I love this picture, I think it's an accurate depiction of how my year has been.
It is weird sitting here at the end of another year. I still feel like January just happened and I don't know how I feel about a new year being on our doorstep. It was a interesting year for me, if you do not know I deferred the spring semester of school to work at Logan regional hospital as a Phlebotomist. Because of that decision I spent 8 months away from my friends, this self imposed exile let me do a lot of thinking, and figure out who I am, what I am looking for in this life, and what I want to do with my life. it also was a dark time as well, I didn't make the best of choices and because of this I didn't have very many friends, I would go to work, and come home and watch tv or movies, and play video games. I'm not necessarily proud of it but it was my decision and I lived with it. I just wanted to go through and highlight some of my favorite parts of this year.
Jessica came down to visit me over winter semester and we went out to Hardware ranch and saw the Elk! it was so much fun. The best part was when a random lady on the sled with us asked if we were married, I replied "oh no we're not married" and the woman looked at me with a little disappointment in her eyes and said "well you really should, you two are a really cute couple.." I didn't have the heart to tell her that we aren't together so I just kept my mouth shut. later Jessica told me that I needed to make her an "honest woman" lol so funny.
A nice bull elk that was out there.
I went down one weekend in April to watch my roommate get married. and I stayed the night at my cousin Chris and his wife robins place. the next morning we, plus their son Tyson went hiking above his parents house in Farmington. It was a lot of fun, I love those guys so much.
We stopped by a stream to rest and Tyson was just chattering away with me, he is so cute. Uncle Sean is his favorite!
Through a interesting series of events we met these girls that are awesome. the first week of the semester we went to a school dance and my roommates, these girls, and I danced the night away. everyone was jealous and wanting to join our circle because we were so much fun. anyway at one point we met this guy, who kinda looks like Justin Bieber and dresses like him. So we jokingly referred to him as DUSTIN Bieber, and the girls had to get a picture with him lol.
I was truly blessed with some amazing roommates, This is Dillon, Matt, and Jake. Dillon is 19 and the others are 18, I had so much fun with these guys this semester.
My roommate Kevin is in this picture with Jake. this picture describes their relationship well... lol. Kevin was probably one of the most influential people in my life this semester, he is an amazing friend.
This is my last roommate Sam, and this picture explains him perfectly, he is sitting cross legged at the fhe sisters reading 17 magazine. lol. he is one of the most humble, charitable people I have ever known, I strive to be like him some day.
I was so blessed to have some amazing women in my life this year. KayDee was one of my fhe sisters this last semester and we became fast friends. I love her to death and can talk to her about anything, she even wrote a paper about me for her english class and got an A on it, lol.
This is Megan. she is another of my fhe sisters, she is one of the funniest girls I know, and I remember the first words she said to me. at the start of the semester we were out in a field playing ultimate frisbee and it was starting to thunder and lighting a ton. I shook my fist and said "curse you Percy Jackson!" to which she whipped her head around and said "You like Percy Jackson! that is so cool" from that moment on we were friends.
This for obvious reasons was the highlight of my semester, The girls had mistletoe in their apartment so I got some kisses from them, then they remembered that they bought some bright pink lipstick, so KayDee and Megan ran and put some on and then kissed me again.
This semester I took the EMT basic class and absolutely loved it. These guys are seriously like family to me. I have never been as close to a group of classmates as I have been with these guys. near the end of the semester our teacher took us to the fire department and we got to see all the ambulances and fire trucks and we got to play with the jaws of life. Here are most of my friends from that class, I will never forget you guys! BSI! scene is safe!
This is Hanna watching Liz put Kevin in a KED, a device for immobilizing a persons spine from a seated position. we would have lab every week and work on our skills.
This is Darylyn, I sat next to her most of the semester in my EMT class, she is a super shy girl, and the whole semester I would flirt with her and joke around about anything and everything. If you ask anyone from my class we had a love/hate relationship, I would always joke around and say things and she would glare and shake her head at me, I will miss breaking her out of her shell and seeing her true personality.
This is Samantha, or Samwise as we called her. She is an old friend from 2010, she is now serving her mission in San Francisco, so she came up one weekend to say goodbye to her friends that were up here. So we had a party and said goodbye.
We got together again as a family for Thanksgiving, and had a lot of fun. I love getting everyone together and having a great time. this is my cousin Brandi, she is a Rood through and through lol.
Ever since I was a kid I remember at all our family reunions and get together's we would play Mexican train dominoes, so here is my family at thanksgiving keeping the tradition alive.
after thanksgiving we went Pheasant hunting, It was a lot of fun to go out and shoot some birds, here's my cousin Chris, his dog Bowdie and me with my shotgun as we were stalking some birds.
Chris and I after the hunt, I love this guy so much, he is like a brother to me.
near the end of semester I met this amazing girl, her name is Megan and the other night we decorated this ginger bread house together, I am excited to get to know her better, and continue seeing her into the next year.
My cousin Jake, my other brother, and his wife had their son two weeks ago, his name is Simon and he is so adorable, I usually don't think babies are that cute until they get out of the blob stage, but he is soooo cute. I am so happy for them, that they are starting the next stage of their life together. Babies are truly a miracle.
This year also was not without some pain and heartbreak, but that is life and I am happy for the experiences I have. I am loving the classes I took and I have decided I want to be a paramedic and want to go that route.
A scary thing that happened this year was on Halloween, I woke up with my heart in Atrial Fib again. My heart was racing and I felt really light headed, as I tried to explain to my roommate Jake what was wrong with me I got my stethoscope and told him to listen. He was pretty freaked out by my heart. I waited for the student health center to open and went to get checked out. I told the receptionist lady that my heart was in Atrial Fibrillation, and I needed to see the doctor. they sent me back and the nurse came in and checked me out, she didn't seem to really believe me. then a PA student comes in and I told her about my heart problem and how I believed that I was in atrial fib. she looked at me and said, "if you were in atrial fib you would be dead" I shook my head and said no, that's ventricular fib (thank you sister dameron!) and she said that they would do a electrocardiogram on me and see what was going on. so I get the ECG done and I look at the paper and see that yes I am in atrial fib. the doctor comes in and talks about maybe putting me on some meds to chemically change me over. I asked to get shocked. so they send me to the ER and I fill the doctor in there, they start an IV on me and get me drugged up to take the shock. they gave me the shock and everything appeared to be good. they wanted to keep me for a little while to see how I was doing. about an hour later I was sitting in my bed and my stomach was hurting, it was now around 1:30pm and I hadn't eaten anything since the night before, so I just attributed it to not having eaten. then my stomach started hurting a lot more, then I got this burning feeling in my chest and it started radiating out to my limbs and my legs. lastly it went to my head and I had this really hot flushed feeling. I looked out the window to the nursing area and saw no one there. I turned and looked at the monitor and my heartbeat was 47, I turn and look at the window and see no one there, I look over again and see that it was 41 and dropping, I turn back to the door and yell "HELP!" I see a nurse come around the desk with a confused look on her face, once she opens the door and looks at the monitor I see her eyes go as big as dinner plates, and she turns around and yells, "I need help in here, someone call respiratory therapy!" I flop my head over and my heartbeat is 37, as the nurses rush in and drop my head back I look over one more time and see that my heart rate is 26, I then looked up at the ceiling and I can remember thinking to myself "so this is what dying feels like" I remember saying a prayer, "God, I don't want to die, but if it's my time so be it." as the nurses put oxygen on my face and get ready to shock me again, the doctor says wait, my heart rate stayed steady around 25-30 beats, then it went back up again to around 40. it stayed around 40 for maybe 5 minutes, then it went back up to around 60 for a minute or two, then it went up to around 75 and stayed strong. they didn't have to shock me again, and they held me for a couple more hours then sent me home when I didn't deteriorate again. They said that I must of had a vagal incident and when they shocked me the first time they must have stimulated that nerve and it brought my heart rate down. I'm not going to lie it shook me up really bad, and it took a couple weeks to recover. I honestly felt like I was dying, and it was so scary. I am so grateful for the gift of life, and the opportunity to be alive. I truly have a better understanding and better outlook on life for having gone through this ordeal.
I was able to let go of a lot of pain this semester, I have had terrible luck the last three years in the dating department, just girls not wanting to date seriously or get into relationships. I would take them out on a couple dates and they would say lets just be friends. after a while it really started to build up and get to me. I felt like I wasn't attractive, that there was something I did to drive the girls away, that there was something wrong with me. I became kind of jaded also. I would be confident on the dates but wouldn't have my hopes up because I knew it wouldn't go anywhere. anyway that was how I felt. My roommate Sam helped me realize where I went wrong. He helped me realize how amazing I am. The personality that makes people gravitate to me, and how I can make anyone feel loved and welcome. I have a lot of attributes and things I can bring to the table. It's not my fault that those girls couldn't see me for what I am and they didn't like me, it is their problem. they had a chance to have the best thing to happen to them and they gave it up. I feel so liberated now! I feel like a huge weight was taken off of my chest. I love myself again and feel so much better about me as a person. my confidence level is higher than it has been in a long time. I thank Sam for all his help this semester, and owe everything to him.
This year has been a great year of personal growth and fun times, I am excited as we travel into 2012 and see what this year brings. I am ready for the trials and pains that it will bring and will live life to the fullest so I can enjoy the joy and love that it will bring.
I will see you all in a next year friends!
Sean out,
