summers will be spent in College Station until I graduate.

This picture is a sloppy reflection of my summer. A simple way of showing what I’ve been up to. I’ll be slightly glad when it’s all over. I feel that fall semester can’t come soon enough.

Also, I understand that I haven’t been really updating an keeping up with the site, but just know I stay pretty up to date with my Twitter. It’s a good way of seeing what I’m up to whenever I’m away from the site and it’s really the only social networking service that I use.

End of Chapter 1

It’s hard to believe that my first year at Texas A&M University is already over. So much has happened here, both good and bad. I lived, learned, laughed, and grew not only as an Aggie, but also as a person. I’m truly happy, but also sad knowing that the first chapter is already over. I’m definitely going to miss all of the friends that I’ve made this year, and I can’t wait to see them all again once I come back.

Tomorrow, I will be packing my bags and heading back to Killeen to focus on summer classes and work. Since transferring to A&M, school has become the real priority in my life and I will have to remember this during the summer. The past summers have been awesome. Making money, staying out late, and just spending quality time with all of the buddies from Killeen. It was all relaxing, but this summer will be a bit different. It’s not going to be all fun and games this time around. (Though there will still be fun and games) I’m taking 10 credit hours this summer. I wasn’t really able to do this before because it was pointless to waste time and money on classes I wasn’t sure I needed. But now that I have a properly defined career path, I can approach my summer class options, develop a solution, and execute it.

Goodbye College Station, hello Killeen, and hello to Summer ’11. :)

Visually Reviewing 2010

2010 will be coming to an end soon. It’s been such a great year filled with memories and milestones, and it’s a year that I certainly won’t be forgetting anytime soon. These are a collection of my memories, events, and experiences from this past year. There is one photo for each of the past eleven months and they work together to create an abstract representation of my life throughout the 2010 timeline. Enjoy.

How long has it been?

4 months. It’s taken 4 months for me to get off my lazy high horse to write a post. But why? Have I been busy? No. Am I disappointed with myself? YES. What compelled me over the summer to not want to update my site, let alone visit it? It must be my own laziness, my own lack of motivation. Not too many people visit often, and I wouldn’t be surprised if nobody did at all. People come back to a website to view fresh, new content. This website has nothing because I do nothing. So from now on, I’ve come up with a proposal, a simple goal. At least one post a week. I pay money to keep this site up, which is all good and well, but if I’m not making an effort to use the site, then I’m just wasting my money. Expect the site to have a makeover soon too. It’s not going to be a complete redesign (don’t have time for that crap), but a template swap. A good one for that matter. :)

SUMMER WAS AMAZING!! Just kidding, it was good though. I didn’t travel much, except to Austin a few times. Having to work was the main reason why. Work is such a pain, but as long as I’m rockin’ a paycheck, I shouldn’t care. But best of all, nothing beated hanging out with friends. All those summer nights spent hanging out, eating food, and playing Street Fighter IV all night until the sun came out… they never went to waste.

This semester I will be a full-time student and employee. I am studying for 13 semester credit hours and will be working 32+ hours a week. It will be busy, it will be hectic, and the only that I hope is that I don’t falter. I’m very serious this semester. My goal is to raise my GPA from 3.1 to 3.4 and even further next semester. What I get for being an idiot for the past two semesters. So with that said, I can’t do any more half-assing. The Xbox, it has to go. (Well, I’m not getting rid of it, cause you know, I might need it for something.)

And that’s it for now. With that said, I need to get ready for work.