College Life moves on!

Well, this has sure been an exciting couple of weeks! Can't say the same about BYU Football, but what are you going to do?

Oh well, moving on! Lets see... I really don't have much to say. Classes have been going on as usual. I wake up at 6:30 on MWF and I go to class. PS100 is a repeat of AP Physics right now, so I'm kinda bored. Stats 121 has 700 people in it, so it's really crowded and hot, so if it's been a late night, I try not to doze off! BOM and Civ are really good. My BOM is really spiritual and has a ton of good insights in the gospel. Civ isn't bad. My teacher is good, but he teaches lecture style, which makes it kinda hard to take good notes-especially if you don't have the text book. Luckily I just got it on Friday!

Speaking of these classes, I've gotten my first taste at testing here at BYU. I really don't like it that much. For me, it feels like I know all the answers and I don't have any questions at all, but I take the test and I get a 77%!!! What's up with that? Guess that means more studying. And study I must for my Stat 121 exam. I am sooooo screwed on that test. See, I understand what they're saying during class, and on the homework I have my notes (they're the exact slides from the lecture) so I do fine. But take away those notes, and I have no idea what they're saying. I'm getting better, but my test is in 2 days, so I better start studying now!

I would love it if I had something to study right now- other than Stats, of course. You see, I have somewhere between 2-10 hours of free time on any given day. So for me, if I don't have a lot of homework (which I don't. My classes are super easy right now) I end up wishing for something to do. I guess I need to balance my priories and find something constructive. (Speaking of Constructive, I think I finally got rid of Farmville fever that I had the past 2 weeks!)

However, being the Elders Quorum Secretary does keep me occupied on Sunday, so that helps offset some of the boredom. It's a lot of work, but I like it. The presidency is really good, and I always learn some new leadership skills from our weekly meetings.

Air Force is going very well. I think I'm really hitting it off with some of the Cadre (Cadets who are in charge of the detachment), and I'm trying to do the most I can. I make a lot of mistakes, but I'm trying to think ahead and I'm trying to do better, which they seem to appreciate. Oooh! I almost forgot: I talked to a Cadet Major (that means he's really high up in the Cadre) and he has never been on Drill Team or Color Guard. He's done Arnold Air Society for 3 years. So that means that there's hope for me (since being in Marching Band is a 6 hour commitment anyway)!!!

Roommate? Huh, I think it's going ok. We talk and chat about stuff and remain friendly. Ben's friends are nice, but they're not my type. Which is totally ok. I'm not really into music, especially international music, and he's not into band and Air Force ROTC- So it balances out! The only real "problem" we have is with the Temperature. I like the room to be 60 degrees. It's cold so when I come back from a long day of school or band or Air Force, I like a cool room to cool down in. Ben hates it cold, and would prefer it to be more like 70 something. I've told him that he can turn it up-which he does- and then when he leaves and I come in, I turn it back down. We have really different schedules during the day, so I thought it was working fine, till he said that he was tired of having it so cold. So I told him then to turn it up and I would leave it alone. If he was uncomfortable then he should turn it up. So right now I have it set to 67. I would like it more like 63 or 60, but life's full of compromises. Other than that, I've been pretty much ok!

I've gotten to know some really good friends. My two best friends are Spencer Davis and Brandon Bishop. Both are from the Trumpet Section and both are really funny to be around. They like to make fun of each other (actually, more like Spencer making fun of Brandon) and they tell really good situational jokes (the kind where you say something to someone at just the right moment and only then is it funny because of the previous dialogue and back story.). I get a few good ones in there, but I really just let them duke it out. The funny thing is that Brandon will constantly ditch us for people he just saw from his old stake/ward or someone else he might know. Even when they're sitting with us, half of the conversations at the table are between Brandon and someone he knows. So Spencer and I either just sit back and laugh on the inside, or occassionaly we'll make small talk or make a joke about what Brandon just said. Brandon is so entertaining to listen to that we don't mind that much listening to him talk about life in Kansas. All the relationships, the high school full of D-bags (his words not mine!), the weird party-type stories, all the good stuff. So right now I'm pretty good friend wise. They're usually pretty good at inviting me to go and watch T.V. or do something with them. The problem is that they always ask me on a night I have Air Force, which is Tuesdays and Wednesdays. So apperantly I have missed out on a lot of Community and the Office, but you do what you can do. I just wish I had my Hertz Car-swap card so I could actually go see a real movie for a change. That would be very nice to take the 2-6 of us and go see a movie or just do something fun. Everything is too far to walk.

Really, everything here is pretty peachy! I miss all the folks back in Omaha, but I'm kinda in flux right now if I really want to go back. I'm sure I will come the end of October, but I realize things haven't changed that much, and for the most part life is easier out here, so I'm pretty good right now! Hope everyone's life continues to go well. Hope the Band does Awesome this year- win State for us! Keep your grades up and I will post again soon. Sooner than 20 days. Busy busy busy!!! Love you all and thanks for the support! Love ya!!!!

Ok, pictures from Top to bottom: The Scoreboard for BYU, BYU Field, Brandon (on left) and Shane. (Shane is a good acquaintance of mine. See a lot of us during Band, but not much else.), Matt (on left) and Spencer (Matt is another good acquaintance of mine. He hangs out with Spencer, Brandon and I occasionally), and my section leader Tyler. Always on the nose with things.

The first few weeks of BYU

Hello friends and family! Seriously, more people need to check this out. And the family needs to update this more, it's been like over a month and no one back in Omaha has updated this at all.

Anyway; regardless of that, I am going to talk to you about all the fun and hard work I've been having at BYU. I would have updated this last week, but my internet was down to a filter system and essentially I had no internet access for 36 hours.

Lets start off from the beginning: BAND CAMP! (buh-buh-buh-bummmmmmmm)

College marching band is almost the exact opposite of everything high school marching band is. To start, everyone there cares about the program, so you don't have people slacking off or pulling bs at you or the director. Next, almost everyone there is good (I mean almost because apparently on average, only 300 people try out each year, so there's a possibility to have people there who are mediocre. And I mean that in the kindest of ways!) so there's not much power struggle. Everyone accepts their own spot and does the best they can with it. Third, people are married here, so you see out of section and out of band relationships. Fourth, the sections that are usually the best at High school (Trombones, Tubas, woodwinds) tend to be the worst in college. Our band director Bro. McInnis (we call him Mac for short) has only told the trumpets to tongue shorter, so I say it's pretty good here!

The other difference is that my section doesn't believe in Section bonding. For those who understand "band types", the Trumpets think they are God-sent and we are the best thing around since Sliced Bread and iPods. Well, it's true. We are. What, do you ever see the angel Moroni playing a Sax? Or Guitar? How about a Tuba? Think not. It's a trumpet! (Technically, it's a valveless trumpet used in antiquity, but it still counts!) However, because of that, the upper-classmen in out section do not care much for underclassmen. They don't verbally abuse us, but they just don't really care. They still talk and joke with us but freshmen are left to cut and dry by ourselves. This is why the first 3 days of band camp stunk, since we freshmen were to scared to talk amongst ourselves.

Our Band directors are Bro. Mac and Bro. Fuller. Bro. Mac has a nice southern accent, and he looks and sounds more like a high school football coach (Remember the Titans anyone? Sounds like the white coach). But he is so spiritual in the gospel and he knows what needs to be done for the band and how to do it. He gives us spiritual references at every rehearsal. One of the ones I remember was when we weren't moving as quickly as we could, he told us the story of how President Kimball would run to every appointment and when asked why he ran despite his health, he replied "If you knew the lord's timetable, you would run too.". Then Bro. Mac said, "I don't know much about the lord's timetable, but I know ours. And if you knew as much as I did, you would run too." That's the inspiration I get to work with every day. He also says stuff like "two squirrels fighting in a laundry basket".

Anyway, Band Camp was long. It went from 0800-2200 everyday. We marched and played the entire time. The sun was beating down on us all day without cloud cover, and even though there's not humidity up here (so it's not as hot), the less atmosphere-so the sun rays burns through your skin. You can literally feel your skin roast on your arms and legs because of the sun. And no matter what SPF sunscreen you have on, you're going to get burned. I had 30 and 50 on and I still got burned on my right arm, my nose, and my mouthpiece got so hot I think I burnt my lips for about a week after camp was over. (There were lots of us who had sunburned lips. The worst part was that one day we all woke up with our bottom lip super purple and puffy. So puffy in fact that we couldn't even drink water because the water would run out the lip. Thankfully it went away like around noon, so we could still play!). The cool thing about being in college marching band is that we set up the entire pre-game performance on the second day of Band Camp-which was our first day marching- our entire first show by the 4th day of band camp- and had about 30 min of show music memorized by the end of the week. After that 3rd day you start talking to more people and you have more fun because you have friends to hang out with and talk. I have some really good friends in the band now-Spencer, Brandon, Matt, Wayde, and Steven.

All in all, Band Camp was hard, but it payed off in the long run. I'm glad that I did it!

Alright, lets see... I covered Band Camp, now what... Oh School!

Ah yes, that wonderful institution payed through the military in return for my soul and unquestioning obedience and mindless service. *sigh* Democracy. Anyway- my classes are going ok. I really have pretty easy classes. I don't have much reading or homework (most of my homework is due once a week on Friday between 1700-2300) so I've been spending a lot of my free time hanging out with friends or watching Phineas and Ferb on Youtube. Best. Show. Ever.
Anyway, the hardest class I have is my ROTC classes because I get up at 0600 and I do the hardest workouts I ever done and the leaders are really strict. Which is to be expected, but I wasn't prepared for the real paradigm shift. Oh, and now I have to fill out a 40 page contract to get my scholarship, so I have till Wednesday to get it done. So tomorrow (Labor Day) I'm going to work on it because I don't have school on holidays and on Tuesdays I only have 0600 PT and Marching Band at 1600. So I have about 10 hours of free-time to do homework and laundry.

My roommate is really nice. His name is Ben and he is from Oregon. He's very outdoorsy and loves China. He speaks the language almost fluently and he loves the people and the heritage. He hangs out late, but he's a nice guy. He's trying to become an architect and live in China. He's a really nice roommate.
As for my dorm, it's the best dorm I could ask for. I have the newest building on Campus and everything actually works and doesn't look and feel like 3 decade old buildings. The way my dorm is set up is awesome! Mom and dad did a really good job organizing, so I haven't done much in terms of rearranging. Hope you guys can come and see this, it's really neat!

I have so many cool experiences to talk about I don't know where to start. Good thing I'm keeping an audio journal for prosperity!

I love you all and miss you so much! Call me and keep in touch!

-Steven