Here we are

I should be in bed. I shouldn't be sooooooooo pumped up. But I'm not and I am, so I guess that should be a bad thing. But I don't think it is. Busy couple of weeks ahead. Summer, eh? Best day ever started one hour and twenty minutes ago.

The beginning of the end

This is it. The first real day of my last Strawberry Days as a child. This week may very well be the best week of my life. I have a hike to my favorite place. I have a group date with some of my favorite people. I won't get stuck on horse duty at Huck Finn Day. Seriously. It is Strawberry Days!!!!!

Inception

There is something that has bothered me for a long while. People wanting to know about the top at the end of Inception. "Does it fall? Is this a dream?" What's worse is when people say they hate the film because the question is not answered. In truth, however, Christopher Nolan didn't want you to care. At the end of the film Cobbe is home with his children and he spins his top, his totem, to see if it is real life or a dream. But he leaves the top, not waiting to see if it falls. The message Nolan was trying to convey was that it didn't matter to Cobbe if it was real or not, he was happy and that was all that mattered.

But it totally would've fallen.

Let's be honest

Working a minimum of 36 hours this week, my uncle's wedding, going on a date with my good friend to said wedding, more work, and then one of the best weeks of the year, Strawberry Days. I am not sure, but I am pretty confident in saying that this Strawberry Days is going to be the best ever. Youth Council will be great, plus I mean it's Strawberry Days, it'd be great if it were in the middle of winter. I also have a hike and date planned for Wednesday, which will be amazing. Also, I have lactose pills with no conceivable end coming soon, which is necessary for a good amount of strawberry and cream goodness. 

This will be the second to last Strawberry Days I will attend. So far in my life (as far as I am aware), I have never, ever not gone to the rodeo at least once, even when my sunburn blistered. In fact, the only thing I wanted while in my excruciating sunburn pain was to be at the rodeo eating my favorite summer treat. I have never not loved Strawberry Days. This is the last one I will help with while being on Youth Council. This is the last Strawberry Days where I know I will have required school in two and a half months. This is the last time I will be able to go to Strawberry Days as a child.

Sometimes life goes by fast. I am grateful for this wonderful week for reminding me annually of what's to come. Just like this is the longest running tradition in Utah, the memories I got from these sixteen weeks of summer bliss are among the most cherished in my life. I feel that a great deal of my joy in life comes from the warm summer mornings I sat watching the parade which, while never being the biggest, was always the best. Trying to sleep in the solitude of winter seemed impossible without thinking of the best time of the year, thoughts which warmed me to want to press on, if only to make it to the third week in June. My life has forever been changed by Pleasant Grove and I give back to the city that raised me by helping with the best week of my annual life: Strawberry Days.

And that's why I have a best friend

I haven't seen my best friend, Trevor Ward, since Sunday. It isn't just that we haven't seen each other, it's that our communication has become limited to two phone calls. Now I am sure that I sound like a clingy guy, but you have to understand. Trevor and I have seen each other almost every day for the entire school year and if we didn't see each other we were texting or talking on the phone.
I really feel weird without him here. I stopped shaving my face. I have not gone to bed before midnight, even if I had work at 6:30 in the morning like today. I started to take showers at night instead of in the morning (I actually have no idea if that means anything, but I bet it does).

You know that's right. He's Gus, obviously.

Trevor and I think the same things. Right now I have no go to evening plans. I don't have someone to spew my Space Center mission ideas at. I can't even enjoy good food. I have gained five-ish pounds in the past three days. I smell bad. I don't do laundry.
Goodness I sound pathetic. But I don't care. I don't think I have even actively pursued coming in contact with a person of my age all week.
On the upside I have made over two hundred dollars in the past three days, which totally rocks.








I really need to do some laundry. Seriously.

To keep me going

I got some good quotes that keep me writing. like: 

"You fail only if you stop writing."-Ray Bradbury

That one is hanging in my room. Or:

"If there is a magic in story writing, and I am convinced there is, no one has ever been able to reduce it to a recipe that can be passed from one person to another. The formula seems to lie solely in the aching urge of the writer to convey something he feels important to the reader. If the writer has that urge, he may sometimes, but by no means always, find the way to do it. You must perceive the excellence that makes a good story good or the errors that makes a bad story. For a bad story is only an ineffective story.”-John Steinbeck

One more:

"Write freely and as rapidly as possible and throw the whole thing on paper. Never correct or rewrite until the whole thing is down. Rewrite in process is usually found to be an excuse for not going on. It also interferes with flow and rhythm which can only come from a kind of unconscious association with the material."-John Steinbeck

The best part is that it's like John Steinbeck and Ray Bradbury are telling me things that they've learned by being professionals and I already knew them. Makes me feel giddy. I mean manly.

Hero

I read a quote once that I related to quite well. In all honesty I had no idea who Arthur Ashe was and I still don't know who he is. Judging from his quote page on Brainyquote, I think he was an African American tennis player. He has said things that I find not only true, but completely awesome. Really he inspires me and for that I am grateful.
Here is my favorite quote by him that I really feel applies to me completely:

"I accepted the face that as much as I want to lead others, and love to be around other people, in some essential way, I am something of a loner."

Paper for English

I really couldn't stand my English teacher. Or his writing prompts. Do animals feel pain? Yeah, I wasn't going to BS another paper. Here it is, unedited.

He is correct, I did not present a whole story. But I sure as heck made him look dumb.