Like I mentioned in my last post I’ve been reading quite a bit. I tend to steer more towards books on either running, chivalry, and science fiction. The books I like would be considered more as a geeky nature. Getting lost in the far off future of Jack Campbell’s The Lost Fleet series, or the countries of Michael J. Sullivan’s The Riyria Revelations and Riyria Chronicles pulls me into a place of comfort. Most people would wonder how anyone can read about running, or that there are even books about running out there. Well there are MANY books about running out there, books that follow teams like the University of Boulder, Colorado, Alberto Salazar who coached the gold and silver medalists in the 10,000 meter at the 2012 Olympics, and Roger Bannister’s breaking of the 4-minute mile barrier  on May, 6 1954.

The one thing I love most about reading, other than simply getting lost in the words, are the paper and pages themselves. Books are one of the only non-physical and non-electronic means people still have today to entertain themselves. But things like the iPad and Kindles kind of take that away in my eyes. Yes, reading is reading, the story is before you to get lost in, but books have been around for centuries in one form or another. And now it almost seems like books and paper in general is being done away with both recreationally and professionally. Personally I do better holding a textbook than doing classwork on websites like our school changed to my senior year of high school. It was something that I didn’t like, and that may be because I was raised on textbooks and not computers like the coming generations. But isn’t it possible that we as a society are putting too much effort into make everything digital? Shouldn’t there be a balance of paper and information accessible online? I think so.

All I’m trying to say is, we should all try and get our children-to-be as we go on in life to focus on reading, rather than buying our 6th and 7th graders iPhones. It’s one thing to say we are letting technology take us over as a society, and rather cliché, but it seems to be true. So many people want to appease us kids by letting us have a new Xbox, iPhones, Galaxies, etc. just because they make us happy. Well no duh they make us happy! A lot of things can make people happy, those same things can have varying degrees of bad side effects as well!

This little rant was spurred by watching Cake Boss at 2AM the other day where they gave their 10-year-old daughter an iPhone 5. In case anyone was wondering.

This is my second time writing this same post since when I tried to post it a little bit ago it deleted itself. As a result I have lost all hope in humanity and life. It’s been a good chunk of time since my last blog, mainly because I’ve been working on two different blogs that won’t be posted for a few weeks. Also, I’ve been trying to enjoy procrastination and laziness within my home.

So far my break has been an awesome blessing, filled with snow, shoveling snow, looking at snow, and more snow. But really it’s been a very relaxing break, filled with reading a lot of books I could never find time for during the semester, and sleeping-in till noon. Nerf wars with my nephew and brother-in-law, Christmas with both sides of the family, and television have all been just a taste of my break away from homework. Of course I’ll need to jump back onto my Latin studies before I return for my second semester to make sure I’m still on beat.

Probably the coolest thing to happen over my break was a marriage. Andrew Myers, a fellow Logansport Berry, joined in a covenantal bond before God in his marriage to Allison Yocum on January 4th, 2014. The first of any of my friends to do so, and I was extremely honored to be invited by the couple. They took a step of great love and spirituality that I hope will cause for a deepening in faith in their coming decades together! I just want to wish a big CONGRADULATIONS (see what I did there) to them on this beautiful event!

I’ll be trying to have more than three blogs a week till school starts on January 18th to make up for my recent inactiveness. Happy winter storms readers!

WAF

Just kidding. That wasn’t all! Last night was the 1st Annual Mr. Wabash Pageant, and in the middle of that the snow came down in a beautiful drift! By the way, Mr. Doug Baker ’15 and Mr. Ben Cook ’14 represented Phi Gamma Delta, and Cook received Honorable Mention and Baker was runner-up.

Last night it snowed into a “White Christmas” as it were. Our pledge brother Noah Levi, from Florida, had yet to experience a true snow yet, and had some fun enjoying a snowball fight with us. A spontaneous snowball fight, with some brothers of Fiji, and my pledge brothers was great! SNOW SNOW SNOW is so much fun!

Back to studying

SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW SNOW!

That is all.

Logansport High School enacted a policy going into my sophomore year that made final exams optional if a student did not miss class more than two times that semester, and was able to maintain a 72% or higher in the class. Thus, in a span of five years, this will be my second time ever having to take a final exam or write a final paper.

The one thing I keep hearing is, “Get sleep, study hard, take a break, and get more sleep.” I feel like an almost logical idea would be to pull an all-nighter at some point, and to study hard and long to try and prepare myself. That however also seems like an extremely ignorant thing to do, as it will only put you behind the very next day for more studying. Yes, rest seems far more important than saying, “I pulled an all-nighter studying for finals.” To simply paraphrase what I see as a positive message from Head Track and Field Coach Morgan.

Jake Ponton ’14 hard at work in the FIJI House Library

I think another good thing is to have fun when writing papers and studying. Stress is already present when you get to the exam room or turn in that final paper. I do not see any positives from sitting at my desk, revisiting my 400+ Latin flashcards, and thinking how I will ruin my life if I don’t do well enough. I see positives from sitting at my desk, reviewing my 400+ Latin flashcards, and thinking how well I CAN do on this test. I see positives in writing a final paper, and telling myself how much more on I know on the subject than I did a full semester ago. I see positives in keeping a smile on my face, coffee out of my system (I loath coffee, sorry Dad), and studying with an attitude to have fun.

So have fun this Dead Week and coming Finals Week, Wabash.

WAF