My Last Words

It's hard to say what my last words would be. I'd like to say that there is something profound I would say, but I really can't think of anything. And I doubt my Alzheimer-ridden brain will recall anything deep either. I definitely hope that I die in a non-violent manner, and hopefully after a long, full life. Dying is not something I'm scared of. At most, I fear for those I'm close to having to deal with the absence and sadness, especially those without a knowledge of the plan of salvation. Death will be so great. I'll finally be out of this filthy, rotten world and a bit closer to God. I look forward to seeing all of my deceased friends and family (and my dog Sasha...she died laying on my shoes before Seminary one morning). And I hope that when I'm gone people will remember me as the person that I am, not just the logical one. But my personality, I like to think, is a lot more goofy and carefree than that. I don't know my exact words to those who will be near me when I'm on my deathbed. But my last publicly seen words will probably just be brief and to the point. In explanation, probably a Facebook status saying:

"Death? Still winning."

Week 14: Farewell

It's been a while... And now I'm leaving. Last words, huh? I guess I'll just start typing things and see what happens.

"You're scared because if you try and fail, there's only you to blame... Life is scary--Get used to it. There are no magical fixes; it's all up to you. So get up off your keyster, get out of here and start doing the work!... Nothing in this world that's worth having comes easy." ~Dr. Robert Kelso

"It's hard to stay mad when there's so much beauty in this world. Sometimes I feel like I'm seeing it all at once and it's too much. My heart fills up like a balloon that's about to burst. And then I remember to relax, and stop trying to hold on to it. And then it flows through me like rain, and I can feel anything but gratitude for every single moment of my stupid, little life." ~From American Beauty

"Love is not a victory march/It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah... It's not a cry that you hear at night/And it's not somebody who's seen the light/It's a cold and it's a broken Hallelujah." ~From the song Hallelujah, performed by so many artists that I have no idea who did the original

"If heaven and hell decide that they both are satisfied/Illuminate the "no"s on their vacancy signs/If there's no one there beside you when your soul embarks/I'll follow you into the dark." ~From I Will Follow You Into The Dark, by Death Cab For Cutie

These are some amazing quotes, but there are so many more out there. More beautiful, more eloquent, more simple, more poignant. Hopefully one of these will strike your fancy and perhaps alter the course of your life. Here's one that did so for me:

"And all at once the crowd begins to sing/Sometimes the hardest thing and the right thing are the same." ~All At Once, The Fray

And another, more recent, most applicable to all:

"Your future will be as bright as your faith." ~President Thomas S. Monson, qtd. by Elder Russell M. Nelson in last General Conference (April 2011)

Live your life according to what you know is right by the Spirit. The most important thing I have learned this year at BYU wasn't in the classroom, or even church. I learned to act. When you stumble upon some great truth, some great quote, or even a simple truth, live by it. That is the only way we will learn the mysteries of God and become celestial beings. Don't be passive and let life happen to you. Make your life happen. I promise all of you that if you do so, your life will go in the best direction possible. It may not be what you hope for now, but believe me, you will be so much happier than if all your dreams came true.

If there is one thing you learn, make it be to learn how to pray. It is my opinion that prayer is the most important and powerful tool given to mankind, and too often we take it for granted. Prayer is direct communication with God. Does that not strike you as astounding? Prayer allows us to have a conversation with our Heavenly Father! Sometimes I can't even believe that we are allowed such a great privilege, fallen as we are. "I stand all amazed at the love Jesus offers me, Confused at the love that so fully he proffers me. I tremble to know that for me, He was crucified, That for me, a sinner, he suffered, he bled and died... I marvel that he would descend from his throne divine To rescue a soul so rebellious and proud as mine... Oh, it is wonderful that he should care for me enough to die for me. Oh, it is wonderful, wonderful to me." This applies to each and every one of you. Don't squander this impossibly great gift.

Strive to live your life in such a way that on that day when you meet the Savior face to face, he will beam and embrace you and call you "Friend." What greater compliment, in heaven or earth, could be given?

Week 14

I don't like thinking about my last words. As cool as it sounds sometimes it really is an awful thought to think about dying. I am one of those guys that would enjoy dying in his sleep. That way nobody sees you kick the bucket and it is not as sad for others to actually see someone die. By dying in my sleep, I will have no words to mutter as I pass into the after life. Sleeping is very peaceful to me, and so I believe that dying in my sleep would be a pretty relaxed way to go. This way I don't have to endure the pain and suffering of being awake and trying to decide on what the heck I am going to say as my last words. If you think about this, it is quite an ordeal. In about two minutes or less you have to come up with an inspirational speech to those that love and care for you. This idea frustrates me and I almost feel that I need to write a paper on it so I can have drafts to revise and edit, just so I can say the right thing. If I knew my time was up I guess I would write a letter to friends and family expressing my gratitude for them and all of the good times we had. Actually on second thought, I believe this to be too mushy and it would also take a lot of time and effort to compile a memoir of sorts. If I knew my time was up, the absolute last thing I would be doing is spending my time writing some dang letter. I would be out in the world living it up! I would be golfing, fishing, and enjoying others' company. Forget a letter with my last words, I will just make a nice little Facebook post that says something along the lines of, "Hey everybody it's been real. But it hasn't been that real. Smell ya later!" or something smirky like that. This seems like a more correct matter in which I would conduct myself while I'm getting ready to depart this worldly state in which we all currently reside.

My Last Words

I have never really thought about what my last words would be. But, this week I have taken some time to think about if I had a chance to give my last words in this life what they would be. Of course a lot of what I would say would be how grateful I am for so many people in my life and how much I love them. Another thing that I thought a lot about was my 6 nieces and nephews. All of my siblings are much older and I feel like I missed out a lot because of that. It ended up that I got nieces and nephews that seem like younger siblings at times. They are the ones that I would really like to write my last words to if I had to.

There are two things that I would want them to learn from my last words. The first thing is something that has really helped me through a lot in my life. It is a talk given by Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, " Come what may and love it." There has not been one day of my life that has been perfectly easy. But, no matter what happens sometimes you just have to think " come what may and love it" and make the best of the situation you are put in. The second thing that I would want to tell them is something that my stake president told me when I graduated high school. He said that, "the best advice is the advice you don't want to hear." I found that to be so true so many times in my life. What I want is not always what i need. And when I get advise that is hard to hear it's usually so hard to hear because deep down I know that that is what I need to hear and do.

Au revoir

In a way, this is a good-bye for a little while. Don't get me wrong, I am excited to serve for two years in France, but it is going to be a whole new experience. I have only thirteen days left in Provo, and I will spend most of it locked away in rooms preparing for or taking Finals. I always like to look back at the positives of experiences. Please forgive me, but I am going to take an opportunity to list some of my favorite experiences from my first year at BYU. The image that I will remember best is glancing at the snow covered mountains as the sun shines on campus. I will remember watching The Jimmer. I will always be happy that I went to the SDSU and Wyoming football games, even when nobody I knew was going. My memories of the Swimming Conference Championships, where I broke through and swam well for the first time in years at an end of season meet, are sweet indeed. I will remember the feelings I had when I walked out of the testing center to look at that stupid TV and got scores better than I expected to. I will look back with some pride on the fact that I finally started to come out of my shell towards the end of winter semester. I think that I will laugh when I go home and have church meetings in a place where I have not had classes, study groups, and meetings with professors. I think I will miss walking by buildings with names such as "Smith," "Benson," and "Kimball." I know that the sight of the Lord's Temple, available to me at almost any point in the day now, will carry a greater meaning for me when I don't see one for twenty-two months. I hope that I will be remembered for the good things that I did and accomplished, rather than my many failings or the times I came up short. I hope that I can continue to build on my efforts to be more grateful, as reflecting on the good things in life have made me a much happier person this year. Last of all, I hope to come back with a renewed sense of motivation to accomplish the goals that I have set for myself here at BYU.
"To the reader I bid farewell, hoping that many of my brethren may read my words. Brethren, Adieu."

Week 14

My last words will most definitely be, “make sure to film this.” I don’t know how I’m going to go, but I can tell you that it will be in a blaze of glory, such glory that if it was to be filmed, people wouldn’t cry over my death but laugh about how ridiculous the path was I chose to kick the bucket. That way they could just show the footage at my funeral and people’s sides would be splitting from laughing so much. And they’d say, “that’s so Jacob, man I’ll miss that guy.” Or maybe, “That’s the most cottage cheese I’ve ever seen anybody eat in one sitting, maybe that’s why it ruptured his stomach leading to his utter demise.” The funeral will be brief and loaded with laughing people, just the way I want it. If I knew my time was up in life, I would of course do the usual: tell my family I love them, repent, you know the works. But then I would go to an expensive Chinese buffet and eat like there’s no tomorrow; because there is none. Kind of like the movie Groundhogs Day where he has no regard for what he eats anymore as he lodges an entire éclair down his gullet. I would probably view that world in a better light. The mountains would look more beautiful, the sun would feel warmer, and singing of children would seem less annoying. What I would leave as my legacy, and also what would be important for people to hear, would be to regret nothing! If you make a mistake, learn from it, sure, but yell, “I regret nothing” as you walk out the door. Regretting things leads to sadness and there is just not enough of our precious time on earth to be sitting around regretting things. Do the preparation beforehand so you don’t have to deal with regret; but if you don’t prepare, just face the music and regret nothing. If you ask a girl on a date and she turns out to be engaged, regret nothing! Laugh about it and move on.

Last Week- Last Words

When thinking of this topic it made me really sad. It is like talking to your parents about their will: straight up depressing. I don’t really like to think about dying but when I have to there are many things I would like to say as my last words. First off, I would hope that I have lived my life to its fullest, savoring every last memory and moment. LIfe is too short to take for granted. In the scheme of things, however, our life here on earth is nothing compared to an eternal prospective. It is like an inch on a a string that runs on for miles. My last advice to everyone here would be to not focus on the bad things in life but to cherish the good things. I often find myself thinking about all of my hardships and struggles that I forget to recognize the blessings in my life. I begin to let life slip out of my fingertips and become much more negative. We always need to be optimistic and never let our trials bring us down. Heavenly Father gives them to us to strengthen our testimonies and make us stronger as a person. If we are positive and focus on the blessings in our lives we will realize Heavenly Father’s and Jesus Christ’s hand in our lives. They are always here for us and we must be examples to the world with a bright hope and faith that everything will work out according to their plan for us. I guess what I am trying to say is life is what you make it :)

(Week 14) My Last Words

It may sound a little morbid, but I have thought a lot about what my last words would be if my time were up. Of course, over the years, what I’ve thought my last word would be has changed. When my time is up, whether that be in life, in a relationship, in a specific place, I want my last words to reflect what I’ve learned in my life and what I wish those whom I have encountered throughout my life to understand. When all is said and done, at this stage in my life pertaining to every aspect of it, my last words would be these: “fear is merely a state of mind; one that is conquered by the love and faith of good friends.” When I look back on these last 18 years of my life, I reflect on the good, the bad, and the ugly. My ‘last words’ are an accumulation of it all. I’ve realized that the things which I didn’t do that I could have, the things which I did wrong that I should have admitted to, the things I wanted to do but didn’t make time for were the result of fear. In those instances, the times in which I was able to overcome that fear I attribute to the support and love of good friends. Fear is something that affects everyone, some more than others, but we often overlook our ability to diminish fear. We have a power over fear that often goes unrecognized because of how much power we allow fear to have over us. It took me all too long to grasp this concept but it has been something that has given me strength and allowed me to pursue many more things that I have not only wanted for myself but that have bettered my life. This is important for others to hear and implement into their lives because when we use the people around us to overcome the fear that hinders us, we are capable of so much more than we thought we were. Fear is merely a state of mind; one that is conquered by the love and faith of good friends.”

Week 13

When I read just to read I will practically read anything that sounds even remotely interesting. I am an avid reader and have been known to spend an entire day just reading a book. There are a lot of people who don't enjoy reading or are very specific in what they read. I am definitely not one of these people. Reading is one of my favorite past times, and it is so relaxing to me. It is a time when I can just forget about the world around me and an author's world. I enjoy being able to be creative about what I see given the author's description. That is one thing that I love about reading. Everybody can read the same text, but because everybody sees things differently, we all have different images in our minds. This allows for a freedom of imagination, and I believe it is very important for a person to experience. Reading for pleasure can easily take our minds off of the stresses of the world and allow our brains to take a break and stop thinking so hard. Everybody needs to be able to just have fun and enter into an adventure that is placed before them on a page of a book. When I write I often try to think of what I have read in the past that has kept my attention and try to add those elements into my writing. This is a little bit harder when writing academically, because the stories that I like to read are not very structured like academic writing is. I think that I enjoy writing creatively more that academically because I do love to read books so much. Reading books gives me ideas and really gets me motivated to write stories myself. When I am writing I often imagine what I would like to read about and incorporate that into my owns words. Reading for pleasure is something that I really enjoy and I do believe that it is important for people to do on a regular basis. It keeps our minds rested and open, and can also really help improve our writing.

Week 13

What do I read for pleasure? Well, to be honest I have not done a lot a pleasure reading lately. When people ask me why I don't like to read I say it's because I read so much when I was little that now burned out. When I was little I could sit in my room all day just reading. Even now I love to go home and read all the books that remind me of my childhood. My all time favorites were the Berenstain Bears! As I kid I think that reading books like these were very important. Reading books like the Berenstain Bears helped me learn how to read while I was having fun. I think that reading also helps kids to learn morals through the stories and situations in the stories.

In college writing is much more enjoyable than reading for me. Reading is always the same, boring, and without fail it puts me to sleep. I think that there is so much more that you can do make writing pleasurable than reading. Working on my research paper I learned a lot of ways to make writing more enjoyable. One thing that has helped me is to choose a topic that I am actually interested in, especially if it requires research. When I care about the topic research does not seem annoying, it is interesting when I find something new about my topic. Another thing that helped make the writing process better was thinking about the topic in a new way. I tried to think of ways to do research that were less traditional. Not only did this give me better and more interesting information but it was more enjoyable than normal research!

Week 13

People read all of the time. Everyday we read something we see whether it be at school, on our computers, or driving on the road. Reading is necessary for everyday life and without it mankind could not function or communicate. Communication is not only important for survival but it also is very important for an individuals success. I read not only because I have to for school and stuff, but because I find it rather enjoyable too. I don't find myself reading novels or anything like that because it is quite frankly hard to find the time to do so, but when I do have a little spare time I like to read articles on the Internet. It is so easy to pull up pages on topics that interest me through the World Wide Web. So much information is available to everyone who desires it. After a quick google search, you can have the info you want in milliseconds. I am truly thankful for this great invention. For pleasure reading, I find myself mostly on websites such as ESPN.com and SportsIllistrated.com. I am a huge sports fan and enjoy nothing more than a nice sports article on one of my favorite players, teams, or coaches. This is what interests me the most because of how in touch I like to stay with the sporting world. I like to know the latest info and being kept up to date so that I can talk on sports subjects with my friends. This way I can make knowledgeable comments and sound like I know what I'm talking about, even if I really don't know everything on the topic. Sports articles make this possible for me. I believe reading for pleasure is very important. It's one thing to read for your classes, but I believe that just as much learning is achieved by reading something that actually interests an individual. A lot more attention is achieved when people read something that is meaningful to them. It is a whole lot easier for me to recall an article about the BYU basketball team, rather than reading for a history quiz. The basketball article is just more intriguing for me than history reading. This is why I believe that reading for fun is important; it triggers more memory. I try to write on more pleasurable topics too. I feel that I am more involved in my writing when I write on something I enjoy.

Week Whatever - Reading for fun

I actually used to read a lot when I was younger. Tons. My mom would have to come in my room and tell me to stop reading because I stayed up so late doing it. Unfortunately, sometime around my junior year of high school, that wore off. Now, I barely ever read. But when I do get the time or make myself read, my favorite books to read are fantasy books. I always feel kinda dumb telling people, but hey at least my intelligence is high enough to have those books not include Twilight..... anyway. My favorite series of all time has to be the Wheel of Time series. It's a fantasy adventure series, very similar to the Lord of the Rings, but more in depth and frankly a lot more complicated (maybe why I stopped reading...). Almost every single one has been the #1 New York Times bestseller for at least a week, and it's definitely just. They are great. The most reading I do is probably either for school (boring) or on random websites. My most frequented website is called comicbookmovie.com , a news central for movies based on, you guessed it, comic books. I'm a comic nerd beneath the surface, to the point where yuppie Dark Knight and Heath-Joker obsessors bug me. It's very interesting, I like feeling one step ahead of the public in knowing about movies, like the next Batman movie, and Thor, and Captain America. I'm a movie buff, so it's a great site for me. I also like to read movie reviews and either be edified and enjoy them, or hate on them and get irritated (cough Ebert is off his rocker, seriously cough). Good stuff, but not particularly beneficial I guess. Maybe I should start reading more!

Week 13

What do I read for pleasure? Let me tell you. Nothing humors me more than reading the comments on sports websites concerning the recent outcomes of sports game, namely college sports. Whenever a team loses to BYU, or when a team loses a really close game due to a botched referee call or huge mistake by a player, the comments are incredible. For example, when Boise State lost to Utah State in football this year due to, not only one, but two field goals, I could’ve read the comments bashing the kicker Kyle Brotzman for hours. And I did. People can be so clever, and relentless, when they are filled with fury. Reading for pleasure is important because it reminds us that it isn’t just for busywork, as it is usually perceived as such in regards to school reading. Reading chemistry or geography books for class does not fall under the category of pleasurable reading for me, and if I never created time for recreational reading, I would look at the general idea of reading with utter disgust. Reading for pleasure is also a stress reliever. Being able to temporarily separate oneself with the hectic world we live in can really cultivate serenity and forces relaxation. Although, even this can cause problems: I’ve known a select few of my peers who rely too heavily on escaping reality through reading, and they eventually through their lives out of balance because all their time is spent reading. However generally, reading for yourself is healthy and can be truly enjoyable. When I think about how to make writing more enjoyable for me, I consider the papers I’ve had the most fun writing in my past. Whenever I am able to express my sense of humor and really try to instill my voice in the paper, that’s when I have the most fun. For example, I can’t really instill my sense of humor during a rhetorical analysis, however my senior year we wrote a descriptive paper on something we hate, and I loved it! I chose grits, and implanting my own voice and opinion made the paper actually fun to write.