Friends are Friends, No Matter How Far

On one of Maria's visits home, we went sailing!

This is Maria. Maria lives pretty far away from me, actually she's not even in the

United States right now, she's studying abroad in Brazil this semester.

Maria has always had a great sense of adventure and is always willing to try something new, she can run circles around me and probably bench press me too. She is great at skiing and sailing (yeah, sailing, how cool is that?).  

Maria and I have known each other since middle school. We sat together at lunch almost everyday. We went to our Senior Prom together. But most impressive of all, we stayed friends after graduating high school.

"The most beautiful discovery true friends make is that they can grow separately without growing apart."

— Elizabeth Foley

After high school Maria moved away from our hometown to go to college in New Mexico. Growing apart from your high school friends is a natural part of life, I have friends from high school that still live in the same state as me but I haven't talked to in years. Maria and I, no matter how far away we lived, talked on a regular basis. When I broke up with my long-time boyfriend during my first semester of college, I texted her all of the funny pictures I would usually send to him, and she was always there to have a good laugh with me or make me feel better. That first semester of college we were both learning how to live away from our parents and make new friends.

"Nothing makes the earth seem so spacious as to have friends at a distance; they make the latitudes and longitudes."

— Henry David Thoreau

During breaks in school Maria sometimes comes back to visit and at the very least, we try to  go get lunch. With the discovery of Snapchat, we now send each other crazy pictures all the time, of what we're doing or whichever new filter is the weirdest.

Over the years of living so far away, we have become very VERY different people. We don't have the same friends, she likes spending time outdoors and I try to limit my time outdoors to a minimum, she is brave and adventurous and I tend to take a safer approach to life. As our lives continue to move in different directions, I know I always have a friend that cares about me and has the same (if very strange) sense of humor.

Being friends with Maria inspires me to not be afraid to go on adventures, and I have also learned that friendships takes a little bit of effort, and a small investment of time, but that time is always well spent.

Mark my words: Dads like this are one in a million

This post may end up sounding like a 5th grader's "why my dad is the best" essay, but it's true.

Meet Mark: Mark is a father of 3 children, a husband, a teacher, and a mentor. He's quick with a joke (usually a corny one), and a smile. His hair is "starting" to grey, sometimes I forget that it's grey until I look at it. He likes old kung fu movies, and terrible horror movies (Aaah! Zombies!! is an hour and a half I'll never get back). 

Mark likes to pick up a new hobby every few years, which has made him a man of many talents. He can make custom pens, twist balloon animals, make training knives, and he tackles several obstacle races every few months. To this day, he still offers to make me a balloon hat on my birthday, which I usually have to refuse multiple times.
No matter what he's doing, he gets invested in it. When I begged my dad to let me take martial arts classes (3rd grade), he quickly decided he wanted to get in on it too. I did martial arts for about 9-10 years, I stopped a few years ago when I got busy with school and work, but my dad still does it to this day. 

Matching UCO hats! Broncho Pride!

Like all fathers, mine has taught me a lot over the years.

He taught me how to change a tire, check my tire pressure, and how to take a test, but the most valuable things he has taught me are less tangible. Whether or not they mean to, every father teaches by example.

One of the things I admire the most, is that he stands up for what he believes in. He doesn't back away from something just because it gets hard. 

My father has a way of confronting things in a very calm way. He doesn't yell or get irate (although I have seen him lose his cool a handful times when dealing with his teenage children, but who wouldn't when dealing with teenagers?) It is this gentleness, yet firmness when talking about or confronting something that has stood out to me over the years and that I try to carry over into the issues I confront in my own life.

Mark is a kind and generous person. He cares about the people around him. He is always willing to lend a hand or advice to anyone around him. I remember Thanksgivings when random graduate students or family friends would join our family for dinner because they didn't have anywhere else to spend it. It was never a big deal, but as I remember those holidays now I realize how amazing he was to open his home to people that needed one that day. I think I have carried that thoughtfulness with me.

Although Mark and I don't see eye to eye on everything, he is always there for me and I feel truly blessed to call him my dad.

I love you dad, thank you for being a fantastic example for me to look up to.

Big Characters, Big joke: The reality of the presidential race

I  posted last week about a character I have never met in real life, and I'll be doing that again here.


Hillary Clinton. Donald Trump.

Possibly some of the biggest characters in America right now. 

Dirt about presidential candidates comes out of the woodwork, no matter the year or the candidates. This year is special, there is a special kind of craziness surrounding this year's race. On one hand, you have a former first lady whose husband was involved in a huge scandal during his presidency. She's been accused of deleting emails, being too sick to be president, and if elected she would be the first female POTUS. She knows all about the political world and for some people she represents everything that is wrong about the political system. On the other side is a man who has never held a political office, who has had multiple bankruptcies, has been accused of being racist, bigoted, and sexist, and is possibly the most controversial presidential candidate of all time.

Is this race a joke?
One of these people is going to run our country?

Memes of these two candidates have popped up all over the internet (basically our generations version of political cartoons) that point out the flaws and the stereotypes of these two candidates.

I won't pretend to know them, or have any clue as to what is going on inside their heads, but everyone in the USA is keeping tabs on these huge characters. Last week, the debate was impossible to ignore. Even if you didn't have the TV turned on, video clips, memes, and drinking games of the debate popped up on all types of social media. And yes, you heard me right, drinking games. This presidential race has become such a joke that many of my peers were playing drinking games to every predictable and ridiculous thing that was said during the debate.

Maybe having a few drinks made it easier to forget that one of these two people will soon be the leader of the US, or that there are people out there who whole-heartedly believe that their candidate is the ideal president.

There isn't much in the way of a conclusion for this post, just that I am frustrated with the election, the political system, and with America. Really? These guys? Of all the people in America, these are what you think the best options are? I know many other people who are also confused and frustrated by the election. The only thing we can do about it is vote. Get involved in local elections too! It's the only way to change things.

Well that's all for politics, I promise not to post about it again.