When you feel pain, accept that that experience is really helping you. The pain has a purpose. In the same way that a woman accepts that going through childbirth and accepts that pain will bring the blessing—will bring the baby, will bring that gift to this world—you are not going to skip that process. You want to go through it. If you fight the pain, you are fighting the happiness that is bound to come.

Think of a point in time when you were most happiest. Did you have to fight your way for that feeling? Was it stressful? Did you go through some mental or physical pain? For me, it was when I graduated, more recently, and feeling like I am on top of the world! Feeling all happy, all proud. That ultimate feeling wouldn’t have been discovered unless I went through the pain of studying my ass off in my schoolwork. Of course I could have taken the easy way out and not do the homework, but then I would have suffered the consequences. Suffering is a choice, and I refused to take it. I dealt with the mental pain and overcame it, learned many lessons throughout the experience – hard work pays off, dedication, commitment, determination, self- discipline, etc…and felt a great sense of accomplishment. Can true happiness reach its peak without ever experiencing pain?

There are many lessons in life that come with pain, and the longer it takes for us to find these lessons, the longer we suffer. Within pain there is information … there is wisdom … there is intelligence that sooner or later will push us towards the wakeup call of growth and change. I believe with every painful experience, there is a lesson that is to be learned, and as a reward we feel a great sense of happiness and accomplishment.

Thanks Alex for the video.

1. Visit the Library.  It is one of the only places that you can visit and have complete silence.  Believe me, you will be able to get work done more efficiently without the distractions of your roommates, or from the guy down the hall who is blasting his music or the randomness in the dorms.
2. Schedule. Make time in your day to work on your homework.  It is a good idea to schedule this time right when you get out of class, or when you have time between classes. By doing this, you will already be in “school mode” so it will be easier to get your work completed.
3. Don’t Procrastinate. I used to do this all of the time, and it was really affecting my schoolwork in a negative way.  Do not wait until the last minute to do your work.  The work you get done won’t be of good quality, and procrastination can be stressful.
4. Study with a partner. This is especially helpful because you can quiz one another on the material. This is a great way to learn and maintain information.
5. Take Breaks. This is something that gets overlooked way too often.  When you are studying or working on something, it is very important to take breaks.  This gives your brain time to rest, and will ultimately help you retain the information better.
6. Concentrate on one thing. Don’t think about the other three assignments you still have left to do.  Instead, just knock out one thing at a time, and you will see your workload disappear in no time.

If you got a mac and want the application, download it.

I’m not which side of the fence I should look at this issue. Sure as a whole, the younger generation is better at multi-tasking and knows how to get information quickly and efficiently. However, its as if our internet addictions as becoming too great and we need outside help…

What I really like about Rise Against is how their songs relate to so many situations in life. The title Audience of One, comes from the idea that the President controls the country…how the citizens are the audience of “one” person and of one body of government. I think this refers to when George Bush was the president…how everything seemed to be go fine, then shit started to go downhill….will Obama be the same?

“Identities assume us
As nine and five add up,
Synchronizing watches
To the seconds that we lost”

This is saying how life is now a job and its sucks that we cant go back to the things we used to do before we had responsibility. The innocence and freedom is gone and now the person in this song is lonely and wishing things were different.

This also relates to life when guys get girlfriends and blow off their friends. Then when the girlfriend leaves your life you realized how much you missed out with your friends…to the seconds you lost with your friends and other opportunities you missed out on, not only because you worked too much, but also because you spent too much time with your girlfriend.

“We cruised along at half speed
But then we shifted gears”

You and your girlfriend / boyfriend are together and everything goes well, then all of a sudden it all goes downhill. I think this has happened to almost everyone. Those who know when you drive downhill or uphill, you need to change gears because the car works harder.

“But you ran away
Now all my friends are gone”

Ever had a friend who pretty much only spent time with their girlfriend or boyfriend? We all do. And then all of a sudden they breakup and they suddenly they want to be your friend again? At first you may remove them from your social circle, but you will soon realize they made a mistake and become friends with them again… Think about this next time you date, don’t forget your friends because they will always be there!

“I brought down the sky for you but all you did was shrug
You gave my emptiness a name”

I like this lyric because it can relate both to everyday life and to military life.

How often do you feel like you tried your hardest and nobody noticed? How often was somebody else’s reaction to something you’ve done not what you hoped for. How did you feel? Sad? Depressed?

In the military world, this is what a typical soldier may feel. Of course the military leaders expect you to “eliminate the enemy”, but a soldier may have killed someone and was expecting praise maybe afterwards but all he felt was emptiness, depression, and regret.

“We’re all ok, until the day we’re not The surface shines, while the inside rots We raced the sunset and we almost won We slammed the brakes, but the wheels went on”

• This is about as true as it gets. On the outside we act  just fine, but on the inside we are terrified of growing up and thinking we will be a failure.
• We raced the sunset and we almost won means that life is going by too quickly and the sunset happens before we can accomplish our goals in life.
• We slammed the brakes, but the wheels went on:  is an amazing metaphor simply meaning : you can try to put ‘growing up’ on hold but growing up is something that you can’t stop or even slow down.

to learn to live.”

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Lil Wayne – Knockout

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Ludacris -Sexting

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Chamillionaire -Rolling Like a Boss

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JayZ-On To The Next One