Open Letter

Dear short mans disease,
Why have you chosen me to embrace your gift? While I think of myself to be of average height, I am reminded everytime I see my friends that I am far under average. I am a midget compared to my friends, who average about 6'3", while I am around 5'7". Not only you affect my confidence around tall folk, but you give me a wild disadvantage in almost every sport. I would love to be able to dunk, but instead, because of you, I get stuffed every time I try to go "hard in the paint". I'm too short to be a reciever in football. I am too short to have a good serve in tennis. Line drives go flying over my head in baseball. I always got picked last when I was younger because you graced me with your presence. The only advantage I have is that I do not have to duck to avoid hitting my head when I walk through a building. So please, if you could go away and give me a few more inches of height, I would not tink of you in a negative manner.

Make Up Blog: Beloved Themes

How do you deal with uncomfortable memories or traumatic events from your past?
Dealing with an uncomfortable memory or traumatic event from my past is something I don't even try to do. I don't know why but events that have been traumatic, to me, are the ones I have the hardest time recalling. I remember a traumatic event I experience when I was on vacation during either my freshman or sophomore year of high school in Cancun, Mexico. I was in the pool with my cousin and I heard my uncle say "Oh my God, is that a kid". I looked over and saw a kid floating face down in the pool. I remember swimming over to him, picking him up and handing him off to someone. I can't remember what he looked like, but I remember the blue-ish purple color of his lips. I can vaguely remember the doctors, who happened to be on vacation at the time, struggling to bring the child back to life, and the mother freaking out. I don't know if it is because of the adrenaline rush I had during that time or because it was a traumatic event, but I have a hard time recalling that memory, even though it is something that I should be proud of. Memories that are uncomfortable to me, I seem to forget or lose very easily. But, most likely, I am glad that I repressed them, as I would probably not want to remember them.

Make Up Blog: Stress

Stress is something that I am very used to, especially when it comes to music. As a percussionist, ever since fifth grade, I experience enormous levels of stress whenever I get a piece of music. Percussion is different from most other instruments because you are the only person playing that part, so you don't have 4-5 other people to cover up your mistakes and most of the time, you are who the rest of the band listens to for tempo. During my beginning years of music, those two reasons gave me some pretty hard times in class and made me very anxious. I still remember during my first middle school concert, I barely played at all because I was so nervous. The stress from not only learning the music, but performing it was enough to make me worried sick all of the time. I don't know when it happened, but the stress turned from giving me a negative affect to giving me positive affects. I became less worried about my music, and actually found it easier to play. I somehow learned how to control the stress, either from learning from my mistakes or from over the top practice. I went from not being able to play a part by myself to playing the main solo percussion part in this previous years marching band show. I used to hate being stressed over other people having to rely  on me for things such as tempo or hitting the right notes, but now it gives me a sense of control and confidence.

Guns on Campus

Guns are tools that I am very familiar with. All of my uncles, some of my aunts, and my father own a gun, with most owning more than one and most owning at least one assault rifle. I even have a couple of cousins, who are younger than I am, who own a gun. Many people might consider these family members to be "redneck", and I agree. As for myself, I asked for a hunting rifle for Christmas, and while my dad was fine with it, but my mom and the controversy over gun control won over.  I have never felt scared or endangered when I am near a gun. This is mostly because I am educated on gun safety, I know how they work and I can always trust the people around me when there is a gun present. But, I would definitely feel threatened if kids in college were allowed to carry a concealed gun, because most of them wouldn't know how to be safe with it. I'm not saying that we should make strict gun control laws or ban assault rifles, but I don't think it would be a good idea to allow kids who are still in school, even if it is college, to carry a gun. I wouldn't care if a student kept a gun at home for protection, because I plan on purchasing one when I move into a house or apartment, but we cannot allow them to be carried in public. I think there could be an exception if the college offered a class on gun training and safety, and after completing a semester or two of the class, you could get some sort of Student Carry and Concealed License.

Chris Will at my grandparents farm