Haha, wow, it''s been so long. My last journal entry was at the beginning of school last year, and i believe it was my initial reaction to college life. Now my first year is almost done, and I feel like such an old man right now, lol.

A ton of huge changes have happened since then, and hey, why not, let's put it in journal form.

I first wrote about how frustrated i was with the drunken athlete community. I've long since been desensitized by all that, going to bed to the sound of retarded shouting and laughing every night and waking up to a ransacked, urine soaked bathroom every morning. Needless to say, my prejudices have been reinforced on a daily basis. In fact, the people in my dorm caused so much commotion that my health actually suffered enough from not sleeping to keep me out of class on one occasion. Other than that, I never missed a class.

I've been sober since Independence Day last summer, and i've never been happier for that. I've spent every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night working from 5:00pm to 1:00am at the Goat, ensuring that there would be plenty of money to play with and that there was no chance in hell of me going to parties. I've basically been a huge overachieving hermit, who would have guessed?

Right now I'm headed for a double major in Political Science and International Relations and three minors in Leadership Cert., Intercultural Cert., and Spanish. I want to go on for a master's degree in Diplomacy/National Security, but that much is
uncertain. What I've been doing for my first year of college? I...

1) Represented Wartburg at the Muscatine Global Leadership Summit
2) Hosted documentary discussions as an Americans for Informed Democracy representative
3) Won 1st place at the regional open style martial arts championship, and got 2nd and 3rd place at the regional Tang Soo Do championships
4) Coached a dozen competitive fighters
5) Became president of Wartburg college's martial arts club
6) Led a women's self defense instruction
7) Got accepted as a First in the Nation Scholar, a program that sends me around the country for the presidential elections next year
8) Got made fun of by Ron Steele of KWWL News
9) Locked myself out of my room 14 times
10) Went to see "The Faint" in Minnesota
11) Smuggled a hand of bananas from the Mensa
12) Joined the Wartburg Symphonic Band
13) Worked for the Sheriff's department
14) Got huge tattoos
15) Joined a Capoeira club in Cedar Falls and went to Illinois for a 4 day international training event.

other than that, social issues were the norm. I may or may not have been involved in some questionable drama with the opposite sex, with people on and off campus, (particularly on). That got really messy really fast.

But now i am a bit more safe now from all that garbage, as of a couple months ago. Certain situations have miraculously led me back into an unexpected, renewed relationship, certainly after some really really old misunderstandings were straightened out, . I've been living with some hang-ups for a long time now, and... long story short, i am finally secure and aware of what i want out of life and love.

So now, i have finished my first week of May term, which was really tough. I have a professor that has me working at least 6 hours a day for the single class that i have all month. Contemporary political ideologies what fun. oh shit, supper time, laterz!