Well who woulda thunk it?

Some of you know that I went to college straight out of high school, and that I didn't finish. Most of you however, probably don't know why I dropped out. I originally went to college because, like so many kids, I believed it was the logical thing to do after high school. I mean what else was I going to do, get a job and be a productive member of society? So I spent my first year out of high school at the only university in South Carolina, Clemson of course. But, truth be told, I never wanted to be there. It's not that I didn't love Clemson and everything about it, I was just still so depressed from my dad dying. My dad died my freshman year of high school and I never dealt with it. I felt like I had already lost so much I hated moving away from everything I knew. I was an agriculture major and ever really felt like I belonged there. Everyone in the department either grew up on a farm or had experience on one but not me. It just never felt right. So after a full school year and two summer sessions, I decided to drop out. I moved back home for two years and got a job. After enough pestering from my mom and friends I decided to return to Clemson. I still hadn't dealt with any issues so it didn't go well to say the least. I spent a semester at Clemson, a semester at Tri-County, and then I went back to just working. During my period of working in Clemson I met several people who had a great bearing on my life. The first was a boss by the name of Duncan Butler. He was/is a great businessman. He was a great role model and is still a great friend. He became a big brother to most of us, but he was more of a surrogate father to me. He did wonders for my self confidence and taught me a lot about enjoying the moment and the people I still had. The second person that had a huge affect on my life was my future wife Kim. She has already graduated from college and now works at Clemson. She did wonders for my self esteem in both positive and negative ways. She's the woman I'm going to marry so of course finding her made me feel awesome. However, the salary she gets as a college graduate made me feel inadequate. This was a feeling I had to learn to get past and now use it as motivation to complete college. She has been more than supportive and it'll take me a lifetime to thank her. So I applied to return to Clemson and now I'm just waiting to hear back from them. As long as they have room for me I'll be a college student in the spring. Also i decided to change my major to mechanical engineering. I feel like this is something suited better to my interests, skills, and back ground. This is the first time I can honestly say I'm excited about school. I'm focused and determined and I feel like I've reached a turning point in my life.

I try and I try, but I don't really try

You know, when I started this blog I thought it'd be real easy to keep up with. Turns out it's not, or I just don't keep up with it. Aside from this blog I've actually been really productive. I'll credit 10% of that to my new (hand me down) iPhone, 20% to the example of people I don't want to be, and 70% to my fiancé Kim being a wonderful motivator. In the two months since my last post I've made some major improvements. Kim and I have decided to not go the typical route when people get married and become dumpy and quit trying. We've decided to improve on our standings. First Kim found a workout routine for us. Now, what I love is that she found a powerlifting routine (yes sometimes I think she would have made a better man). So we are in our second month of our joint workouts and this marks the longest I have ever stuck with exercising. Secondly, I quit drinking soda. I may have a coke every once in a while when we eat out, but it's a far cry from the 8-10 glasses a day. With cutting soda and exercising I've lost 15 lbs, 6% body fat, and a little over two inches on my waist. I think I've reach equilibrium on the size and weight because I've noticed my arms and legs are getting bigger, and my weight is barely starting to go back up. Muscle weighs more than fat, so as long as the fat percentage goes down that means the weight is new muscle. And last but not least I have applied to go back to Clemson! My mom was excited to say the least. There were many factors that finally broke my pride, but perhaps I'll chronicle those in my next post. I promise it won't be two months since I have an app for doing this on my phone now. I really have no excuse, because who can't find twenty minutes to do this really? See y'all hopefully tomorrow night for my college update but if not it'll be soon I promise.