It's Life

Let me start off by saying this post your reading right now is long overdue. It's coming to you now with many events inspiring it over the past couple of months. It isn't directed at any one person, but for many and many to come.

With that said, I'd like to say that I'm too busy to worry about the small stuff in life. I'm out in the world trying, and so far succeeding, in making my dreams come true. I have a girlfriend and an amazing family by my sides, and I'm tackling my challenges head on and holding nothing back.

I'm not perfect and I never have or will claim to be. I make mistakes. Part of my character and who I am is learning to do things the hard way. It's just what I've always done. I stumble on this path labeled life. But with God's help I stand back up, taller than ever, and continue my journey.

I'm learning to not be afraid to speak my mind, respectively. Friends come and go, family disagrees and leaves you alone, I understand that. I'm not expecting everyone in my life to stick around forever. Just a small select few, and I know who they are and they know who I am.

Making enemies is part of your path. You can't be liked by everyone. I believe it was Eminem who said that if you have enemies, good, you stood up for something.

With all of this said, I'm going to continue my trek, continue doing what I believe, and continue being there for the people I love and care about.  No person can ever separate me from the ones I love. No matter how hard you try.

In conclusion, I will say that I'm giving it my all. I've come this far, I can't and won't give up now on anything. My adventure is just getting started, whether you'll be joining me or not at the end of it all.

Brothers

It's not often that you find friendships that last a lifetime. From my experiences, it's actually pretty rare. But a few short years ago this one guy came into my life, and changed quite a bit. Through a few strange coincidences, the "bro" term that guys call their best friends turned out to be quite literal. And the crazy times began.

But first, to step back in time to show how it began~

 Unfortunately, I can't screenshot images. And these turned out bad. But it's how we met online through a friend. Talking about Disney, of course!

After the friend requests were sent, and realizing we have some stuff in common, I asked Mr. Jake if he would mind filming my Christmas Light Show.



So our first official in-person meeting happened. Cool, a new friend, right?

We hung out a few times after, but it wasn't until the Fourth Of July that it all sorta came together. The realization that we, oddly enough, look alike. And get along too well. (Blowing stuff up of course, and talking about all things Disney. Not to mention the occasions where we finished each others sentences and could tell what we were thinking just by a glance.)

So our friendship grew to where we would hang out at each others places often. Which totally confused our parents and sisters, because they never knew which one of us walked by, or talked to them. In one case my sister started yelling at Jake, thinking she was talking to me. The great part of it is, whenever something liked this happened, we just played along with it. We now answer to either name.


But there was no greater confusion than working together at Chick-Fil-A.

Almost daily we were asked if we were twins. "Yeah, of course!" was our reply.


It became a joke in our families that somehow, we actually were related. (Who cheated on who? Still trying to figure that one out.)


What's crazy is, sometimes the same things happen to us on the same days. For example, we both got a speeding ticket 1 hour apart from each other. Just the twin in us, I guess.

So, let me get this straight... A best friend that looks like me, acts like me, has the same interests and passions, same goals, and same lifestyle? Something isn't adding up. We decided to dig in our family history a bit. What we found was crazy. See, it turns out that Jake's dad is from Denver, Colorado. My mom is from Denver, Colorado. For personal reasons I can't say much about my mom, but she has a brother around his dad's age that's "long lost" one could say, in a way. And we have relatives on both sides of our families with the last name "Holmes". A little strange, right? Whether we actually are related or not, we aren't friends. We are brothers and family to one another.

Happy 20th birthday to not only my best friend, but to my one and only brother. Our lives are just starting, and I know we'll be there for each other on every adventure thrown our way. Can't wait to see what the future holds for us! Love you man!

Weary Soul

Have you ever been to a place where you can feel inside you that you don't fit in, and that you won't last long here? I'm sure you have. I think we all have felt that way at one point. And, well, I've been feeling that way now.

As some of you know, for the past two months, I've been training at my new job. And let me start off by saying, it's really a great job. My position as opener is a good one, and I'm getting the hours. In fact, my hours seem to be increasing as I learn more. Which is great!

But I don't feel right about this place. And that's unfortunate. Lately I've just been manning up and doing my job. Clocking in, doing what I know, and clocking out. But here's the deal: It seems I can't do anything right there. I'm still new. I don't know how to make everything on our menu. I'm trying to pick it up as fast as I can, but it's such a large menu that I'm struggling with it. And I think everyone there is getting frustrated with me. That, and I'm still trying to get my morning routine perfected, so I'm not all that fast, which puts everyone behind for the day. (Remember, I was hired as an opener. I make sure everything on the food-side of things is ready and good to go. But if I don't finish a task due to customers, or any other reason, others fall behind too.)

But not only am I struggling a little with my actual tasks. I also just simply don't fit in. Most of my co-workers (including some managers) like to drink. Like to smoke. And apparently do quite a bit of drugs. The thing is, it's not really a secret. They freely talk about how they are hung over, how they partied too much the night before (4-5 times a week usually), and how they had a good batch of "stuff" the other day. And then there's me... Just there, trying to do my work. I just don't feel welcome there, to be honest. It's not my group of people.

Like I said though, the job is a great one. Yeah, it's tough at times. Getting up at 3:50Am everyday is no easy task, and it's physically and mentally demanding throughout my shift. By far one of the hardest jobs I've ever had. However, if perfected, it's not all that bad.

I've been fed up lately. Bad. I've been deep in prayer about things, and randomly going off on friends. But the past few days I've opened my eyes. Things really aren't so bad for me. Others have it much worse. I should be thankful.

Then an email came that changed everything. I'm not going to say much because if one of my co-workers happened to stalk me a little online, or wanted to add me on Facebook and somehow read my blog, I don't want them reporting back to anyone at work and causing drama and problems for me. So all I'm going to say is this:

In a little over a week, I have the happiest interview on earth.

Light Shift

Yesterday I prayed for change, today I woke up thinking to myself, why not be the change I want to see. And tomorrow I'm going to make those thoughts become actions and do just that. Changes in my life, for the best.

White Noise

I'll be honest. I want to vent. I want to pour everything that's inside of me right now out on my blog. Because when I write things down, I can see choices and options more clearly. But I'm not going to do that. I'm not going to be THAT person, or a negative person, and quite frankly, I know you don't want to read about it. Plus I don't trust many people to know that much about me behind the scenes. I've let my closest family and friends know what's up, and they have helped me a ton.

I will ask for your prayers. Not just for me, but for everyone. It seems a lot of people are struggling right now, and we all can use some help.

I can really feel a change inside of me that's going to happen. Here's hoping it's for the better.