How I Live

I live my life a simple way. I strive to make those around me better, happy and content with their lives. I also try to bring my Christian ideals to as many that will hear me preach. I live my life this way because it makes me happy with life. I love to fill my days with the people I enjoy being with. Do what makes you enjoy living.

Not Going To Fool Anyone

Back hundreds of years ago there was this village. All the people were looking forward to this upcoming celebration and the towns folk were all asked to give one bottle of their best wine to fill a great community keg, that would be drank on the day of the celebration. One person decided that since the great container was so large that if he filled his bottle with water the dilution would be so small that no one would be able to tell the difference. He did this, emptying his bottle in to the large container. The day of the celebration quickly arrived and the great container was finally tapped. To everyone's amazement only water poured from the tap. Each person in the town had thought that they could get away with one bottle of water.

This story tells of a few lessons. The first and most important being that trust is the backbone of almost every situation. You have to be able to trust those around you and others have to have trust in you. Everything will fall apart without it. The next is that this is a big world but if you do not do your part even the slightest lie could become something of concern. Be fair...do not try to cheat others you will just be cheating yourself and those around you will be hurt.

In Times Of Trial

There are few people you can count on with 100% certainty. The people that would go out of their way to help you out in whatever way necessary. They are there for you when you are down and out and also celebrate the good times and make you smile. You call them simply your best friends, though there is nothing simple about it. This is a very complex and meaningful term. Our best friends last a lifetime. Not many things or people in our lives can claim that. What we would do without someone to help pick us up when the life has knocked us down? When the journey seems to long who would encourage us to push on? Show us the good in the worst of times? And even tell us when we are wrong? Not many people fulfill all of those requirements to be called my best friend. Though, I am lucky enough to know that I do have a handful. Those qualities listed above are my requirements only because my best friends have set the bar. They go above and beyond. Best friends are more like brothers. They have grown with you, they have lived with you, they have: cried, laughed out loud, and even fought with you.

You all know who you are. I thank you for being who you are and for making the impact on my life that you have. Keep doing what your doing and so will I.

Love You

What Did It For Me

I went to go watch a Red Sox game up in Boston a couple years back. I was driving up with two other Sigma Chi's and we realized that we were not going to want to make that drive back home later that night. So, I had one of our fellow brothers back at school text me some information on a couple Presidents of local chapters in Boston. I began calling around. Northeastern chapter didn't respond, so I called the MIT chapter. He greeted me warmly and invited us to their house. They were in the middle of dry rush (meaning no drinking) which was kind of a bummer cause we were looking to have a couple beers. However, they offered us a couple burgers and a place to park our car for the game (they were less than 4 blocks away). They also offered us a place to sleep if we could not find anything else. Their president gave me the contact information of the Harvard chapter's president. I gave him a call and he informed me that they ran on a different calendar and were not in school or at their chapter house. But there was one guy who lived not too far away from the chapter house and he would speak to the guy for me. A little while later I got a call from the local brother. He gave us directions and asked us to meet him at the chapter house. We finally found it and consequently found him. He was waiting for us on the street. I went up to him and introduced myself and the other guys. He tested me to make sure I was a Sigma Chi and immediately opened up the house and said his goodbyes.

At first I was shocked that he didn't even walk us around the house to find out more information about us. I mean we met for less than 2 minutes and he trusted us with the house. When else in anyone's travels, relationships or whatever has someone been trusted so quickly. That Harvard brother knew we were Sigma Chi's. That is all that he had to know. We share an instant bond that goes beyond time, or place. That bond that comes from lofty goals, shared ideals and principles instilled in us all as Sigma Chi's. We took a quick tour of the house it seemed as the brothers that lived here just left all their personal belongings: laptops, i-pods, cameras, etc. It just further exemplified the trust he had for us.

To this day I have been chapter President, gone to province conferences, been to Balfour Leadership Training Workshop in Missouri, visited numerous chapters, bumped into random Sigs, and met many other alumni. However, my defining moment as a Sigma Chi is that time we were given the Harvard house for the night. True Brotherhood. That will last forever because of an eternal bond.

The Way Things Are

What happens, happens for a reason. it is only human to question the events of our lives, but it is our faith that gives us hope to realize that God wanted life the way it is. Live your life from day to day. Deal with what happens in the best way you can. Have faith and trust in others. The world still has some good people in it. You are defined by what you do and who you surround yourself with. So, make sure you do what is good for you now and your future...keeping in mind there is more than this mortal world.

What Is Your Agenda?

Meaning what you say vs. just saying it.

I am sick and tired to people saying and doing things just to get some persons approval. Why do they take part in this behavior? My opinion is that they are very insecure and without any confidence. In order to find this confidence they suck up to the people in their lives. They agree or say what they what to hear just for the person to agree with them. By getting the person to agree with them they feel confident in themselves and what they have just said so it becomes their personal truth or actually believe what they have just said...because of that self-confidence boost. To them pleasing other people for self benefit is like a drug. It fuels their confidence and takes away from their insecurity.

Tell people HOW IT REALLY IS they will respect you for it. They don't want to hear sugar plums and rainbows all the time. Be real. Be real to yourself and those around you. Mean what you tell people, forget about what you think they want to hear. Stop putting yourself first when it hurts others. There is a time and place to put yourself first, but not at the cost of hurting other people.

That Invisable Cloud

I hate the saying, "love is blind" because to a vast extent it is true. Love is so blinding in fact that it manipulates the person under its power. It can convince you of things even if you thought the opposite, it turns irrationality into rationality. I have fallen in love and consequently have been living in a sort of cloudy world. I would see things, hear things, and look at actions but I could not see through them. I was not able to see the attended meaning because they were covered by this cloud. That cloud that blinds you while you are in love is very dangerous. It convinced me that I was wrong when I was not, it made me believe I had to change, it actually made me hurt. Love is not suppose to hurt. I realize that love hurts when it is one of the two people under the spell. The actual true love I am talking about goes like this: it is the type of attachment and companionship that has you believe you don't need another person in this world, it is the type of feeling deep in your chest that when your significant other is sick or unhappy you feel their pain but also that you would go to the ends of the earth to have them feel better for even just one minute, it is when you wake up in the morning and can't wait to talk to them, it is when you think this is going to be the greatest day of your life because you have woke up next to them, it is when love goes beyond words but you still try using every word in the dictionary to let them know you love them. To me love is very painful because this is the only kind I have known for a long while. The love I give is true, genuine, honest and filled to the brim with good intentions. However, this love is not never ending. I do not believe in the notion that once you have loved someone part of your heart will always be theirs. I am being hypocritical here because I use to think this, but times have changed the way I see the world and the people in it. It is possible to erase love. Once that cloud has been lifted you are able to see clearly. So, clearly that everything comes back. You can remember everything and how it happened back when you were in love, after the cloud has been lifted. Taking the blame for a fight, decided it was better just to agree, put off something in your life, been taken for granted. All of these things are not love. These are all things that contribute to the destruction of love. If you are wrong then admit it, otherwise don't. If it is your opinion then stick to it, do not change your ideas for someone else. If you want to do something in your life, then do it. If you ever have done something so thoughtful and nice and not gotten a thank you do not push it aside, you need to talk about how that hurts you. I am guilty of not doing the right thing when it came to feeling unloved. It just builds up more and more until you can't handle it anymore. This is not healthy for any relationship, even if both partners do love each other. The point of this post is try and lift that cloud if it makes you hurt, try and see clearly. Being in love and having it returned back to you is the greatest feeling in this world. When you have it cherish it and make it last, but make it last because of hard work, and good intentions. And when you start to doubt someone elses love for you, you probably have a legitimate concern. Deal with it sooner than later.