The Little Things Matter.

http://vimeo.com/54804500

So tonight after a rather interesting turn of events I knew I needed to get a considerable amount of work done for UCF Homecoming. So, I decided that I would be far more productive out of the house and on campus. There is no place I like more at night than the Reflecting Pond, so I gathered my things from the office and went out to the pond to work hard and have the constant reminder that in 60 days, America’s greatest collegiate tradition, Spirit Splash would be under way.

Sitting out by the water and a group of students came and sat down a few feet away and were talking about none other than UCF Homecoming. Anyone would admit that when people are unknowingly talking about something which you’re directly responsible for, it makes you feel good. This group of students who, I quickly gathered were freshman were boasting “how freakin’ excited” they were for Splash and how they would give anything for a duck. To say that I needed that good feeling confidence booster it would be a vast understatement.

After some of them walked away, one of the girls came up and said hello to me, completely blind to the fact that they made my day. She asked why I was there alone so I told her I was working on Homecoming stuff and she began to tell me how stoked she was for Homecoming and thanked me for my hard work. But I told her not to thank me because this is what I get paid to do, she was pretty confused. I thanked her, got her name and told her to come by the office to learn more about volunteering and we parted ways.

I dont believe in luck. As Randy Pausch puts it, luck is where preparation meets opportunity. Those students, who don’t know me, probably will not ever know me, made my night. They made me recognize that there are students eager, excited and not so patiently awaiting for my team to deliver what i’ve promised to be the best Homecoming yet. And it damn well will be.

The Road to Homecoming. #UCFHC

Homecoming. By definition Homecoming is a celebration. Now in High School, I thought Homecoming couldn’t be more awesome, I was in SGA, I was on top of the world, I was planning the coolest Homecoming ever to happen to a high school. Boy was I wrong. Collegiate Homecoming celebrations are on a whole other scale, they embody the true meaning of Homecoming.  

As mentioned, I attend the University of Central Florida, this great nation’s second largest university, and the best damn school in the nation. In the Spring of 2012 I was encouraged to apply to be on the Executive Board for UCF Homecoming, with my “jump on every opportunity” attitude I did just that and earned myself the position at the Registered Student Organization Relations Director and was charged with the task of attempting to engage more that 500 organization in Homecoming happenings, obviously not all of them participated but none the less I was part of a team that put on one of America’s most prestigious campus programs. It was truly life changing. I’ll explain that next. The feeling of bringing something to a university of our caliber, as a measly undergraduate was mind blowing to me, they trusted 13 students to put on this massive week. And we did, Homecoming came in October and we crushed it, blew it out of the water, but, I found myself constantly asking, why are we not doing this bigger, how do we make this better. You see, I’m what I affectionately call a pusher, I like to push things, people (sometimes in the literal sense), projects, programs as far as they go to make them reach their full potential, and leading into UCF Homecoming in 2012 I thought we were, but that was false, there’s always bigger, better, more exciting. 

Fast forward to January 2013, I’m sitting in my fraternity house, talking about Homecoming and I decide that I want to make this bigger, I want more for students. So, I took the leap of faith and applied to be the UCF Homecoming Student Director, whom oversees every part of planning, preparation and execution of Homecoming, from managing directors of individual events to signing on the dotted line to spend half a million dollars. 

In February our previous Homecoming Student Director informed me that she selected me for the position, she scared the daylights out of me and I still resent her for that but I could’t believe it. Not a moment later, the planning began and I tattooed three words in my head, bigger, everyone, movement. Homecoming needed to be bigger, a campus of 60,000+ students needed a bigger program. Everyone, each and every student pays $10.72 per credit hour for activities, like Homecoming, which amounts to about $128.64, on average, per student, therefore I said, everyone pays, everyone gets engaged. Movement, Homecoming is not a single event, it’s a week of celebrating and embracing every fiber of pride you have for UCF, it is, what it means to be a UCF Knight, enter the movement, we will create an atmosphere that evokes more pride on our campus than ever before. I want students to want to come to campus for no reason other than it’s Homecoming week and it’s freakin awesome. 

 

Before I start ranting and raving about UCF Homecoming a little foreground. We have 7 large events, 13 Directors that I oversee, 1 Graduate Assistant Alex, 1 Advisor Haley who I report to and a plethora of other professional staff that I get the pleasure of driving absolutely insane. We have a Service Day, Concert Knight, Skit Knight, Movie Knight, Comedy Knight, Spirit Splash, and Homecoming Football Game where we crown out King and Queen. Now, as I go on about Homecoming there are major details I will leave out because what fun would it be to give away the cool secrets like theme, who’s going to literally bring down the house for Concert Knight and who’s going to make 10,000 people laugh on Comedy Knight. 

When you do something, do it.

Something simple, yet it baffles me that it’s really not that simple for most, myself included. When you decide to do something, do it, wholeheartedly. Over the past couple of years I’ve really found myself living by this, and the last 4 months I’ve really found myself pushing this to an all time extreme.

In my opinion if you’re going to spend your precious time, and yes time is precious because it’s one of the few things that is certainly limited , you better do it 110% because otherwise why spend your time and the time of others. What I’ve learned is the people who make the most noise, and I don’t necessarily mean literal noise, have stuck to their guns, put their everything into what they are doing and will be the people who are never forgotten, who shaped the past, present and future. Do you think Steve Jobs went at Apple half ass, probably not, or when Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded google they were like “meh, I think I’ll kinda try and found Google and if it doesn’t work out, whatever” the answer is probably no.

I get to work with people all the time who are in positions where they can make huge decisions that effect a hell of a lot of people and when they say they want to do something and then hour, days and weeks later their still only kinda doing something it drives me insane. Now, I’m 100% guilty of this and I’m a complete hypocrite if I don’t say that I’m not guilty of it. What it boils down to is why waste time doing something if you’re not going to go ham and do it all the way. I’ve recently found myself following big music festivals, particularly EDM festivals, and more particularly Tomorrowland, which is quite possibly the most revolutionary festival ever. This seems irrelevant to the point but what I’m getting at is that as I follow Tomorrowland I’m in awe at the literal movement that this festival has created, conceptualized in 1992, at my ripe age of 2, to “engage college students” has revolutionized what it means to put on a festival, and really showed me that when you want to do something, do it. If you dream of getting close to 200,000 people to put their reality on hold and live a dream for a few days, do it, and be steadfast in working at it.

This transitions me into what I’ll probably be blogging about a lot now, UCF Homecoming, the road to Homecoming has been one of the most trying things I’ve embarked on and has changed me forever and I’ only 4 months in, and “just doing it” and sticking to my guns has been my savior. So enter UCF Homecoming.

Pay it forward.

A simple concept that seems so foreign to some people but all too familiar to others. Some people will never understand the value in giving back, which really is a shame because everyone ended up where they are because someone paid if forward and extended you an opportunity or opened a door for you, so pay it back.

For me, I live by paying it forward because giving people the same opportunities that I was given is the most important thing in the world to me. This is also my greatest flaw; I like to fill my day with other things to avoid my own things, but in the end it makes me smile so it’s worth it.

 

When doors open take them, don’t think, just open them.

Long, but worth it, I promise.

I think it’s safe to say that most people would credit their mental capacity and critical thinking ability for their successes, achievements or opportunities. However, I credit mine with nothing. People are successful and do great things because they take the opportunities that life presents them and they make the most of them, they work hard because they love it. Sure, there are plenty of people who are miserable with what they are doing and they appear successful. That’s where I throw a bullshit flag, if you’re not happy, you’re not successful.

Really not the point of this and that probably makes no sense but here’s what I’m getting at.

People think to much before they jump on an opportunity that has come forth, they start looking at all the angles, taking the stupidest things into consideration, think of all the reasons not to do something and THEN they take the time to think of the positives, and by that point they’ve already convinced themselves not to take the opportunity. My opinion, just take the opportunity, don’t think, and figure all the other issues out later. Why? Because most opportunities come once, and only once, and good opportunities lead to better ones. Honestly, that’s the only reason I am where I am today, because I never turn down something good, I take it, and figure it out as I go. And guess what, I’m a pretty dang happy camper. Really, its a chain reaction and I’ll use myself as an example:

Graduate High School, took advantage of an internship at Walt Disney World because it spur of the moment came to my attention. Work at Disney for almost three years, unbelievable experience, made lifelong connections. Move to Orlando brought me to the University of Central Florida, would not trade this great university in for the world. Along the road I caught up with a non profit I worked with in high school, Feeding Children Everywhere because I saw they had an internship opening, said why not, and now I’m still working with them and have had the chance to join staff and to impact thousands of people across the USA  and feed millions. While at UCF a fraternity, Beta Theta Pi came onto my opportunity list, didn’t think twice, now I have the greatest experience of my entire life, hands down, changed my life. While in Beta, the opportunity to become President came into view, went for it and now I currently get to give back to what gave to me. While joining Beta, a brother recommended I take the opportunity to apply for the UCF Homecoming Board of Directors, did it, got selected, most rewarding experience yet. After Homecoming 2012, the opportunity for me to be the next Executive Director for UCF Homecoming came about, applied, and now I get to serve my great University in the coolest capacity. And somewhere in there I got to run a Student Body Presidential campaign with one of my best friends, one of my more interesting opportunities, but none the less, our ticket won and UCF is in great hands, see below.

Now I know it looks like I was just bragging, but hell, who doesn’t like to talk about themselves, I was just proving, don’t think, just jump on opportunities because they lead to one awesome thing after another. And sure, you have to close doors along the way but that’s what it’s all about, because one day, you’ll be dead and can’t do anything. Oh, and bring people with you, make other people jump on opportunities, they’ll thank you later, I promise.

How I justify impulsive actions.

You need to justify something you did? I just say they’re on the bucket list and convince myself that they’re okay because when is a bucket list item not morally and socially acceptable, no matter how off the wall it is. “Oh you just jumped out of a perfectly good airplane” “yeah, it was on the bucket list.” See, completely irrational behavior rationalized by the bucket list concept. Exhibit A pictured below below, I jumped out of a plane on a random Tuesday morning.

The cliche “about me” post.

Well, I figure before I start ranting about things that probably either pissed me off or shocked me you probably should know who me is. I like to consider myself, pretty free willed, and without giving one single care what people think about me, truthfully everyone gives cares about what other people think about them because otherwise we’d all be uncivilized. But back to the point… I like to consider a few things when making my life choices and also I guess my bit of advice: do not let society define how you behave. Don’t let society tell you whats wright or wrong, obviously don’t tell yourself murder is okay and justify if by that but you get the gist. Do impulsive things. They’re awesome. Never pitty party for longer than you have to, we get it, your sad, now move on and have fun. Go to college, don’t think about the money, the distance, nothing, go far, home is great but you can visit. And go somewhere with a decent football program, generally that’s a good rule to live by if you want a real college experience.

So I’ll probably rant about things similar to the topics listed above, and probably throw my bucket list around to keep track of that. The photo above does a solid job of describing me, being obnoxious and proudly bearing the American flag in another country purely because I can.

Where to begin.

Well, I never thought I would be one to blog, I probably would consider myself a person who would quickly poke fun at one who blogged, but here we are, I’m blogging.

Why am I blogging? Good damn question. Everyone gets that feeling where they just want to document all the shit they do and places they go and awkward social interactions they encounter, so here I am, doing that. I hope that someone can at least get some rise out of my life choices, which are questionable, at best.