January 27th, 2011 - BYU ElevenNEWS

What a great day! I get to meet Jimmer Fredette, be on TV, and say "CRAP" on air. Could life be any better?!

Can somebody find me...somebody to love?

I have to admit...this is definitely one of the more creative videos I've seen as of late. Kudos BYU-I. I don't say that very often (haha), but in this case, it is definitely deserved.

Around the world in 365 days

2010 was one of the most amazing years for me, for a number of different reasons. I'll do an official "recap of 2010" post a little later.

A few weeks ago, I decided to figure out how far I actually had traveled over the past year. I know its been a lot but I really had no idea how far I had gone, though I did know that my study abroad during the summer was about 17,000 miles in itself. After doing the math, I figured out that in one year, I traveled at LEAST 46,200 miles. Now, that doesn't account for day-to-day traveling, or anything like that, BUT it does include trips to, through, or from

Las Vegas, NV
San Jose, CA
San Diego, CA
Mesa/Phoenix, AZ
Los Angeles, CA
Indianapolis, IN
Washington, DC
Boston, MA
New York City, NY
Paris, France
Milan, Italy
Lausanne, Switzerland
Beijing, China
Dubai, UAE
Seoul, Korea
Tokyo, Japan
Iasi, Romania
London, England

So the question is...where will I go this year to make it even better? Antarctica? Africa? Nah...

I think I'll settle for a Caribbean cruise in November. Who wants to go? :-)

People are amazing

Whether or not anyone reads my blog is irrelevant to me. I like to think I have a massive following (of at least 5 or so)...

Anyway, most people I associate with regularly know that I'm working on a documentary right now for my final senior project. The documentary (with the working title "I am not my body") is going to focus on the life of a remarkable young man named Marius Dasianu. (Watch a short video about his story at mariusmovie.blogspot.com ... Don't judge me for my shameless plugs for donations).

A few years ago, he was in a fire at his home in Romania. The fire burned more than 75% of his body. FAST FORWARD nearly 3 years, and he is in the US receiving high quality medical care for his injuries.

I had the honor of meeting this amazing young man yesterday...and I'll have the opportunity to spend a fair amount of time with him in the next few weeks/months.

All I can say is, WOW. I'll write another post on that a bit later.

Along with that, I want to talk briefly about some of the people that I've (we've) met on this trip already.

And I'm continually amazed by how genuine and kind people are all throughout the world. It blows me away every time I think about how a family will welcome in random people with open arms and be so hospitable to them. I can't be thankful enough for the kindness and hospitality that families in Las Vegas, and now San Diego have extended to me and my group so freely.

People can overcome.

People are amazing.

Playing to Win or playing not to lose

I don't have a lot of time tonight, but there is something that I wanted to talk about really quickly. Like I mentioned in my last post (from forever ago), I'm working on a documentary for my final project. For more information about it (basically a 2 minute video about the topic), go to this link. I can't tell you how many amazing things have all happened as me and my team have been working on this project. We've made such amazing...and rather random connections as a result of the project, and some amazing things have all fallen into place as we've gone through the process of planning and prepping.

The main thought for tonight is,

"Are you playing to win, or are you playing not to lose?"

I realize that so often in life, I play not to lose. I'd rather do what is necessary just to get by, rather than really work to actually WIN. Winning could mean a lot of different things. But mostly, it means that you are proactive and working to make things happen rather than sitting by and letting things happen to you.

Working on this documentary has been a real test for me. Making calls (which are not my favorite), asking people for help, and trying to help other people at the same time.

I can only hope that everything will work out. Step by step, miracles happen. The key with this is those steps. Often people pray asking for a miracle, then just wait for everything happen. Sometimes God lets our own two hands and our two feet be the avenue that actually brings the miracle to pass.

So, I'm deciding to win. I play to win. I make things happen and move things forward.

As a side note...I'm going to Romania. And I'm going to help make some big things happen because of my documentary. It is only the beginning...and I wouldn't be where I am right now were it not for amazing people to help and encourage along the way.

Life is grand. Isn't it? :-)

Kind of exciting...

So, for my senior capstone project, I'm going to be putting together a 30 minute documentary. Things are starting to fall in line with it, and I think its going to be pretty darn awesome if I do say so myself.

I'll update with some updates (you like that, don'tcha?) when I get more firm info.

So exciting!

Another National Anthem

So today I got to sing the National Anthem at the SLC Bees (a minor league baseball team). It was the 2nd day of school, (i.e., busy) and I left thinking I had more than enough time...but I got stuck in traffic on the way up there (thank you so much I-15) and THEN took the wrong exit. Haha. Oops.

Basically, I got there about 10 minutes before the game was supposed to start. I parked at a gas station and begged the manager not to tow me, ran to the stadium, met up with Uncle Dwayne, Aunt Joanne, and Melani (thanks for coming guys!) I got them their tickets, got taken to the field, got a drink of water and had a few minutes to simmer before going out to sing!

In any case, I had a blast and was surprised because I didn't even feel nervous. (Adrenaline? Probably).

Let me know what you think!