Yesterday night, our ‘evening program’ at CU (University of Colorado in Boulder) was a scavenger hunt. One of the tasks was to take a picture with a ‘friendly’ cop. We had about 3 hours to complete the entire scavenger hunt. In those three hours we walked miles…and could not find a single police officer. It was very disappointing. My group even went to the police station and they had a sign on the door stating that they were closed. I have never seen a closed police station before. We finally saw a police car and construction going on. At that point, I was confident that there would be a cop. Nope. It was a security guard…
I decided to buy the stock Wachovia. I bought it at $16.66 last week.
I admit it, needles scare me. I hate giving blood. Today, at the doctor (check up) they had to prick my finger and take a small amount of blood from me. On the outside of me, it may look like I am ok, but the inside of me is crying like a little baby :). I can’t stand to see blood drawn from me.
It is ironic because I am the chairman of the blood drives committee at my school. I hold 3 blood drives a year and have to persuade people to the max to sign up and donate. People pass out and cry and yet still give blood. It is funny that I am so afraid to give blood but still set records for most sign ups at my school and percentage wise (I think) in Houston.
I have not been eligible to give blood these last two years due to weight and age requirements but this upcoming year, I believe that I may guilt myself into giving.
Tonight is a sad night. Tomorrow will be a sad day. For the last eight years, on this night, I have had a hard time sleeping due to excitement. Why? Because I looked forward to the 5AM wake up call to get up and travel to camp. Tomorrow, I don’t have a 5AM wake up call, nor am I going to be attending camp. I have been attending camp for eight years! One month of my summer has been spent in northern Wisconsin and has continued to be my favorite month of the year!
You have to grow up sometime (is what I hear a lot). My parents did not want me attending camp last year. They wanted me to do something different but I was completely against it and had the best summer of my life attending camp. This summer, I am to old to go to camp but was given the opportunity to extend my stay in Wisconsin from 4 weeks to 9 weeks in order to be a counselor (in training). I declined and thought there are better things to do with my summer but I have been camp sick (opposite of that phrase would be home sick) for months. I will miss camp greatly and am seriously considering becoming a counselor next year. I know I am not alone. All of my friends are saying that they would trade in their summer for camp in a heartbeat.
But don’t get me wrong…I am really looking forward to my upcoming summer and hope that, even without camp, I will have an amazing time!
In response to Seth Levine’s post: “Life without email”, I said in a comment that I was going to blog about the titled question - life without Facebook. Is it possible?
Facebook is like a drug to my friends. People are addicted to Facebook. Some friends of mine are on it literally ALL NIGHT. There is not a day go by where you are not on your Facebook. I am on it several times a day.
If you don’t have a Facebook, you will eventually be guilted it to creating one. At camp, you are not allowed to use a cell phone or be on a computer for an entire month. This is something that I look forward to (even though it does suck not to be on a computer for a month). However, that didn’t stop the majority of kids from hiding their cell phones and logging onto Facebook. A couple of my friends were caught because their counselors also had Facebooks and noticed on their mini-feed that their campers were somehow logged on.
I was asked that question from my friend tonight. He wanted me to, on spot (in one sentence), tell him what the American dream is. I didn’t really know what to respond with.. In one word, I would have to say, freedom.
In one sentence, what is the American dream to you?
A couple of weeks ago I was asked to speak at my old elementary school (specifically to the third grade class who just finished a project to where students started their own companies). I was asked to tell parts of my ‘entrepreneurial’ career as a kid that has never been shared publicly before. I agreed because I think speaking in front of a bunch of third graders is a great way to start.
Today was the day I spoke. I focused on having a passion and creating a business around that passion. For instance, in elementary school one of my passions was tennis (still is). I volunteered my time to be a ball kid for the professional tennis tournaments that came around to Houston. I reached out to the players, their coaches, friends, and family. I told them I had a passion for tennis and recently started selling autographed memorabilia on eBay. I asked for an autographed tennis ball, towel, or other item and then later sold it on eBay for a personal profit. I was making pretty big bucks as a kid who was not even a teenager yet. I then started buying items on eBay and/or other websites when demand was low. When demand was high (usually at the peak of a sports season)I sold the memorabilia on eBay.
Andy Roddick was (and still is) one of my favorite tennis players. When I was 10 years old I sent an email out to Andy’s mom introducing myself. She responded! We had a couple of emails back in forth before the tournament in Houston started and I was pretty sure that I was going to at least meet Andy’s mom. My parents did not know about this. So one night I approached my dad and ask him if we could take Andy Roddick and his parents out to dinner. My dad responded with a “yeah, yeah…sure that’s fine” assuming that I was kidding. That next Monday, I kept calling my dad probably every other hour asking him if Andy’s mom called him. My dad thought the whole thing was a joke. Sure enough, later that afternoon my dad’s secretary says Blanche Roddick is on the line. We never did get to go out to dinner with the Roddick family but Andy’s mom sure did make my dad. First she took me to go on the court with Andy Roddick to watch him practice. She told me to bring my rackets along, although, I could tell that Andy did not want to warm up with a kid before competing later that night against one of the best players in the world. Blanche introduced me to Andy and then took me back to the player’s lounge for a tour.
This was 6 years ago that I first spoke to Mrs. Roddick. She has since taken her email address of the website but we are currently friends and she is a mentor of mine. She is the head of the Andy Roddick Foundation. I have helped her in the past by finding silent auction items for her annual weekend galas and she has helped me by donating items to events that I am somewhat affiliated with.
One of the lessons that I tried to get across to the third graders was to not be afraid to reach out. Do not be afraid to ask questions or ask for help in school, in business, or in life.
After I was done giving my speech and about to depart, one of the students came up to me and asked for my autograph. I brought along my first company logo (The Cor Store) and signed that for him. We also exchanged contact information.
Late this afternoon, I received an email from him. He started off the email with his name and how I knew him: “This is _______, I exchanged email addresses with you at __________ on Friday. I have a company called Chewyz that sells chocolate and so far my profit is $10.25. I hope you will help me with my company and making money.” Then he signed his name followed by a “P.S. I looked at the Houston Rockets website to be a ‘Game Day Ball Crew’ but it was for ages 13-17.” The kid who sent this email really impressed me. He reminded me of what I was like when I was his age.
Evidently, spell check did not work on a few of my last posts. Apologies for the spelling errors! Hopefully, I will soon post on a daily basis. For now, I have to focus on ending a successful sophomore year in high school.
