Start Off By Making Your Bed

Well, I am officially a college graduate now. It's a kind of odd idea that I won't ever be sitting in crammed classrooms struggling to stay awake or cramming for the next days test due to those repeated days of sleeping. I suspect that the feeling won't completely sink in until August rolls around and I hear of others starting classes while I'll be moving up to Dallas to start my real world job. Fortunately for me, last night at my Commencement ceremony, I received some incredibly valuable knowledge from our keynote speaker. Admiral William H. McRaven who is a former Longhorn, trained Navy Seal, and was the lead coordinator of the raid that got Osama Bin Laden. In his speech, he spoke of the 10 lessons that he learned in Seal Training that he hoped would help move us forward in life. I won't go through the whole list (here's the link to the whole speech), but I will note one of the biggest points that resonated with me. Due to the fact that I know I won't do justice to his words, I will simply place his first anecdote here.

Every morning in basic SEAL training, my instructors, who at the time were all Viet Nam veterans, would show up in my barracks room and the first thing they would inspect was your bed.

If you did it right, the corners would be square, the covers pulled tight, the pillow centered just under the headboard and the extra blanket folded neatly at the foot of the rack—rack—that’s Navy talk for bed.

It was a simple task—mundane at best. But every morning we were required to make our bed to perfection.  It seemed a little ridiculous at the time, particularly in light of the fact that were aspiring to be real warriors, tough battle hardened SEALs—but the wisdom of this simple act has been proven to me many times over.

If you make your bed every morning you will have accomplished the first task of the day.  It will give you a small sense of pride and it will encourage you to do another task and another and another.

By the end of the day, that one task completed will have turned into many tasks completed. Making your bed will also reinforce the fact that little things in life matter.

If you can’t do the little things right, you will never do the big things right.

And, if by chance you have a miserable day, you will come home to a bed that is made—that you made—and a made bed gives you encouragement that tomorrow will be better.

If you want to change the world, start off by making your bed.

-Admiral William H. McRaven

Needless to say, I couldn't disobey a direct order from such a high ranking official. My bed was properly made for the first time in probably 2 years!! I love what this story signifies. Starting with a simple win in the bag helps to create a mental edge for the rest of the day. If you start by accomplishing something and seeing the satisfaction of completing that menial task, it allows your mind to see the enjoyment that comes with seeing a goal through to completion. This effect really does seem to work. I made my bed when I woke up and next I cleaned my whole room of clutter and junk. It's almost as clean as the first day I moved in 4 years ago! Then a few hours later after getting home, I summoned the motivation to cleaned the rest of the apartment. I even swiffered all the dirt stains off the wood floors which I've only ever done once in the last four years...

Needless to say, I had a pretty productive day, and I firmly believe that this speech had a great impact on that. It's been a wonderful 5 years at The University of Texas. It's had tons of high points along with a few low ones, but I wouldn't trade any of my experiences. I've grown and learned so much as a person these last 5 years, and I'm proud to say that, even on my last day as a Longhorn undergrad, I still learned something amazing. Thank you Admiral McRaven for your wonderful words of wisdom, and thank you University of Texas for contributing to the man I am today.

Finding Audrey

I thought today being Audrey Hepburn's birthday, it would make sense to commemorate such a classy and amazing woman by telling the story of how I got MY Audrey and how I came to name her after such an inspirational icon.

Well, the story starts back freshman year of high school. I began to get obsessed with classic cars (in particular Ford Mustangs) when my Dad and I discovered a few classic car dealers near our lake house in Conroe, TX. After discovering them, I forced my Dad to always take me to them and check out all of the beautiful pieces of history that to me had so much more character than present day cars. Thus started my determination to get a classic Mustang as my first car.

I read books. I did research. I spent hours on Ebay and classic car sale websites looking for great deals on 1965-1966 Mustangs. I knew every detail about these cars. I could tell you their history. I could tell you the year with a single glance. I consumed every possible ounce of information in order to show how my parents how determined I was to get an old Mustang.

As I got into my junior year, I felt the tides turning in my favor. My Dad started to slip over to my side and thought it would be a ton of fun to have a father-son project with fixing up this beautiful old piece of history. This takes us to my 17th birthday the summer before my senior year. 

I woke up on my birthday without really expecting anything special. I don't remember if it was when I woke up in the morning or later at night. I just remember standing around the living room with my family when my parents gave me a gift bag. When I pulled out what was inside, It was a simple framed picture. That framed picture still hangs in my room within arms reach of me typing this post.

(It was this picture in the frame)

The three kids standing in the car are my cousins. The kids of my uncle in California that I knew supported me getting my dream car. I immediately recognized what was going on and freaked out!! My parents informed me that my Uncle Ralph found a really good deal on a 1965 Mustang at a swap meet in Los Angeles and immediately called my Dad. My parents decided that it was too good of a deal to pass up and decided to surprise me on my birthday! Sadly, I had to wait another month to see her while she was being shipped across the country, but I couldn't complain! I was on cloud 9!!

Thus started one of the longest months ever. I knew that I wanted to give her a name. Any classic car deserves to have a suitable name to really show how special they are to their owners, and my car was no different. Therefore, the brainstorming began.

I spent weeks thinking of names. I felt like a single dad that was forced to name his newborn daughter. I knew that I wanted something classy. Some name that to me just spoke of elegance, because, unlike what most people believe, Mustangs were not originally created as muscle cars. They weren't originally very powerful or meant to be on racetracks. That spawned out of the later generations and into the muscle car craze of the 70's.

I still distinctly remember when I came up with her name. While vacationing in Lake Tahoe with my family, I slept soundlessly in one of the downstairs beds, and that's when I had a very vivid dream. I dreamt that I sat in the backseat of our family Suburban (the car I actually took to college with me), and I asked my family who was in the car with me what they thought of the name Audrey for my new car. My whole dream family loved the name!! They all thought it was a perfect fit for my dream car.

Fortunately, I remembered my dream when I woke up. I loved Audrey Hepburn ever since my parents showed me My Fair Lady as a young kid, so when I remembered the name, it really just felt right. I then went to have breakfast with the family and told them about my dream. As if already decided by fate, they all loved it just like they did in the dream! Thus stuck the name of my soon to be partner in crime, Audrey.

She's come a long way since I first got her. She looks quite different then she used to, but she's still my pride and joy. It's been a long 6 years together with plenty of blood, sweat, and tears (literally!), but she's been worth it all. Thanks for all the memories Audrey, and here's to a lifetime more of them.

I Should Probably Be Asleep

Well, I decided that I am finally comfortable enough to write about this topic. Most people that are close to me know about the fact that I recently went through a break up. I dated one of the best girls that I've ever known throughout most of my college life. However, although I care about her immensely, I couldn't shake the feeling that I needed to try being single during some of my adult life. I have now been single for almost 3 months, and I'm starting to realize that I'm just not very good at it. Let me explain...

There are two types of single. The type that just want to be casual and fool around for a night and then go their separate ways, and the type that are analyzing everyone of the opposite sex as a possible mother of their future children. I, however, fall into an odd middle ground. Having been in a serious relationship for almost the last 5 years of my life, I am hesitant about the idea of getting back into a committed relationship. But at the same time, I am not really the type of guy that can just casually have a fling with a girl that I am not interested in at all.

However, I can't help but label every physically attractive girl that I meet and enjoy talking to as a candidate for a serious relationship. Because of this conflict, I feel at times like Golem from Lord of the Rings with my incompatible inner dialogues. It's infuriating!!! Like I said, I'm just not good at this whole being single and keeping things casual thing. I'm not Fabio. I'm not a womanizer. I'm much better at being a boyfriend. That's what I'm used to. I feel like a complete fish out of water.

I hope that it gets easier as time goes on and I get more comfortable with it, but at the moment, I just feel like I'm treading water and everyone just keeps stepping on my head and think they're helping. I am definitely not enjoying single life as much as I would have anticipated. I'm naturally a lazy person. If I can ever find an easy solution to something, I will exploit it. This whole single life is way more work than I foresaw and there's no cheat sheet that I've been able to figure out. And at the moment...it's way more than I bargained for.