There are no pictures of me actually doing it because I was too busy clinging to the ropes for my life, so you're just going to have to take my word for it.
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Mountain Biking
After discovering that each of us have pretty awesome bikes, Willy and I decided to make it a weekly tradition of biking on Saturdays. I once signed up for the mountain biking class in my first semester here at Dixie, but it started at a not very opportune time, and I dropped it. I have always been meaning to do it again, but I just never got around to it. Last Saturday, Willy took me to a paved trail just outside of town and we have a very pleasant ride, chatting and getting a little outdoor exercise on the occasional hill - or bump - in the road.
This week he decided I could handle a more rougher terrain, so we went a lot more out of town.
There were no paved roads. There was no flat ground. And there was no chatting (I was too focused on getting air to my lungs). The first fifteen minutes was going up a hill. I was ready to call it a successful bike ride when we got to the top, but little did I know that was just the beginning. The next part was going down, which sounds easy enough except there are rocks poking up everywhere that when you're zipping down at fast speeds, you feel very out of control when your bike gets thrown around, all the while trying to stay on the path. I was way out of my comfort zone.
We got to the bottom of that which I will admit, I walked my bike down most of it, preferring not to crack my head open. Now the trail began.
Willy served his mission in the Colorado mountains and all they did was bike, so he is very experienced, making jumps, riding up the sides of inclines, to name just a few. I followed along behind him as best I could trying to not appear that I was breathing like a jogging 60 year old chain smoker. Along with the heavy breathing, I was still not too sure on going over ridges of rocks, having never biked on anything more intense than a country dirt road, and would stop and walk my bike over the ones that looked especially scary. I was hot and I was tired, and it was very frustrating that I couldn't stay on my bike for longer than 10 seconds.
I could feel the verge of tears of frustration, wondering how I was ever going to last however long this trail actually was. I was not going to cry though because a very stubborn and prideful part of me was not going to let such a confident, highly attractive guy see me in a vulnerable way. This was going to be a challenge. I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, drank a sip of water, changed my gears, and kept on pedaling.
The trail continued on, and little by little the bumps didn't seem as scary. I was able to follow right behind him. It actually started to become rather enjoyable. I found myself even veering towards more rocky parts just to add a little challenge. Next thing, I knew we had been at it for about an hour and had looped back to the top of the hill. It was, quite literally, all downhill from there.
I feel very accomplished. As noted from the post before, lately I have been doing a lot of thinking and leaning on things that maybe aren't giving me much of a challenge because I have a such a small perspective. Sometimes it seems the easier route is the better one. Sometimes a year and a half seems too long to wait. Sometimes I just want only a job to worry about. It's inevitable, I'm going to sound like an after school special, but I think I learned a good lesson on my bike ride today.
In a general conference talk I read by Robert D. Hales, called, "Behold, We Count Them Happy Which Endure," he says, "We cannot expect to learn endurance in our later years if we have developed the habit of quitting when things get difficult now... I testify that if we will be obedient and if we are diligent, our prayers will be answered, our problems will diminish, our fears will dissipate, light will come upon us, the darkness of despair will be dispersed, and we will be close to the Lord and feel of His love and of the comfort of the Holy Ghost. It is my prayer that we can find the faith, courage, and strength to endure." I gained a truth that by adjusting your gears, and help from our Heavenly Father, our trials are "but a small moment," (D&C 121:7) and in the end you'll come out better than you could have imagined, and anything that is worth getting, takes work.
Now if I could just keep reminding myself that.
This week he decided I could handle a more rougher terrain, so we went a lot more out of town.
There were no paved roads. There was no flat ground. And there was no chatting (I was too focused on getting air to my lungs). The first fifteen minutes was going up a hill. I was ready to call it a successful bike ride when we got to the top, but little did I know that was just the beginning. The next part was going down, which sounds easy enough except there are rocks poking up everywhere that when you're zipping down at fast speeds, you feel very out of control when your bike gets thrown around, all the while trying to stay on the path. I was way out of my comfort zone.
We got to the bottom of that which I will admit, I walked my bike down most of it, preferring not to crack my head open. Now the trail began.
Willy served his mission in the Colorado mountains and all they did was bike, so he is very experienced, making jumps, riding up the sides of inclines, to name just a few. I followed along behind him as best I could trying to not appear that I was breathing like a jogging 60 year old chain smoker. Along with the heavy breathing, I was still not too sure on going over ridges of rocks, having never biked on anything more intense than a country dirt road, and would stop and walk my bike over the ones that looked especially scary. I was hot and I was tired, and it was very frustrating that I couldn't stay on my bike for longer than 10 seconds.
I could feel the verge of tears of frustration, wondering how I was ever going to last however long this trail actually was. I was not going to cry though because a very stubborn and prideful part of me was not going to let such a confident, highly attractive guy see me in a vulnerable way. This was going to be a challenge. I took a deep breath, said a quick prayer, drank a sip of water, changed my gears, and kept on pedaling.
The trail continued on, and little by little the bumps didn't seem as scary. I was able to follow right behind him. It actually started to become rather enjoyable. I found myself even veering towards more rocky parts just to add a little challenge. Next thing, I knew we had been at it for about an hour and had looped back to the top of the hill. It was, quite literally, all downhill from there.
I feel very accomplished. As noted from the post before, lately I have been doing a lot of thinking and leaning on things that maybe aren't giving me much of a challenge because I have a such a small perspective. Sometimes it seems the easier route is the better one. Sometimes a year and a half seems too long to wait. Sometimes I just want only a job to worry about. It's inevitable, I'm going to sound like an after school special, but I think I learned a good lesson on my bike ride today.
In a general conference talk I read by Robert D. Hales, called, "Behold, We Count Them Happy Which Endure," he says, "We cannot expect to learn endurance in our later years if we have developed the habit of quitting when things get difficult now... I testify that if we will be obedient and if we are diligent, our prayers will be answered, our problems will diminish, our fears will dissipate, light will come upon us, the darkness of despair will be dispersed, and we will be close to the Lord and feel of His love and of the comfort of the Holy Ghost. It is my prayer that we can find the faith, courage, and strength to endure." I gained a truth that by adjusting your gears, and help from our Heavenly Father, our trials are "but a small moment," (D&C 121:7) and in the end you'll come out better than you could have imagined, and anything that is worth getting, takes work.
Now if I could just keep reminding myself that.
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
My Mid-Semester Crisis
My history teacher makes it very hard to comprehend what he is talking about during class. This gives me a lot of time to think of things not pertaining to the early years of our American government and stray from my afore mentioned theme for my year of 2011. These were my thoughts yesterday:
Why I am even taking this class?... Oh, I need it for my Associates. ...What good is an Associates? ... I'm sick of school, what can I do with an Associates?... Do I even want to be a hygienist?
all of the way until....
What am I doing with my life?! Where am I headed?! I am going to end up on the streets because I don't have a plan!
So I left class none the wiser of the founding fathers' idea of Democracy and full of complete, irrational, unnecessary stress. I went home and tried to weigh out my options. For those of you that know me, know that I absolutely DESPISE spending money when I am not making it due to this innate, penny pinching quality I have. One thing that I decided I could do was apply for jobs. This is something I do sometimes to qualm my fears of if worst came to worst and my savings absolutely depleted - I would at least maybe have a source of income even if the job was completely awful.
I literally spent a total of 10 careless yet therapeutic minutes creating a brief resume of my work and college experience on a job hunting site for St. George, and sending it to jobs that sounded mildly appealing, with the thoughts of, "Well it couldn't hurt."
Then not even an hour later, I received a call back for a receptionist position at a business called Synergy. I went in for an interview and had to be assessed for my typing skills. Turns out, they had filled the position of receptionist and offered me a part time job as a telemarketer which I am still debating. Not bad, though for a class period and a couple more minutes of impracticality I would say.
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