I’m sure your family has traditions that they follow every year.

For instance my family always meets at my Grandma’s house in Iowa for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I personally love this time of year because I don’t get to see my family as often as I’d like.

The crazy thing about all this is that it could change in five years. Hopefully in five years my brother and I will both have careers started. With that being said, there’s a good chance that we could live in different parts of the country. I know my brother is currently interested in moving to Phoenix or Dallas to work for State Farm. According to Pantagraph.com they are hiring/moving 8,000 employees.

I personally have no real desire to stay in Illinois after college. I wouldn’t mind living in Missouri, Kentucky or maybe one of the Carolina’s.

If all this falls into place it will be hard to get the family together. It makes me realize how limited time can be and how you should value time with people you care about.

It’s a sad thing to think about but on the other hand it can also be exciting to start your own traditions. In ten years theres a high probability that my brother and I will both have children of our own. I hope that my brother and I live close enough to our parents that we can all be around each other on the Holiday’s. I want my kids to have more time with their family than I did.

The one good thing about being so far from the rest of your family is that it makes your bond with your immediate family that much stronger. My immediate family has to rely on each other rather than aunts, uncles and cousins. I think that through being four hours away my family is closer than many other families inside our big family.

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I personally believe that Golf is one of the greatest games you can play on earth.

It does not have the adrenaline rush or the high intensity that other sports have but it builds character that I believe other sports don’t.

As a kid I always played golf with my Dad and brother recreationally. As soon as I played my first 9 holes I knew it was going to be one of my favorite sports.

I eventually ended up playing golf my junior and senior year of high school.

This is where I gained some characteristics that I will never lose. When you play competitive golf, your scoring is completely based on an honor system. Obviously people don’t hit their balls in the same area every shot so many times you are hitting a shot while no one is watching.

So many things can happen if no one sees your shot. First off you can move the ball into a better lye,you could also physically move your ball out of the way from a tree, you could hit a bad shot out of bounds and re-hit a ball with no one watching. As Arnold Palmer says on SportsQuotes “”I have a tip that can take five strokes off any body’s golf game. It’s called an eraser. Doing those type of things on the golf course is easy. Lying to your group mates is the hard part. Ghttps://sonks23.files.wordpress.com/2014/03/tiger-woods.jpgolf uses a rotation system to keep score, meaning you stand in a circle before the match and everyone passes their scorecard to the left. This prevents two players from trading scorecards and cheating together throughout the round.

Golf instills a high level of honesty, integrity and respect. I’m not saying that other sports do not instill good characteristics because I’ve played other sports and they definitely do. I just believe golf instills them the most.

I look forward to being able to retire and play the sport I love for many years to come.

The future can be a scary thing.

I guess it depends on how you think about it.

For me I like to think I have a bright future. I don’t mean to come off arrogant but I don’t see myself failing in the future. It’s something I think about all the time and to be honest I’m not sure what it holds.

I know that I absolutely want to move out of Illinois. According to the Bureau of Labor StatisticsIllinois had an unemployment rate of 8.7 percent. I personally feel there are much better states to live in, plus the weather is like a moody junior high girl. Aside from that my future is up in the air.

I know that I want to be a spokesperson for a company eventually. What company? Where? How am I going to do that? I feel that I’ll have to start out in a sales position and eventually work my way up.

Another major component of my future would be a family. I know that it’s five or six years away but it’s something that comes across my mind quite frequently. For me I don’t want to have another one year relationship that never really means anything. When I like a girl I legitimately think about if I could marry her. I know it’s probably a bad habit but I can’t help myself.

I also wonder a lot what my kids will be like. I hope they’re like me without so much of my sarcasm. I want my kids to be able to grow up in a small school like I did. I also hope they love sports like I did. If they don’t? I guess I’ll have to support them in whatever they love.

As I look to the future it excites me. I hope your future excites you. 

Yes, March Madness is finally upon us!

This is arguable one of my favorite times of the year. For those of you who don’t know, March Madness is a term coined for college basketball.

During March Madness teams play in the conference tournament along with the National Tournament.

The reason I love this time of year is because basketball is one of my favorite sports. I played basketball from age four to my senior year of high school. During that time I played AAU basketball for two years which entailed traveling the Midwest for two years with nine of my best friends.

Moving on to the actual basketball aspect, March Madness is awesome because any team can win on any given night. Every year there are always upsets that shock the nation. It’s a cool feeling watching an underdog beat a perennial powerhouse.

This year I believe the tournament will be wide open for anyone to win. The bracket will be released tonight on CBS at 6 E.T. I’m very excited to see this years bracket because my favorite team Iowa will definitely be in the big dance.  I believe Iowa has the capability to go as far as the Final Four this year. At one point they were ranked inside the top ten.

March Madness is also a chance to turn a profit for many people. Throughout the nation many people will be holding bracket challenges that can award hundreds of dollars to the winners. According to quickenloans.com Warren Buffet a multi billionaire is offering one billion dollars to anyone who can pick a perfect bracket this year.

Statistically it’s almost impossible to do but that’s not going to stop people from trying to win one billion dollars!

As many of us know next week marks the beginning of Spring Break.

The typical college kid is more than likely going somewhere warm to get drunk for a week with their friends and hey there’s nothing wrong with that.

This Spring Break I will be residing in Edwardsville Ill. Although it does not sound that exciting, I’m ready for this week off of school. Spring Break is the perfect break during the spring semester as it splits the semester into two halves.

I will also be working quite a bit during my week off which is okay because I love to make money. I know that for some college kids they will spend around $1000 on a Spring Break trip every year of college. $4000 is a good chunk of change that could go towards better investments.

I’m not bashing people who do that because before college is over I would like to go on a Spring Break trip with some of my friends. I just don’t know if it’s necessary to repeat it every year and spend that much money. On the contrary I will probably make around $400 which does not seem like a lot but it will get me through the rest of the semester for groceries and miscellaneous expenses.

According to NBC the average cost of a trip to Cancun, Mexico is valued at $2,243. $2,2243 for a week of fun? I’m not sure that I agree.

Although I may become slightly bored over Spring Break, I can justify that by knowing I didn’t waste money to drink with people I’m not that close with.

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All though we are sad when a loved one passes away, sometimes it can be a blessing in disguise.

This past Thursday my great grandmother passed away. 

She was a woman who loved her family with her whole heart. Now that she’s gone her family will realize the love she had for them. 

She was 97 years old when she passed, she out lived her husband and even one of her daughters. I can remember a couple years ago when she told my family that she didn’t want to be on earth anymore because she had nothing to live for. When I heard this it made me think of my friend who committed suicide in high school, Anthony. 

In my mind I always thought that Anthony thought he had nothing to live for that’s why he took his own life. Obviously it’s not the same situation due to the fact that Anthony was 17 and my great grandmother was 97 but I wonder if they were in the same mindset at the end of their lives. 

According to PsychologyToday, people who commit suicide are placed into categories of depressed, psychotic or manipulative. I do think my Great grandma may have been depressed after she lost her daughter and husband, however I do not feel that she was depressed at the end of her life. I like to think she was at peace with her Lord and was ready for the next step in her spiritual journey. 

My great grandma was a very religious lady while Anthony was not, I’m not sure if that has an impact on how you view death but I imagine Anthony was scared while my great grandma was at peace when death came. 

I truly believe that my great grandmother’s death was a blessing to her and our family. I know that she is in a better place and can be with her daughter and husband. 

R.I.P Grandma