Memories

It is 7:00 pm on May 2, 2013. I am at work anxiously waiting for my replacement to come in. As soon as he walks in the door, I grab my pizza and walk out the door. I go home and grab a sleeping bag, a pillow, a camping chair, and some snacks in preparation for the long night I had in front of me. We get up there about 8:00 and I am the first one to set my chair up. After sitting down I realize how long of I night I was going to have. Now in case you haven’t guessed I am talking about how I camped out for the grand opening of the Carl’s Jr. in Holbrook. I know that is seems kind of silly that I would wait all night for Carl’s Jr. however; this symbolizes one of the greatest lessons I have learned in high school. The lesson I learned is that you have to be out going and most importantly have fun. I have learned that you need to go and make as many memories as you can.

                This reminds me of what my basketball coach, Delmar, would always tell us. He would say, “You could walk out the gym right now, trip going down the stairs, tear your ACL, and never be able to play basketball again.” He would tell us this to remind us that we need to play our hearts out now while we can. He would remind us that we can’t be scared on the court. We just need to play our hearts out.  It is absolutely true that we have no clue what tomorrow will hold and not knowing this makes me what to go and have fun today.

Since it is my senior year I am trying to make as many memories and have as much fun as I can. One of the most memorable things I have done this year is the Mr. Roadrunner Pageant. What many people don’t know is all of the hard work that goes into that pageant. It is crazy how many rehearsals and how much fundraising was put into it.  Looking past the drama and hard work, I honestly wouldn’t trade that memory for anything.

Even though I was tired to the point of sleeping in class after staying up all night at Carl’s Jr., and that I was scared to death to walk on that stage to perform my talent act, I can honestly say that I had a blast doing those two things. Those are two memories that I will remember forever and that I can tell my children. I will forever be able to come to Holbrook and say that I was the first customer of Carl’s Jr. When the opportunity rises for you to do something fun do it. Don’t worry about what other people will think, just do it for the memories and like I have said all year make the most of every day and dominNate.

Four Liners

“Olin, put twenty two seconds on the clock! Ready! Go!” I cannot begin to tell you how many times I have heard this over my four years of basketball. These were the dreaded four liners. In these you had to run baseline to baseline four times within the twenty two seconds on the clock, and if you did not make it, well then get back on the line because you are about to go again. The reason I am starting out like this is because it gives the perfect example of how Delmar Johnson, my basketball coach, has impacted my life in high school.

For four years now I have been around Delmar just about year round. I’m with him all basketball season, I helped him with his youth basketball season, and I’ve traveled all around Arizona and even up to Colorado during the summer for basketball camps and tournaments with him. That is a long time to be around someone. Now I can’t say that Delmar was always my favorite person during these times, but looking back, he has taught me a lot.

Delmar has to be the most passionate person about basketball that I know. He truly loves it and he understands how it should be played. Now, how basketball should be played and how high school kids play are two completely different things. Delmar would yell at us, yank us out of the game when we made a mistake, and run us to where we felt like our legs were going to fall off.

I have never told anyone this but there was a point where I felt so low that I wanted to quit basketball. I texted Delmar and told him that basketball just wasn’t for me and that I’ll turn in my jersey on Monday. Within thirty seconds I received a reply from him telling me to meet up with him so we can talk this out. Well, after about thirty minutes of talking he finally told me that he isn’t going to let me quit and I will be forever grateful for that.

Delmar had broken me down.  He had put me through tough times, but I didn’t realize what he was doing in the process. He was breaking me down all the way to the bottom, but then he slowly helped build me back up even stronger than I was before. Just like with the four liners, when you are running them and he tells you to run another when you are already exhausted, and you think he is just being mean. However, then when you are in a game and you can run faster and longer than your opponent you realize that all of those four liners were to help up not to punish us. Delmar has put me through a lot; however, now when I look back at it, I realize that he was only doing it to make me better. Delmar has taught me that I will have really low parts in my life, but he has made me strong enough to  never give in. Thank you Delmar.

The Future

            Well this last week it really hit me. As I walked back from the library with my cap and gown in hand I realized that before I know it I will be walking across the stage getting my high school diploma. I realized that before I know it, my friends and I will be going our separate ways. That some of the people I see every day, I may not see ever in my life again. I am having mixed feelings about this happening.

            As I have expressed in other posts, I really love Holbrook. Yes, I wish that there were more stuff to do but I still love this small town. I like how everyone knows just about everyone. I love how we have a smaller school that allows us to get really involved. I enjoy the challenge of coming up with something to do and all of this makes me not want to leave this town.

            However, at the same time, I am completely ready to leave Holbrook. I am ready to leave my parents nest and live my life. Being a senior we always get asked what we will do the day after we graduate. They always tell us that the worst feeling we could get is waking up that next morning not having a plan for the future. With graduation approaching quickly I have had to make some decisions on what I want to do with my life. Making these decisions has actually made me want to leave Holbrook more.

            My entire life I have been encouraged to value education and as I got older I realized the importance of college. College will provide me with the opportunity to achieve my goals and have a profession that improves the lives of others. After doing much research on different jobs, I have decided that I would like to become a physical therapist. The next choice I was faced with was the college I would like to attend. So after Googling colleges that offer a degree in physical therapy, I came across Northern Arizona University. After getting accepted I have decided this is where I am going to attend.

            I guess where I am trying to go with this is that the future can be kind of scary. You never know what it has in store for you. This led me to a great quote from Abraham Lincoln. He said, “The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.” You will never know what life has in store for you. This reminds me what my basketball coach Delmar would always tell us. He would tell us that we are not in control of whether or not we get injured. That for all we know, we could walk outside, slip off the stairs, tear our ACL, and not be able to play another game. Then he would tell us that we need to just go out there and play our hearts out. I believe we could do this in our lives too. We need to live life one day at a time and make the most of it. Go out there and domiNate.

Spring Break

                Writing my blog this week has been a real struggle. I am sitting here draining my brain of ideas that I could write about. However, it seems like all I can think about is spring break.  This made me realize that I am finally coming down with it. Yes, I am talking about senioritis and I am coming down with it fast. It seems like all I look forward to is the next three day weekend or the next school trip where I get to miss some school.  So this blog I am going to talk about what I am looking forward to the most in the quickly approaching future.

                I absolutely, positively cannot wait until spring break. At the end of last year when we all were signing up for classes, Mr. Gardner came and talked to all of the juniors about show choir. He told us that there would be some openings for both boys and girls. Then he said something that caught both Zach’s and my attention. He said that they would be going on tour to Hawaii. So Zach and I talked about whether or not we should audition. After deciding that we were too scared to go and sing solos we dismissed the idea.

                Well about a week later in the computer lab, Mr. Gardner confronted us about auditioning. He told us that we could still go afterschool and audition. He explained that it would only be in front of him and assured us that it wouldn’t be that bad. He then told that we should just pick our favorite hymn and sing that for our audition. This had us convinced. We determined that this one solo would be worth going to Hawaii. So we went to the choir room after school. We were sitting on the couch while Mr. Gardner asked us why we wanted to be in choir and stuff like that until it came to the part we were dreading the most, the solos. This part still makes me chuckle. After me telling Zach to go first and Zach telling me to go first, Mr. Gardner said that we could just sing a duet. So after getting half way through the song, he stopped us and told us the audition was over. Relieved, we walked away.

                Well to speed up the story, the school board, sadly, turned down the trip to Hawaii. This led the choir to go to their backup plan, Disneyland. This is why I am excited for spring break. We get to go, perform there, and then get the rest of the time to have fun around the parks. I have never been to Disneyland before so just adds to my excitement. I guess where I am trying to go with this is that it is important to try something new. It is important to step outside of your comfort zone and do something that you always wanted to do, but were too scared to try.

Goals

                I remember last year in Mr. Long’s class he would make us write goals every week. He would tell us to make goals that are for a short amount of time or goals that we want to accomplish the next week. He would have us write a medium goal, something that we wanted to accomplish by mid-term or by the end of the nine weeks. Lastly, he would make us write a long-term goal. Not to be mean but I thought this was the dumbest assignment in the world. Every week he would tell us to pull out our goal list and then we would have to report on how we did on the short term goal, and then we would have to report on how we're progressing towards the other goals. Every week I would write some lame goal that I knew I would accomplish with little to no effort. Sadly, I continued to do this for most of the year and did not write a serious goal.

                However, now that I am a mature senior, goals are becoming more important to me. May is coming quite quickly. Before I know it I am going to be graduated and then it is completely up to me how I make my life and quite frankly, if I do not have goals then I am not going anywhere.

                Mr. Long always told us that if you do not write the goal down, then it does not count as a goal and you are less likely to accomplish it. That is what I need to work on. I have goals in my head that I want to accomplish but I need to take those goals and put them on paper. One of the best feelings you can have is when you accomplish a long-term goal. Ever since I turned twelve years old my dad always told me that I am going to be an Eagle Scout. This became one of my goals that I wanted to accomplish.

                Just in case you did not know you can only obtain your Eagle Scout award between the ages of twelve and eighteen. Well, I turned eighteen on the sixteenth of this month and I still was not an Eagle Scout on the first of this month. So I had to make a mad dash and hurry and finish all of the requirements. After a few stressful weeks and a ton of phone calls I finally achieved my goal and received my Eagle award on the tenth of this month. Six days before my birthday!

                As seniors, we are ultimately in charge of what becomes of our lives. I know that goals seem really lame and seem less important than other things that we have going on in our lives, but I honestly believe that they are important. Mr. Long used to always tell us that if we write our goals down and hang them somewhere we see it every day then we will be more inclined to one day accomplish that goal.

Price of Tea in China

                Yesterday, while I was making a pizza at work, I started to think of what I could write my blog on this week. I originally thought that I could write about my work and how we need to work hard for our money, but then I realized that sounds pretty boring.  So, I did what anyone else would do. I asked one of my coworkers what to write about. After explaining that it has to have some educational value to it he said that I should write about the price of tea in China. So here we go. As you all know tea is very popular in China so prices are normally expensive. The current price is ¥ 1.40, which converts to some amount in U.S. dollars. No I am just kidding but at least now you know.

                What I really want to talk about are friendships. It is kind of interesting to me to see all different types of friendships we have. We have those friends that we used to be best friends with, but at some point in time, we fall apart and go our separate ways. We have work friends; there to make work more enjoyable. Then we have those close friends that we can tell anything and don’t have to hide anything.

                As children, it seems like you could just walk right up to some kid that you have never met before. You will share your toy and they will share theirs and then all of the sudden you guys are best friends.  However, as you get older, friendships seem harder to get. You and your first friends start to drift apart and that leads you to finding new friends.  

                I am about to share something with you that I am sure you do not know, but high school is full of drama. It has always been interesting to me that one day two people can be best friends, always together. Then a week or so later you see them talking behind each other’s backs and are just mean. How could you all of the sudden hate someone that a week earlier you honestly cared about?

This led me to think about how we make friends. I first thought of my fellow coworker.  Starting out at Mr. G’s, I was the only worker from Holbrook. So walking in I can honestly say that I did not know anyone I was working with. So being a little bit intimidated, I just kept to myself for the first couple weeks. After becoming more comfortable, I started to come out of my shell and started to talk more. I quickly became friends with a couple of guys there and it makes work a lot more fun.

The great thing about dominating every day is that, you do not have to do it by yourself. Make new friends, keep those friends, and take them with you on your mission to pure domination.

Coaching

                The sound of shoes squeaking on the court. The smell of popcorn in the air. The chants and screams of a packed gym. Normally I would be saying that this is the type of environment that I love to play in, which it is. However, I have found out that this is pretty sweet environment to coach in. For about the past four years my basketball coach, Delmar, has asked me to help him with his youth basketball league. When I first started out, I would only keep score. Delmar slowly let me start to referee basketball games and I thought that was the best thing to do.

                This year, however, Delmar’s wife Jme was telling me that they were short a couple coaches for the third through fifth grade age group and she asked if I would be interested in coaching a team. Of course, I agreed to it. After recruiting Zach as an assistant coach, we got out roster and headed to our first practice. We both showed up early not knowing what to expect from our team. As we start doing some warm up drills we were pretty quick to find out who on our team knew what they were doing and who would need some extra attention. As practice continues on we discover just how good our team is. We come to find out that we might have the best player in our age group. This one player, who we call Bubba, is crazy good. He can dribble between the legs and behind the back, make tough passes, and shoot perfect swishes.

                As you can probably guess, Zach and I were pretty excited to have Bubba on our team and we could not wait until our first game two weeks later.  However, a week later, at practice, Bubba came up to us with a sad look on his face. He told us that he could not be at our game that week because he was going out of town.  I am not even going to lie to you guys; this really scared Zach and I. Bubba was the player that got everyone to score, so we were worried how we would do without him. However, everything turned out good. All of the rest of our players stepped up and we won by six.

                My team of third through sixth graders taught me a lesson that day. Yes, they knew that it would be hard to win without Bubba, but they never gave up. They all believed that if they each did the best they could that we would win. I, on the other hand, was not as optimistic. This team of little kids taught me that you can never give up. You just need to believe in yourself and that you can accomplish all your goals and then you have to go out there and work your hardest, then will you reach your goal.

A Reason to Win

 

               This past week there has been one thing that is mentioned every time I turn on the T.V., and that is the Super Bowl. Granted that is probably because I only watch ESPN. Anyways, this last week, while I was trying to decide what to write this blog about,  I saw this little segment on a guy named Matthew Jeffers, on ESPN, and after watching, my eyes were opened and it made me really think about life. So, I thought I would share his story with you.

                Matthew Jeffers is a die-hard Baltimore Ravens fan. Mid-season this year, the Ravens were in a slump and just lost three games in a row. So Matthew decided to write an email titled, “A Reason to Win” to the head coach, John Harbaugh. His email had such a strong message that the John went and sent it out to his whole team and immediately got positive feedback.  In his letter he mentions that he suffers from skeletal dysplasia. He is twenty one years old and stands at only four foot two.  He then tells us of his mother. His mother recently got diagnosed with a stage four brain tumor and might be going into hospice care. Then he goes and asks you one simple question, “So you tell me, is life fair?”

                Now I want you to think about your life. I want you to think about the things you do not like about it, the things you wish you would change, and even the things you enjoy, and ask yourself, is life really fair? Everyone, at one point or another, will have hardships in their lives, but what would you say in these hard times?  I want to share with you what Matthews strongest comment, that stuck to me the most, was, “the only disability in life is a bad attitude. A positive attitude is the most powerful combatant to life’s misfortunes.”  Here is a man with a huge disability telling us that all you need is a positive attitude.

                When I happened upon this video, it really impressed me. Here is a young twenty one year old man whose life is full of hardships, yet he has a great attitude towards life. This is exactly what my blog is all about. He could have spent his time moping around being sad for himself but he didn’t! He just took the situation he was dealt and he made it positive. He chose to dominate every day. This is a lesson that we could all learn from. Life is not fair. It never has been and it never will be. So what are you going to do about it? Are you going to let life walk all over you and put you down? Or are you going to take hold of your life and make the most of it with a positive attitude? The choice is yours.

Make the Most of it

            Holbrook, Arizona, population: just over 5,000. This is where I have lived most of my life and to be completely honest I truly love it here. It seems to me that recently I have been hearing people complain a lot about Holbrook. “Holbrook is too small!” “There is nothing to do in Holbrook!” “Holbrook is boring!” Yes I know that Holbrook is a small town, but I believe that since it is a small town it gives you a chance to use your imagination to find something to do. You do not have to live in a big town or even spend money to have fun. You just have to make do with what you have.

            Thinking back on all of the fun memories that have had with my friends in Holbrook, there are a few that stick out the most. The one that first comes to mind happened one Saturday night when my sister, Jennifer, Zach and his sister, Kaitlin, and I were all hanging out together. We were all driving around in Kaitlin’s car trying to decide what to do, when we happened to see these two kids walking down the road. Now, I do not want to say names but for the sake of this blog let’s call these two kids Duncan and Corey. These were two guys we knew from school so we thought we would play a little prank on them. Kaitlin drove around the block and stopped maybe half a block behind them. Zach and I then got out and started running towards them screaming. Scared to death, Duncan and Corey took off running and we chased them almost all the way around the block. They ran into an alley and deciding we should not follow them we got back into Kaitlin’s car. Granted Duncan and Corey didn’t think this was that fun, Zach and I had a lot of fun.

            Another fun memory I have happened on another weekend when Zach and I were hanging out. Zach had come upon a funny idea that we could go do. Zach and I went to Safeway and were trying to get people to sign a petition. Only people had a really hard time taking our petition seriously. If you have ever been to Holbrook in the spring you would know that it gets really windy here. So Zach and I thought we would do the town a favor and start a petition to stop the wind. We would explain that with every signature we get, the wind would blow one mile per hour less. Some people had a hard time grasping this and refused to sign but some people just thought that it was worth a shot. All in all it was one of the most fun nights I have had. Seeing how people reacted when we asked them to sign was hilarious.

            Yes, Holbrook is small, but that does not mean you can’t have fun here. How you spend your nights and how much fun you have is completely in your control. If you decide to just sit around and complain then you probably will have a bad time, but if you choose to use your imagination and come up with something to do then you can have fun and dominate every day.

The Bigger Picture

 

 

 

       I feel like to start off this blog I should briefly explain why I named my blog this. I titled my blog "DomiNate Every Day," (just in case you did not see that already). I had a hard time coming up with a title for this blog, so I tried to think of what I want to write about for the next couple months. After drawing a big blank, I tried to think of some advice that I could share, and this is where my title comes from.

 

       This blog is for me just as much as it is for you. I feel like sometimes, in life, we feel like we are constantly being put down, but we need to stop thinking like this. Even though things are down there will always be something good in your life. Those are the things that we need to focus on. So, to help me remember this I decided to create a life motto. I was going to make my life motto "make the most of every day," but that is too cliché. So I thought I would use my creative juices and incorporate my name into it and make it "dominate every day!"

 

       My whole life I have played basketball, and have had to work hard to finally make it onto the varsity basketball team and this season had been going great! I was going out and playing like my team needed me to play and I felt good. Then a week after Christmas we had a tournament in Chinle, it was here that my season took a turn towards the sour side. I played two games there and I got injured. I am not only upset at the fact that I got injured, but I am upset at the type of injury. After going to the doctor I found out that I had a contusion in my quadriceps or in layman's terms, I have a really bad bruise. A bad bruise. That is why I will miss at least six games my senior year.

 

       Now this could be something that I could get really upset and mad about. However, I am not going to focus on the negative. I just need to look at the big picture. Yes I am going to miss six games of my senior year but if I look at my senior year as a whole I see that I got to play a full season of soccer games, still a majority of basketball games, and I will get to go to Disneyland. Looking at it that way makes my senior year sounds pretty good. The world is not going to end because I could not play six games.

 

       This is what is important to remember. When looking at the big picture you will see what is really important in life. Sometimes, in life, we all need to just take a step back, slow down, and look at the bigger picture. When we do this, it really allows us to evaluate our lives and see what is really important.