College Halfway Point.

Being at the midpoint of any endeavor yields some interesting perspectives. Admittedly, I may be here as long as five years, but the view is still the same. I have come a long way from where I started and I have a long way to go until the finish line.

My journey started out strong freshman year. I got some good grades, met some great friends and had a lot of wonderful experiences. I'm glad I took initiative to get involved on campus and in aerospace projects such as USLI. 

One trend that I've noticed, however, is that each semester my performance is a little lower. Not sure if I'm decreasing in intelligence or just classes getting harder. But this semester I intend to break that trend. I know last year the biggest problem was probably the same problem Alexander the Great experienced in that I spread myself way too thin over classes, projects, and other activities. So this semester is going to be a study on living a simple lifestyle in order to keep the main thing the main thing.

And what is the main thing?

I'm looking ahead to next summer (maybe even this spring) in which I fully intend to land an aerospace internship! All of this year will be spent mainly in preparation for this goal. This includes, but not limited to, getting good grades, making a lot of contacts, talking to professors, getting recommendations, applying to positions, making phone calls, etc. In all of this, I will at least make room for one project, such as USLI.

Recreation and entertainment are important, but need to know they're place at the bottom of the totem pole. For instance, it's a good way to bond with friends and roommates. After I moved in to the apartment, two of my roommates and I went shooting and ate dinner at one of my roommates home, since it was his birthday. It was a great way to start the semester off. 

For some reason after the end of last semester I just had to stop and wonder what it was that I wanted in life. It's funny how I can ask that question and also know exactly where I'm going with my career at the same time. For the past six years I have known that I want to be an aerospace engineer, but suddenly I began to get the inklings of a question on why. Just because it's fun? Because I think it's an important contribution to humanity? Because I want to earn a lot of money and do a lot of cool things in life? What exactly is the point? What would my life look like in ten, twenty years from now? Who will my friends be? Will I have a family? What will I be working towards, fighting for and living for?

And I can just shrug all these questions off now, because, if nothing else, I'll always be living for the glory of God. And if that doesn't make sense to you, I hope and pray that it will someday.

My homey work station.

From left: Me, Darin, Nick.