A Good News Update

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Hey Everyone,

This past christmas break, one of my uncles said that i should still use this blog every so often to let everyone know how i am doing now that i am back to my regular life. So this is what i am doing now...

Since I have been back, I have really noticed how much more positive things and outcomes to situations have been for me. Not to say that i had a lot of problems or anything like that before I went, but only now i see things a little differently. The experience allowed me to "grow up" a little bit, quite possibly in ways that most will never know. When you emerge in a new lifestyle the way that I did and it becomes "normal", upon returning to your old ways, you gain appreciation for what you have missed.
For example, I have always been a good student, but now when I go to classes I act differently. I am not so preoccupied with what the hot girl in class might think or if I am asking too many questions that might delay when we're let out by a minute or two, but instead I attend to learn what they have to teach. We all know that on the first day of any class a classic comment by the professor/ teacher will be "Read the book and come to class and you'll get an A". Everybody knows this, but 90% never actually do it. Now i actually do read all my books for class (instead of just skimming for bolded sections or key words) and go to class to just listen. I don't write down everything a teacher presents, because most of the time its exactly what i learned the night before while reading. I'll jot down a few ideas of things to remember, and when the test rolls around i read over these ideas (no more all-night cram sessions) and walk into the test with confidence that i'll ace it. Funny part is that just about every test i have taken this semester i have aced, and for 4 of them i have received the highest grade in the class. Not bad for taking time off and returning to the hardest academic schedule i have ever taken in my life. I can not confidently say though that this would be happening, had I not been in Guatemala.
I even think my teachers are taking notice, because my relationship has moved away from being where they are trying to find out what i don't know on test, and instead testing what i do know (If that makes sense).

My socail skills have even benefited from all of this believe it or not. I think i spent a lot of time just thinking to myself partially because of the amount of time I spent on my own, and partially based on the fact i couldn't translate what i did want to say at times). So now when i communicate with whoever it may be now, it's almost like i am making up for all the "lost" time. It seems like multiple time a day i will have quality conversations, spanning from my own mother to girls that are way out of my league. I even am giving more people the benefit of the doubt in certain instances. I realize that through other peoples experiences, which can be completely opposite from the ones i am used to, have possibly formed them into who they are and what they think. I can't say that the way i think is the right way, and vice versa. So i try to take an optimistic approach and see if there are reasons for why they did/ said something i didn't agree with.

Some buddies mentioned to me that these girls who are way out of my league would really take notice to my Guatemala experience once i did get back. I was afraid this might be true, not because i wouldn't want to meet girls who would appreciate people in the world like this, but instead because i didn't want to use the experience as a way to get girls (trust me i have seen it done before). The funny thing is that it is true that girls look at me in another, more positive way now. But i don't use it to manipulate the situation. If it does come up i don't lie. I tell them what i did. But i don't try to be anybody i am not. I treat it like my "foot in the door" and instead try to continue with a real conversation that will hopefully give them evidence of the person i really am.

Another potential obstacle I had to encounter after i got back was trying to find a job. Obviously part time jobs aren't trying to hire, especially in a college town, so i was a little worried for a while. But i knew i had some valuable knowledge that i had just learned and hoped there was something i could apply it to. But one day a few weeks after school started back up in January, my brother Devin told me just to look for tutoring jobs (which in my mind involve me working privately for a kid who doesn't want to learn and being overpaid by their controlling parents). I did take his advice though, and actually found a position tutoring inner city Phoenix kids grades K-6. It's a program that is run through ASU, but it works around my school schedule and the new trolley system that they just built here drops me off 2 blocks from the location. I really couldn't have found a better option. I could have gotten a job as a waitor or a bartender and made a whole lot more money, but they way i see it (from a professional standpoint) is that if I can just manage to get by working somewhere that doesn't pay as much through my college years, but at the same time is contributing in a positive way to society, it will benefit me tremendously more when it is time for me to find a career.

As for my future plans with getting a career and all that, it is worth mentioning the little conversation i had with my academic advisor about a month ago. When i left for Guatemala i had just completed my 2nd year, so this semester is technically the beginning of my junior year. But what we figured out after looking at my graduation requirements, is that after next semester (aka Fall 2009 or the 2nd half of junior year) i will have completed all my major requirements, and all i will be forced to take after that would be an internship (which i can take wherever in the world i would like) and election credits. I decided that its not the best decision, economically speaking, to take a full schedule of elective credits at a university, so i have decided to finish up taking enjoyable elective credits at a junior/ community college in either Arizona or San Diego. This means that while all my friends will be trying to graduate on time and find a job in the final semester of college, iI instead will be taking cooking or photoshop. Not a bad way to finish the "best years" of my life like everyone says that it is. I am still in disbelief that i was able to pull of only spending 3 years at ASU (with no AP credits or assistance coming in) even after taking a break. The trick is to not change your major, to take only the classes you are supposed to take, to pass all those classes, and the rest will fall into place for you.
I am also already signed up to take the first of my EMT (Emergency Medical Technician) classes in San Diego over the summer, because of my plan to be a firefighter after college. It's an exciting time in my life, because of all the pre-planning i have done in order to put myself in the position i am in now, is actually starting to make a difference. I am moving into a new phase in my life, and couldn't be happier about it.

About a week and a half ago, my best friend since 3 years old left for 2 years to go serve a mission in Barcelona, Spain. All our lives we had both known he would do this at some point in his life, but up unitl about 6 months ago, i never wanted him to leave. It was a little bit selfish of me to not want my lifelong best friend to be gone for 2 years of our lives, but i think that to feel this way is natural. But my attitude changed once i got back, and now i am exicted for him. I know of the benefits he will receive in his own life from living in another country. Living within your own countries borders all your life, by no fault of your own, forces you to think in ways which are most beneficial to that country. But once you cross those borders for an extended amount of time, you think on a whole new level and realize that people in the rest of the world are just like you and me, and it's best if we find ways to work together as a whole. Like i said, he has only been gone for a little under 2 weeks now, so i might start to miss him more as time goes on, but i will just need to remember the big picture and that he will be better off because he did it.

I thank those who have been reading this and supporting me through the endless adventures that I have encountered so far, and the ones that have yet to happen...

Much love,
Brennan Perry



P.S. - I know I have already written a lot, but there was a speech i heard the other day, that i think that anybody at any point in their life will benefit from reading. It was a graduation speech printed in the Chicago Tribune by Mary Schmich. Here it is...

Ladies and Gentlemen of the class of '97... wear sunscreen.
If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be IT.

The long term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience.

I will dispense this advice now.

Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they have faded. But trust me, in 20 years you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked.

You are NOT as fat as you imagine.

Don't worry about the future; or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubblegum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind; the kind that blindside you at 4pm on some idle Tuesday.

Do one thing every day that scares you.

Sing.
Don't be reckless with other people's hearts, don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.

Floss.
Don't waste your time on jealousy; sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long, and in the end, it's only with yourself.

Remember compliments you receive, forget the insults; if you succeed in doing this, tell me how.

Keep your old love letters, throw away your old bank statements.

Stretch.
Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives, some of the most interesting 40 year olds I know still don't.

Get plenty of calcium.

Be kind to your knees, you'll miss them when they're gone.

Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't, maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't, maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much or berate yourself, either. Your choices are half chance, so are everybody else's. Enjoy your body, use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it, or what other people think of it, it's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.

Dance. Even if you have nowhere to do it but in your own living room.

Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.

Do NOT read beauty magazines, they will only make you feel ugly.

Get to know your parents, you never know when they'll be gone for good.

Be nice to your siblings; they are your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.

Understand that friends come and go, but for the precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography in lifestyle because the older you get, the more you need the people you knew when you were young.

Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard; live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft.

Travel.
Accept certain inalienable truths, prices will rise, politicians will philander, you too will get old, and when you do you'll fantasize that when you were young prices were reasonable, politicians were noble and children respected their elders.

Respect your elders.

Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund, maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse; but you never know when either one might run out.

Don't mess too much with your hair, or by the time you're 40, it will look 85.

Be careful whose advice you buy, but, be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia, dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.

But trust me on the sunscreen.

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Photos

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With one of my best friend's from school. The hair has gotten a little shorter since. haha

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Best friends since 3 years old. Enjoy Barcelona bro

Me and the car
Got the perfect car for me. It's all i need.. nothing more, nothing less

Comments

[Steve Osborn]

hope
Hey Brennan! Thanks so much for the update! I have been praying regularly for you, and see a lot of answers in this entry! too cool! Speaking of global consciousness: I was asked by a resident of a micro enterprise for poor folk in a game park in South Africa [thanks, world wide web] what one word I would use to describe my feelings about the human race. Thinking of you and some like you, I said "Hopeful" I especially like your rationale for tutoring versus Bartending. ( However, Bartenders are often psychologist/priests in our society:-)