2017 in Review/ Hopes and Expectations for 2018

2017 was a year that really tested my character. I was unemployed for the 1st 8 months of it due to a prior emergency room visit, struggled with money because of that, and I ended up having to rethink my career route. I came from wanting to teach since my sophomore year in high school, to no longer desiring a teaching job. For more info about this, please read the previous blog entry.

Despite these hardships, I was able to stay optimistic about my life. I had a few weeks where I felt depressed and worthless, but it made me see how loved I truly was. My friends and my family were there to talk to and motivate me when ever I needed them, and as a result, I was able to end 2017 on a high note. I have a job where I feel good about myself, get along with my coworkers, and make more money.

I want to note that 2017 had some really exciting moments. I got to travel to Denver to see Metallica, I got to see Iron Maiden with my Dad, I caught the biggest fish in my life yet, and I went to my first ever NFL football game. I also have really embraced my Nintendo Switch which was released in March of this year. As a Nintendo fan, it was great to see the corporation redeem itself after the difficulties of success with the Wii U. Another highlight for this year is my Grandparents making it to 50 years of being married together. That in itself is a giant milestone.

Now that 2018 is here, I plan on this year to be a year of redemption. I graduate in May and I am hoping for a job as an education manager for people with autism. If I got this job, I would be aiding students with autism in becoming independent. I would meet with them and figure out what they need in order to get a job. It is basically vocational rehabilitation but specially designed for ASD. This job would fill everything I want in a job and I would get paid enough to get by for a long time.

Some other personal things I am looking forward to this year is games for the Switch, especially Kirby, I am going to see The Darkness live at the Complex, and I am going to be an Uncle! I am very happy for my brother, Brennan and his wife Mars. I trust that they will be good and fun parents. I could see it right now; my brother Brennan reading Winnie the Pooh to his son/ daughter.

Anyways, I hope you all have a good 2018. Thanks for following my blog. It really means a lot.

Teaching is out the door

Hey friends! It has been a while since I have written a blog entry. This has been a messy past few months. Money has been hard, I have had to move to a new apartment, student teaching did not work out, and I got into a new job. I just now managed to get things back into good shape. I am happier again, and I feel less stressed. Let me summarize how these last few months went.

Starting with student teaching, this was a risk in the beginning. My adviser last year tried to recommend I find a different career because she was concerned that teaching was going to be harder than I envisioned. I chose to keep going because I wanted to know myself through experience if it was something I could do or not. It took me until I was student teaching to realize it really is a more complicated job than it appears from a students perspective. I did not realize being a special education teacher was more than just teaching students. You have to develop relationships with parents, manage paraprofessionals, write IEP's, set up meetings, communicate with all the general education teachers.....you basically are another administrator but you are getting paid like a teacher because that is your job title.

Another thing that made student teaching hard was that my placement was awkward. I was put into a classroom with another student teacher who happened to also be the teachers girlfriend. Because I do not want to tarnish anyone's reputation, her name will be left out. This was hard because it made me feel like I was being shadowed even further than I anticipated. Not only was I working under the teachers shadow, but I was put under hers as well. I was always 3 steps behind her because she was able to ask questions and talk about it outside of work. I did address this as a concern to the teacher and he promised me he would keep it 50/50, but after a couple weeks, I realized that was not happening. She always had the 1st choice, and I could tell he was teaching her outside of school. On top of that, because she dated the teacher, she seemed to feel like she was a co-teacher. She would manage me more than the teacher did. She also was not very respectful of my feelings. I would go home feeling like garbage because nothing I did seemed good enough for her. It was a whole jumbled mess. I ended up having to withdraw from student teaching and all classes associated with it.

Unfortunately this created a new mess. Due to withdrawing, the University of Utah ended up charging me over 3,000 dollars which only added to my stress. Because I had that huge balance, I was not allowed to register for classes in the spring. (Which I should add I switched my major to Family and Consumer Studies and only need one semester to get a bachelors for!) I ended up filing a petition and asked others for letters of agreement on the petition. It would take over a month for the income accounting office to come to a decision, which they ended up accepting my petition. Thank goodness!!

Due to all this, cutting out teaching and not feeling like I was good enough to work in the classroom, I went into a depression for a few weeks. I started having doubts about myself and my future. I began eating horribly again, and overall I had a hard time caring about my overall well-being. Thankfully, my Mom was willing to talk to me, even if I needed to call her more than once a day. She would always remind me how far I came, and how successful I have been. She also reminded me how good of an employee I have been in years past and that this just happened to be a situation where I had bad chemistry. To quote her "you have always been amazing working with kids with disabilities and you are easy to work with. You are just butting heads with a coworker, which I have never seen you do until now. You are letting her tear you down. You need to either find a new teacher to work for or find a new job". After hearing this, I started to feel motivated again because I realized she was right. I ended up doing exactly what she advised and looked for a different job.

At first I was going to request a new teacher to work with, but it only took me a couple days to realize I would be better off finding a new job entirely. Working as a paraprofessional no longer was getting me anywhere due to me not aiming to be a teacher anymore. I decided I still want to help people with disabilities because they were the reason I wanted to be a teacher in the 1st place. I was able to find a job quickly at Columbus Community Services. I have now worked here for 3 weeks and so far, I feel very proud that I made the decision to jump ship. I get along with my coworkers much better, I am still helping people with disabilities, and I have promotional opportunities offered if I stay here a few months and get my bachelors degree. All this has made me feel much better about myself, and less stressed. I love this new job and am excited to see where it gets me.

Since I found a job where I feel like I fit in better, I have been eating better again, I have been hanging out with friends more, and I have been sleeping much better. My overall health has been amazing. Thanks for reading. If this sounded like a rant, it was not intended to be like that. This is an update about what happened the last few months and how I was able to fix it! Thanks friends and family for sticking with me and encouraging to push on. I love all of you!

The Wrong Song-Hemlock at Stanley's Triangle Bar at Mt. Pleasant, Utah

Fall 2016: A Rollercoaster of a Semester

My 3rd semester at the University of Utah was one of the rockiest semesters I have experienced. I say it is in competition with my last semester at Dixie State University which was definitely tough considering I had to cut my work hours, say no to track and field, and just simply grind by to get my associates degree. This semester, Fall 2016, was in its own unique way very tough! However, it was also one of my funnest semesters considering how many concerts I went to, plus my brother Brennan's marriage to Mars Petrilia.

Because I want to end this post on a good note, I will start with what made this semester a huge grind. The biggest thing that stands out was my Math 4020 course. Last spring semester, I took Math 4010 which is Algebra for Elementary Teachers I. Math 4020 was the next level course for that class. 4010 focused on math basics such as addition, subtraction, fractions, etc. The professor was really good at teaching how to teach the concepts. He would give us basic math questions, but he would give you points for explaining it to him like you would a kid. Would you use base blocks? What are some helpful tips to make it make sense to the student? Math 4020 was FAR from that. The focus in this class was geometry and data. I had a different professor in 4020 and she teached it like it was another Math 1050 course but she gave even harder questions. There was hardly, if any, learning how to teach the geometrical concepts to the kids. It grew mega frustrating as the semester went by and even reached the point where us students in the class were communicating with each other about what we should report to the dean explaining how the class was not giving us what we enrolled for. I ended up getting a C in the class, but it was irritating enough that I happily accept that grade knowing I never have to go to that exact class ever again. If one good thing came from that course, it was the unity of having each others backs because all of us were irritated about the same thing. It pretty much made us all good friends in that course.

Another thing that made this semester really hard was that I ended up having an ER visit for having the first episode of muscle tremors that I had in nearly 4 years. During one of my classes, my neck and shoulders started swinging with out my control. I was so shocked about it happening that I ended up crying on the phone. Everyone seemed to agree that the reason this happened is that I hit that breaking point of stress considering this is believed to be a stress-induced condition. I think I got overwhelmed because I did not expect Math 4020 to run like it did, nor did I expect people I respected to tell me I should consider thinking of a different career outside of teaching special education. It later led to me deciding to just go to college for a while and putting off going to work. The nice thing about this is that everyone has been very supportive about this. I did not have to feel guilty about quitting my job so I can focus on college.

About being advised to reconsider my career, I don't want to share to many details about what that was because I think it is something between me, my college adviser and my family. I do want to share though that I am not closing the door completely on working towards a career in teaching students with disabilities. I am open to other ideas however. My ultimate plan at the moment still stands. I want to get my teaching certificate and try to prove to myself whether or not it is the right career choice for me. I still see my primary goal as becoming a special education teacher and coaching basketball along with that. I have been chasing this goal since I was a sophomore in high school, and I am not about to let a couple authority figures opinions deter me from that with out proving to myself first. I really respect the people who recommended this. I have nothing against them. It just ultimately comes down to what I want most and what I feel is the best route for me.

OK! Enough of the hard stuff. Outside of all this, I had a ton of fun this semester. I got to see a lot of rock and heavy metal bands like I never thought I would be able when I was living in St. George. Some bands that stood out to me were Hemlock, The Pretty Reckless, Halestorm, and Escape the Fate. I am glad I went and saw Black Sabbath because I really admire the group, but as a whole, their concert was rather dull compared to the rest. I did not feel like they played with as much energy and passion as the other bands did. Do mind, I don't really blame them considering they have been playing for much longer than the other groups, but I still would have liked to see something memorable happen at the concert besides being in the amazing presence of Ozzy Osbourne.

Lastly, one brief thought. I am now academically in my senior year of college. I plan to graduate with my bachelors degree in Spring of 2018. Due to this, I think it is becoming more important that I consider where I want to place myself when I am done going through college. I have really enjoyed Salt Lake City, and I don't think I would mind living here, but there are other places I have considered living where I would love to work. Others include Moab, Logan and Cedar City. I also am not shutting the door completely on St. George. I have often said that St. George does not offer enough in terms of my hobbies and passions. There are hardly any concerts, gaming leagues, and there is not any professional basketball. However St. George does offer one thing that the other places would have a hard time offering and that is a family like sense of community. Since moving to Salt Lake City, I have often missed the Region 9 sporting community. Whether I was an assistant coach for girls basketball, or an assistant for track and field, there was always that amazing sense of belonging. The coaches, teachers and administration were like an extended family. We all had similar goals, had each others back, and we all cared about the students we were teaching. I still strongly want to have that back in my life but right now my bachelors degree is my main priority. If anything is going to drive my decision to return to St. George and just settle my career there, that is going to be the reason. Just knowing that if I want to be involved, and there are people who would love to let me be apart of it is a very motivating reason to be in St. George. Again, I have not set my mind to that, but I am not disclosing it either.

Anyway, I hope you all have a good start to the new year. Thanks for following me. I will write again soon! You guys are the best!

Summer 2016: A Very Eventful Summer

My first summer as a resident of Salt Lake City, Utah is now coming to an end! I have one more day of vacation and then starting Friday, August 19th, I have 7th grade orientation at Hillside Middle School. I am really excited to begin a new year with the Hillside Huskies. I really enjoyed working here last year (even though I was only there the last couple months of the school year), and am looking forward to the experiences and life lessons I will be learning this year as I progress toward my goal of becoming a Special Education Teacher.

One thing I can honestly say about this summer is that it was probably the most eventful summer I have ever experienced. Most of my life's summers were a bit of a grind for me. I get done with school, I enjoy a couple weeks of vacation and then I get relatively bored and feel ready to get busy again. That was not the case this year! At the moment, I am ready to get back to work and get educated but overall, I was actually able to enjoy this summer. Do mind, that during my grade school days, I was a pretty picky and stubborn guy. If there was a trip planned, I often chose to stay home and do my own thing. Now I have grown out of that phase and choose to enjoy more things. I am way more flexible than I used to be. That could very well be the reason I make friends a lot easier now than I used to.

 Every week had something to look forward to. With very little work doing the extended school year program, I had  a lot of free time.

Some highlights include: going out fishing once a week with my good friend Colter, a grueling backpacking trip to White Pine, Hemlock with friends Landen and Trevor, and a fishing trip at Lake Fontanelle, Wyoming. I often told friends that the Wyoming trip was going to be the highlight of the summer because I was excited to explore a state I have never been in before. However, now that it has happened, the highlight honestly had to be my brother J.J. (Jenson) returning home from his LDS mission in Mexico City. This was a moment that I will embrace in my memory for quite a while. Not only was it amazing to hang out with my youngest brother for the first time in 2 years, but just seeing the family emotions, especially Mom and Dad made it a truly incredible moment. I really loved when the 3 of us Walters boys hung out at a hotel with Dad and we were so excited to all be with each other, that we couldn't sleep the whole night. J.J. claimed to have gone a few days without sleeping, and even he could barely sleep.

After hanging out with Dad, it was Mom's turn. I got to see her new house, which I have to say is really impressive compared to the house we grew up in. That house will always be full of memories but this house just looks like a step up. The backyard is bigger and nicer in my opinion, and the interior of the house looks a lot richer, especially the kitchen.

After spending a couple days at Mom's house, we then had a Summerhays family reunion at Bear Lake celebrating J.J's return. The lake was beautiful and Uncle Josh and Aunt Nicole who own a little hut up there provided a lot of fun activities. I really enjoyed riding the boat and holding onto the tube for dear life. Another highlight came at this moment and that is my other Walters brother, Brennan proposed to his girlfriend, Mars on the boat in the middle of the lake and he did it in a very classic Brennan fashion.

I do have one more event I am looking forward to before I start becoming truly busy and that is going to see Rebelution with my friend Samantha. I am really excited about this. I met Samantha working at Danville last summer and we still have a good bond even after me living in Salt Lake for a year. I am still amazed that she is willing to drive from St. George to go to a concert with me. It is going to be a blast.

I have been making some personal goals to work on this year. One goal is to cook more, and eat out less. I admittedly ate out quite a lot last year. There were some weeks I did not even eat at home. It was the Freshman 15 all over again!! There were so many places I wanted to try in Salt Lake City, and I still have some places on my list, but not near as many. I have found a renewed love of cooking this summer. I watched a bunch of YouTube videos (some favorite channels include HellthyJunkFood, and Brothers Green Eats) and food network (I love Alton Brown) to inspire me. Cooking is becoming something I look forward to because I can imagine a certain food I am really craving at the moment, and truly make it my own. My favorite thing I made so far was my own version of Taco Bell's Beefy Crunch Burrito. I made it spicier and meatier than taco bell's and it was so worth the extra time and effort to make.

I also am trying to drink a lot more water, and hopefully even give up carbonated beverages for good, except on special occasions. I got this new water bottle that I will carry around with me and that should help me with this goal a lot. The plan is to drink so much water, I won't even be thirsty enough to crave a soda. My fluid intake is going to be limited to water, tea, and coffee.

The rest is obvious. Continue doing well in college, gain a lot of experience and ideas through my job and just simply enjoy life. I have some fun plans this year and look forward to telling you about them on the next blog entry which will be around Christmas time. Thanks a ton friends for following me and I hope you all have a good Fall 2016!

Spring Semester 2016-A Very Successful Semester

This semester has been one of my most successful, if not the most successful college semester I have experienced yet. I guess one could argue that last years Spring semester was the most successful because that was when I graduated with my Associate of Science degree. Even so, this has been one of my favorites. Notably, this is the semester I got approved into the school of special education!

This has been my 2nd semester as a student at the University of Utah. It started out rough, but ended at a very high note. My job as a PE Paraprofessional at Indian Hills became more of a rocky road than last semester. I was considering toughing the year out and than requesting a different job, despite how tough of a job it was while being a full time college student, but it just ended up not working out so well.

That moment led me to the best decision I made since moving to Salt Lake City. I got moved to Hillside Middle School as a severe paraprofessional. The same kind of job I had in St. George at Snow Canyon High School. My job at Hillside so far has been as great as it could get for this point in my life. I feel the teacher I work for is very supportive of my college education; which is one thing I did not feel much of working at Indian Hills, although I have to mention a few teachers who helped me through the tough times there-Tara Black, Susan Decker, and Ann Melville. Also, more importantly, I don't feel pressured to be perfect at the position. When I was working as a PE Paraprofessional, I felt too often like I was expected to know how to be a PE teacher, despite no prior experience and only 6 hours of training. My principle and the teachers at Hillside seem more understanding that I am learning as I go, which I have appreciated much. Also they do a good job at helping me feel appreciated. Overall, they just seem much more flexible and willing to do what it takes to further me into my goal of being a severe special education teacher.


Outside of work, many other great things happened this semester. I got to make some great new friends. One friend, I met in my Research and Inquiry course whose name is Colter. We started simply as study partners, but as the semester furthered through, we eventually became good pals. Especially when we had one conversation that literally dragged on for 4 hours straight just sitting on a bench in Presidents Circle. Him and I plan on doing some fun stuff this summer break.

Another notable friend I made, I met through Xbox live admittedly. However, that has not devalued how we became friends. He prefers to be "incognito" so I won't mention his name online. Some fun stuff we have done is seeing Hemlock live at the Royal Bar and Grill. Also he has trained me well in the art of the Sun Singer Warlock in Destiny. We plan to see Hemlock again when they go to Mt. Pleasant so that should be tons of fun. Not a bad friendship if you ask me, at least for one that met through online video gaming. LOL

Some other fun things I have done this semester was going to a Jazz vs Spurs game with my Dad, seeing Killswitch Engage in concert and meeting WWE Hall of Famer, Mick Foley in person!

The last thing I would like to mention in this post is how I have felt about myself this semester. I feel like this was the first semester I truly felt comfortable being myself. As many of my close friends know, I have gone through many changes in philosophy and views of life. What I believe now is not the same as when I was a high school student. It was difficult at first, but overtime I feel I found my niche again, and I have been able to develop some new and great relationships. I think moving to Salt Lake helped me with this more than anything. Moving to a new city has allowed me to start a new life. I did not have to worry about surprising anybody because not many people knew me yet. I got to start fresh up here and that relieved a lot of pressure on freely going through life the way I felt was best for me.



By the looks of it, I should have my bachelors degree within 2 more years. I am very excited to continue progressing toward my goals. I am very grateful to have many great friends and supporters. Thanks for following!

Fall 2015 Semester in Review

I just completed my first semester at the University of Utah! It was overall a successful semester with me achieving a 3.675 GPA and making the Dean's List. Despite the success, it was a pretty basic semester. More days than not were go to work from 8-3, come home, relax a little, get homework done then go to bed. It was exactly the kind of semester I needed considering I did not just transfer to a new university but also a new city. The fact that it was not an overly full schedule gave me plenty of time to adjust to the city and get comfortable. Now that I have finished with the semester as well as I did, I am ready to increase the intensity. This next semester won't be mostly online classes which means I will be home less and have a more loaded schedule.

My favorite class this semester was easily strategies for college success. Even though most of the information was review of what I learned at Dixie about tips for surviving in college, I really appreciated Professor Soma. She always seemed willing to offer advice and support when ever I needed it. She was the perfect first semester mentor!

Some highlights of the semester include attending the Utes vs Aggies football game, going undefeated in a Pokemon trading card tournament, visiting Logan, Utah during fall break and seeing the Warriors play at Rice-Eccles Stadium.

Like, I said it was a pretty basic semester so this won't be my most exciting post ever, but at least it is an update. Thanks for following!!

My Long Summer Part 4/4: It Finally Begins + A summary of the First Week

I will start out by writing that I have enjoyed living up in Salt Lake City so far. There is so much to explore and discover. I guess it feels kind of refreshing that I came from a city where I know every direction and building to somewhere where nearly everyday, I am seeing something that I did not know was there before. One of my favorite sites so far is the Barnes and Noble Bookstore up here. It has so much more than the B&N in St. George and it has a great coffee shop built in to relax and read. I knew in the last while that I have found a new liking to reading but this going to this store makes me want to read so much more. It is nearly impossible for me to spend less than 30 minutes there. Another thing I have enjoyed is being closer to my father. I am able to see my Dad more now than I have before. I won't get to see Mom as much, but I still try to call her every weekend.

My home up here is not too shabby either. I live in the bottom part of a top-bottom duplex. It has a gorgeous backyard, and I love how it is in a relatively quiet part of town. It is fairly close to the University and Indian Hills Elementary where I work, but it is just far enough to escape all the fad that goes on around those parts. If the University has a big event going on, I won't even know unless they light up fireworks.

My roommate Karl has been a joy to live with. I feel like I struck gold with him as far as roommates are concerned. He is friendly and very flexible. Him and I have gone on a couple walks and outings together. His family is also very friendly, in fact they invited me to have dinner with them for one of his sisters birthday parties. They welcomed me like I was one of them. Back to Karl; not only is he very nice but he is very helpful. He is always offering to help me out with groceries whenever he goes and he has no problems sharing his dishes with me as long as I pay back the favor by keeping them clean. He has introduced me to some good foods, my favorite being smoked gouda cheese. He has said I will be very educated on all different kinds of cheeses while I am his roommate.

Another thing that I have enjoyed about living up here was I got to reunite with a few of my high school pals in Provo. It only takes about 40 minutes to get there thanks to the TRAX Frontrunner system. I got to see Presto at first and the first thing we did was go to a free in town concert that he says they do every first Friday of each month. The band that was playing seemed like a Beatles Tribute Band. Later on we met up with Nick Gubler and Kayden Barber. We did all kinds of stuff until I went back home 2 nights later.

After that, it was mostly just relax and wait for school to begin. Now that school has begun, let me just say that it is exciting but it has also been a lot of work. The University of Utah has been fairly easy so far but working at Indian Hills has been a bit draggy. First off, let me explain what I do. I am a part time PE instructor. I meet with all the classes in the school once a week, 30 minutes a day. One teacher will bring her/his class in, than 30 minutes later I will swap another one. It is an awarding job because the teachers and the principle have been so nice to me on this first week, plus I love seeing the kids grin when I walk by them and they say something like "hi Coach". One that was so sweet was when I was headed home a boy jumped and excitedly said "Daddy, that's my coach"! So you are probably wondering where the draggy part comes in, right? The draggy part is mentally, it is quite tiring. I have to come up with the plans for that week, I am running the gym solo and the hardest part is getting the kids under control with out me blowing my own top off. I had to learn what worked and what did not work fast. The first day, I could not get the kids under control much at all so the very next day, I had to try out a new approach that worked much better. Plus being a PE teacher at an Elementary school, I am expected to play the games I plan with many of them so by the end of the day, I feel physically exerted. I am sure that part will pass because I will be in better shape soon but the first few days my thighs were sore and one day my ankle felt like it was ready to snap off. I now applaud all teachers sincerely because now I have a more realistic idea of how hard being a teacher can be. That is not to mean I no longer want to be a teacher. That is still my goal because even though it is a tough job, the intrinsic awards are endless. I feel important to society, I like making a difference in peoples lives and I love the respect and unity that being a teacher brings. Plus I kind of like challenges. I see them as a chance to prove to myself and others what I am capable of and when I continue to push the limits and still have a bit of motivation by the end of the day, it is very self reassuring and I feel proud by the time I am laying in bed.

Thanks all of you for supporting me. I promise to keep you all updated on this experience. You all are the best. Its because of your support that this man keeps chugging along!!

My Long Summer Part 3/4: "RUSH"ing off to Salt Lake City, Utah

My last week living in St. George, Utah ended up having more events than I expected. When I announced through social media that I was moving out within a week, suddenly everyone wanted to hang out with me. It was kind of overwhelming but at the same time flattering.

One highlight of that week was going on an afternoon trip to Las Vegas with one of my best friends ever, Sarah Oldland. We had planned this a few weeks prior and I was never quite sure it was going to follow through but on her birthday, we ended up going. We had a blast down there in Sin City, Nevada. Sarah recently got a new convertible mustang and we rode through Vegas with the top down. She and I went down there with no direct plans of what to do. We just walked through the strip and did whatever we felt like doing. We planned as we went and we saw a couple fun shows such as the Volcanic eruption by the Mirage. We spent most of the time in Caesar's Palace and it always looks much larger inside than outside. There were so many shops, it was like a city within a building. For dinner, we went to the Cheesecake Factory. The food was pretty large for the price we paid, at least for Las Vegas standards. It was definitely the most fun time I had celebrating a friends birthday. I have to give compliments to her because I was very flattered that she trusted me enough to take me down to Vegas with her. It was just the two of us that went and neither of us have had much interest in getting in a committed romance sort of relationship. We were both OK with being just your old typical best friend but she still could have looked at this as kind of risky. You get it, a girl and a guy going one on one down to Vegas can look suspicious to some but we were able to just enjoy hanging out down there, gender differences aside.

 Their were plenty of other outings that happened that, but they were relatively small and easy compared to the Vegas trip with Sarah. I got to enjoy dinner with my friend and mentor, Mr. Rod Linford and his wife at Peppers and I had another dinner the next day with my friend and Danville coworker, Samantha at Chili's. I also got too watch Minion's in theaters with my Mom and brother Parker. That was a bit out of my norm because I do not normally prefer movie theaters, but because I was moving, I decided I had better enjoy every moment I could with my family. I did enjoy Minions. I see it as a movie that I will eventually end up buying on Blu-Ray. Probably in a Despicable Me box package.

On Friday, July 17th, I packed and moved to Salt Lake City. My Dad helped me carry my stuff up which I loved because I never get too see my Dad as often as I like. Just sitting with him in the car going to Salt Lake had a lot of meaning to me and I could tell it was meaningful for him as well because he ended up inviting me to hang out with him for the weekend. I could not say no to that. After dropping off my stuff in my new home, we drove off to Tooele. Dad showed me the new Nerd Store that just opened up there and it was really enjoyable to explore. I got my self a few Pokémon cards, which I never thought I would get into again but when my stepmother Jen told me that they do Pokémon tournaments up here, I began having interest in them again. On Sunday, Dad and I watched the WWE Battleground Pay-Per-View. If it wasn't for my Dad being a fan, I doubt I would be much of a fan of either. It is a show I got raised into and as a result it has been apart of my weekly routine. One of the funnest matches was Kevin Owens vs John Cena because my Dad was routing for Cena and I wanted Owens to beat him. It was fun trash talking each other during the match. If Owens hurt Cena, I would make a comment toward my Dad and if John Cena did a big move on Owens, my Dad would talk back just as hard. John Cena ended up defeating Owens forcing him to tap out with the STF submission maneuver so Dad ended up getting the final gloat. Later in the Pay-Per-View, Dad and I were super stoked to see the Undertaker make an appearance. He interfered in the middle of Seth Rollins and Brock Lesnar's WWE World Heavyweight Title Match which I wanted Lesnar to win, but for once, I did not care. The fact that it was the Undertaker and not just some jobber easily made up for the disqualification.

When Dad took me back to my new home, I was very excited to get comfortable with it. It wasn't too hard to do that because my bedroom has a very soft bed and my roommate was very nice about showing me the ropes of the place. I have enjoyed getting to know him because he seems really nice and happy to help me with anything I may need help with and he is just easy to talk with. We also have mutual agreements with our living styles so it does not seem like there is going to be many arguments between us.

Overall living up here has been very quiet. Having no job until August 24th means I have to try that much harder to create plans for my day. Some examples of my plans have been walking to my new job to test how long it will take to get there, walking through the city, exploring the University of Utah Campus and of course shopping for groceries when I need to.

One last event that I have to write about on here is I did go back down to St. George to go see Rush in Las Vegas on July 25th with my stepfather Robert, and my stepbrother Cameron. Maybe I am just biased being an enthusiastic fan of the band, but the concert was a mind blowing experience. It was my 3rd time seeing the band but I think this was the most enjoyable one. My first concert I saw, I still was getting to know the band, and on my 2nd time seeing Rush, I was going through medical conditions so that only leaves so much room for fun. This R40 concert had no roadblocks. I was feeling very good and I am a much bigger fan now than I was when I first went which was still pretty huge at the time. I am such a fan of the band that Rush is almost like a drug to me. Whenever I need some emotional healing, I go to them. When I need motivation, I listen to a couple tunes or if I am just simply feeling good, Rush is often playing somewhere even if it is just in my head. To see them live in concert was like dying and going to heaven for 3 hours. I was so into it, that I kept track of every song they played.

Well that is pretty much the gist of it for now. I have a feeling it is going to be a slow few weeks but I will definitely keep finding ways to make my first few weeks enjoyable up here until I start working again. I am stoked to begin working at Indian Hills Elementary and studying at the University of Utah but that is still 3 weeks away. On the bright side, I have 3 weeks to keep catching up on my reading, in fact just very recently I finished the "Battle of the Labyrinth" so now it is on to "The Last Olympian". I will also find some fun bike trails to ride and keep getting in shape which reminds me. I was 258 lbs. in March and now I am at 223 lbs. I am very proud of that!

Thanks so much for following!! Its great to have support from so many amazing friends and family! 

My Long Summer Part 2/4: Preparation for Salt Lake City

On my last entry, I told about getting hired at Danville. I have been enjoying the job. The coworkers are some of the nicest people in my age group. It feels like a family group over there. A few have even become good friends of mine. Besides the people I work with, the clients are a lot of fun. I obviously can not say anything about them due to privacy rights but I can say I have enjoyed them.

As many of my friends know, I am planning to move up to Salt Lake City to attend the University of Utah and work at Indian Hills Elementary as a PE Instructor. Many things have been falling into place quite smoothly, a bit smoother than I first imagined. I have already got a home locked down, as well as a job!

I went up to Salt Lake City in Early July to get things finalized. The first thing I did was get my key from my roommates brother's wife. She was very nice when she showed me the house. After that I went to Tooele for the weekend to spend time with my Dad for July 4th. I have got to say it was a blast. Dad and I pretty much did anything we felt like doing. With him, I got to see Grandma and Grandpa Walters. It is always a thrill to see them. It was too bad Grandma had to work most of the time. In Grantsville we watched this parade. My favorite float was the Bonneville Brewery. The guy on it was acting kind of drunk and yelling "Come get your whiskey" and he would pour some on the road. It made me laugh and I had to get a picture. Later, Dad, Jen and I had burgers grilled with some yummy potato salad and pickle spears but the next day was even better. Dad introduced me to this place called Penny's which had pretty darn good burgers. I tried the inferno which was there "hotter than hot" burger. It tasted delicious but it tasted fairly mild to me but I have eaten some pretty hot stuff so that is no surprise.

After wards, I went to my U of U orientation. I will be honest. Not much to say about it except for I was excited. The orientation was actually quite draggy because they mostly talked about the same stuff that Dixie State told me every semester. What are the rules and expectations? What is considered Plagiarism? You get the point. I did explore the campus however and I was quite wowed by it. It was a huge upgrade from Dixie State University's campus. The student center has it's own bowling alley!!!

Later after my U of U meeting, I got to meet with the principle of Indian Hills Elementary. The people there call him "Doctor Arnoldsen" because he got his doctorate degree from William and Mary University. He seems like an easy going principle who likes to work with kids. He has definitely given me reason to look forward to working there. One thing that definitely made me excited was meeting with one of the students. Doctor Arnoldsen was giving me a tour of the school and one of the teachers was setting up her class room. Her daughter happened to be with her. Doctor Arnoldsen told her I was going to be the new PE Teacher and then the Mom/Teacher told her daughter about me and she began pulling off the biggest grin at me. It shook me up a little because it was a much different reaction than you would expect high school students to give. Do not get me wrong, I have absolutely loved working at the high school, but I am excited to work at an elementary school. My biggest objective right now is to keep getting experience towards my career goal before I get done with college and I feel since I have shown I could work well in a high school setting, its time to now prove to myself and others how well I can handle working with younger kids.

The nice thing was Doctor Arnoldsen ended up offering me schedule flexibility. That is very nice because that makes attending college much easier. I will just meet with him as soon as I get my new schedules and we will decide how to work around it.

So yeah, I am pretty much upgrading everything. I will be getting bigger paydays, live in a bigger home and attending a much bigger school! Do not forget the entertainment. I will definitely have to go to some Ute football games and of course go see the Utah Jazz when the San Antonio Spurs come into town! I think it's going to be a lot of fun being up in Salt Lake. It will be a lot of work but there will be some super fun moments too. You all know me. I will find ways to make it fun. That is just how I role!

My Long Summer Part 1/4: The Beginning

As many close to me have known, summer has never been my favorite time of the year. It is the time when the NBA season is ending, the time is kind of dull and many days seem draggy, and it is the time of year when my personal progress seems to halt for a bit. I don't mind breaks but I prefer week long or no more than two. I like growing and learning maybe almost obsessively so when ever that slows down, I feel kind of bored. Plus many of my favorite things are on vacation as well. Thank goodness WWE has no off season!

So far, this summer is not starting out as dull as some years have. I look at the calendar and I find it hard to believe it has only been about 3 weeks since school has ended. It feels longer than that. This one is mainly feeling long because of the excitement and anticipation of moving up to Salt Lake and attending the University of Utah. I also just recently had another thing added to make the move up exciting and that is I have basically been hired by Indian Hills Elementary to be a part time P.E. Instructor. They will be working me 29 hours a week at a base salary of 10.50 an hour but the secretary there just recently told me if I bring up my transcript showing I have an Associates degree, they may be able to pay me even more. I will be meeting with the principal in early July. Lets hope he's as nice as he sounds on the phone.

One big factor that has prevented this summer from becoming as dull as I originally predicted is being hired to work for Danville for the summer. If you do not know what Danville is, it is a service corporation that provides assistance for people with severe disabilities. My job is basically being at one of the houses owned by the business and take care of the clients living there and being like there big brother in a sense. I keep there house cleaned, take care of them hygienically, behaviorally and help make sure they are staying healthy. My co workers and I will also take them out on activities like to the park, the movies, grabbing beverages, etc. so I basically am like a big brother to them even though some may be older than me. It is a lot of fun, but can admittedly be tiresome at times. The coworkers are really great people and we look at each other more as friends than co workers it seems. Two of them have shared there steam accounts with me so we can play games online during our free times. That is quite nice because it makes working with each other that much more enjoyable.

Admittedly I have been having periods of emotion where I already miss working for Snow Canyon High. Resigning from there was not an easy decision but what is coming will all be worth it, I am sure. I sometimes dream in my sleep of still working there, or announcing that I am staying one more year, but after a bit, reality hits. I am not depressed about it, but it sure has personally testified how much being apart of that school has meant to me. I am glad to have many supporters from there who have helped me along the way to get where I am now.

I have had a few fun times this summer. Just this last week, my step grandparents, Burt and Mary came for a visit. Burt was as funny as ever, and Mary is the same smart woman I have heard about many times. We had a great time while they were down here exploring the new park by Dixie Rock and then afterwards getting some Italian Ice at Zeppe's which was rather tasty. I recommend stopping there for dessert sometime if you can.

My mother has been a major help in getting me ready for my move up. She seems to be having a fun time searching apartments for me which is good because she is doing an amazing job. Much better than I would if it was me looking. I would probably just pick the first I noticed that looks good but she is looking at a bunch of them and noticing many great options. Out of all my supporters, she is my number one and I appreciate her tons even when I argue with her on occasion like pretty much any son does. It is awesome knowing she is there for me when ever I need her to be.

One nice thing about residing at her house for the summer is I get to spend time with my brothers, Parker, Brennan, Cameron, and Jackson more often than I ever got to living on the Dixie State University campus. I am definitely enjoying that while I can because I will only get to see them holidays when I attend the U.




For the first time, I have tried the Brandin' Iron with my good friend Jon Graf who has been a major help along the way during my time here at Dixie. We had great conversation and the steak was delicious. Good luck trying that place because they are only open on weekends and they aren't open at all during the winter. It is worth a try though if you ever get the chance.

Well, so far that just about sums up my summer for now. I will be writing another entry at about the 2nd week of July. Thanks to all of you who read my blog entry's. It is nice having you all as amazing supporters. Feel free to comment anything. Advice, ideas...anything. I love hearing from all of you. Thanks for all you have done!

Goodbye Snow Canyon High School...Again :'(

I am officially resigned from my employment at the Home of the Warriors, Snow Canyon High. Working here has been one of the greatest experiences of my life. There are obvious things that came out of this job such as experience towards my major as a Severe Special Education Teacher, developing great relationships with other teachers and coaches, and lots of learned lessons that made be a better person.

One thing that made this experience amazing was I feel I got to see a glimpse of my career goal from working with the severe students as well as coaching basketball. I feel very lucky that I got to do this during college.

I already knew going in that I was going to have a great work relationship with Principle Brooks and Mr. Linford, but they turned out to be fully supportive of my goals and were willing to allow me to do anything I needed to do to get there. If I needed work hours cut, they had no problem with that. If I wanted to help out with the sports, they didn't have a problem with that either. Besides that, we were able to view each other as more than fellow co-workers. We became friends through the experience.

I was also able to develop good friendships with some of the coaches and teachers. Mike Esplin, Justin Redfearn, LeFan Tufuga, Ryan Rarick, and quite a few more were people I sure was glad to work with. I have to admit how ever that when you openly admit you are a San Antonio Spurs, you become quite a good target to tease and make fun of which those coaches did plenty of times to me. Eventually, they began teasing me about more than just the spurs, but later, my habit of drinking Rock Stars, "betraying" them by moving to Salt Lake, Etc. I will miss that about these guys. They always gave me a hard time in a way that made me feel respected. I do hope to stay in contact with these guys down the road towards my career.

Besides the fellow workers, I was able to bond well with many students. The severe students were so great to work with and I tried hard to help them feel loved and cared for and eventually they gave back that respect toward me.

I asked one to let me see there yearbook and as soon as I viewed the page about the Girls Basketball Team, I could not help but get tears in my eyes. Every one of them, I hope to see them sometime down the road. Coach Roden better not feel surprised if I decide to text or call him sometime just to say hello to the team during next years season.

All in all, I am really going to miss these experiences. They have made me better and smarter, and I am forever grateful to be apart of it. Many have asked me if I would be interested in returning once I have completed my degree requirements at the University of Utah and I have responded to many of them that I am not saying yes but I am not saying no either. It may turn out I love Salt Lake City and may just want to teach up there, but maybe I will miss the red rocks and people of St. George that I will just have to come back. As I have learned many times in the past few years, Never say Never!!!! What ever my choice ends up being, I am eternally grateful for all the people I worked with and I hope to stay in contact with many if not all of you. Thanks for everything!! No matter what, I am always a Warrior!!!

My College Summary: Spring 2015

Spring of 2015 was easily the most difficult semester I have experienced. I knew it would be hard coming into it due to a couple factors such as being my last semester at Dixie State so the urge to just wanting to get it over with made it more difficult than it should have been. I also was taking classes that were a little difficult for me such as Math 1050(College Algebra and Pre-Calculus), Music 1010(Introduction to Music), and Hist 1700(American Civilization).

I had to make some difficult choices in the semester. Doing this along with my job at Snow Canyon High School ended up being even harder than I thought. I was able to get through coaching the Lady Warriors Basketball team but when track and field came up, I had to tell Coach Esplin I could not do it this year because my Midterm Grades were already questionable. My Math 1050 was marked with an "X" which is a professors warning, and my Music 1010 class was a D-. I went and talked to my math professor, Costel Ionita, and he was very blunt about it that I was just not leaving enough room in my day to study math at the rate he recommended. I then talked to one of my counselors in Student Support Services and they offered to let me work with a one on one tutor. In order to do that though, I also needed to cut my work hours a bit shorter. I was able to do that and thank goodness I did.

Working with my tutor, Paige, she was able to assist me even better than I first imagined. With my Math class being an online course, she was in a sense also my teacher. We would push to get 100 percent on each homework assignment. I won't go into too many details, but at the end working with her, I was able to finish my math class with a C!! I was very happy because that means I wouldn't have to take another math class at the University of Utah where I will be transferred to next semester.

My Music 1010 class ended up being a D+. I ended up studying with my mother who helped me out a whole lot. Professor Dean was very passionate about teaching Music but his tests were the kind that if I did not basically memorize my whole entire notes, I would feel lucky to get higher than 70. Luckily I was not the only one. A majority of the class admitted they struggled in it. It was the one class I wished there was more homework to at least help me absorb more of the information. Just writing notes and then taking an occasional test in the testing center did not really help me learn too much. Overall though, I am still glad I passed the class. That D+ was not due to wasted effort so I am not too disappointed.

Overall, I felt very accomplished to have finished this semester. I now will be receiving my Associates of Science degree and will began next semester at the U in good terms. The biggest challenge coming up will be pushing to get all A's and B's for the next year so I could push my GPA from a 2.79 to a 3.0 or higher which is required to get admitted into the Education school at the U. I will also need to take a Praxxis exam which I plan to take in Spring of next year. I plan to take practice portions and whatever else I need to do to get comfortable with that exam.

I would like to finish this summary on my social interactions. I was living in the Shiloh Dorms with my friend Chris Cleveland living on the other side of me. Having him there ended up being one of the greatest social times of my life. We would help each other out, go eat together and have movie marathons. I think we rarely had a day where we didn't talk at least a few minutes to each other. He is going to be who I miss most moving up to Salt Lake City. I only wish he could have joined me but we will still interact through skyping or messaging on Facebook. I thank him big time for helping make Dixie State a good experience in more ways than just going to class and learning information.

Happy Birthday Mom! I am one lucky son!

So today, my Mother, Jenifer Andrus (Summerhays) turns one year older. I thought of just posting on her wall on facebook, but I felt she deserved more of an honor than just a sentence. I would like to give a little overview on how she truly makes me one of the luckiest men in St. George, Utah, if not the planet!

Many of you know my mother as a teacher at Lava Ridge Intermediate and already know she is one of the sweetest people you have met. She has made a reputation of being a caring personality who puts others first well before herself. She finds joy in making others happy and successful which I am sure is part of the reason she chose to be a teacher as her career. However, what you probably see in the classroom doesn't truly do her justice on how much she truly cares about one another 'cough, cough' especially me..'cough'. She sacrifices so much and if it makes people around her happy, she is happy. When she is happy, she has one of the sweetest grins that makes me want to give her a big hug, even though I try not to overdo it.

For me personally, I feel like she went through a lot more than, no offense, most mothers would have needed to go through to raise me up to what I have become today. In one of my previous entrys, I told about how I had to be taken to the crisis center for running away from home. About after that time, she had to make a decision, which she confessed to me recently, was one of the most difficult choices of her life and that was to transition from being under her primary custody, and making my Dad my primary caregiver. At that time, I always responded better to my Dad than my mother.

Before, I get to carried away and make this about myself, that is just one example of sacrifice she had to go through to allow me to develop into what I became. I know I sometimes say that I wish she wasn't as protective as she is, but all in all, that leaves little doubt that she truly loves and cares about me and wants nothing more for me than to be successful.

I use to be a very selfish son toward her and didn't look up to her very highly, but now adays, I love her to death and am super pleased to be her son. I am still a selfish son in a lot of ways. Much of our conversations now adays are about me going to the University of Utah next semester and looking back at what I used to be and how amazing it is to be where I am at now. I often make bragful questions like "would you have guessed I would be going to the U of U by age 22"? She would often respond, "I was just hoping you would get through high school"! I don't brag to her to say I am better or more amazing than my brothers. I just get so happy to make her proud, and to hear her say she is proud of my success fills me with tons of joy.

One of the hardest things of going to the U of U is I will not be having her live just 10 miles away from me, and I know it is hard for her to imagine that as well, but her support for me will make it OK. I am sure we will call or skype often to update each other how things are going with each other as well as updating her on my progress as a Ute.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Life is wonderful!!!!

In the past 3 weeks, life has just been getting better and better!!! I got my learner's permit, I have a new phone coming, my social life is getting better and better, and I feel more like an athlete than I ever have in my life!!!

Just today, I had a job interview at Golden Corral and I know the owners son and hopefully I'll get that job. I'd be very excited and would enjoy every minute of it! I get to be social and help customers which I'm an expert at!!

I have yet to lose in a game of 1 on 1 in basketball since I've overcome the medical condition. My game is better than it has ever been.

I absolutely love my life lately and am truly looking forward to the future! I want to be a proud father, with a job I love, and just being out there for any one who needs me!

"Whether you believe you can, or you can't, you're right!!!"