Tales from My Life.

The following events take place between 6:30 AM and 4:30 PM on Thursday, February 19th 2009:

The scene opens: the setting is mine and Cameron's room. Clothes, books and paper litter the floor. The blinds are closed and the light is off, causing the pale pre-dawn light to filter through the vertical slats and highlight various features of our room; Cameron's dresser, two drawers standing open, frozen in mid-vomit, clothes spilling onto the floor. My computer; standing open and in sleep mode, resting after a night of singing a playlist entitled "Sleepytime." Cameron's longboard; propped against the wall by our door, deck stained with shoe gunk from weeks of riding. My alarm goes off and I roll out of bed, stumbling on a discarded pair of pants and taking out the stack of books on my desk in mid-fall. I think we need to tidy up a bit.

Cut to Public Speaking class: I stand up in front of a room of 28 college students - people that back in August I would have been scared to death of talking in front of - and calmly deliver a rather uninspired speech on the dangers of multitasking. I work in a bit where I display the optical illusion of a goblet that can also be two faces looking at each other and comment, "they're having a staring contest of Biblical proportions." I think I received bonus points for being 'attention grabbing.'

In Chapel now: While waiting for the campus-sponsored event to start, I'm using an inflatable beach ball (a prop from my speech) as a volleyball. I spike it at my friend sitting three rows below me but miss and peg a rather nice-looking girl in the back of the head. Acting quickly, I sit down and enter conversation with two friends sitting behind me. I think she's still dusting for fingerprints.

At Cross Country conditioning: In the middle of our two-mile cooldown run, I find myself catching our lead runner, who is taking his time due to a prior leg cramp during the lifting segment of conditioning. As I approach him from behind, I overhear him humming the theme from Braveheart.* Knowing what it's like to be caught talking or singing to ones self, I start to back down on my pace to put distance between us. Yet as I do so, he glances over his shoulder and then looks forward again. "Just imagine you're running in a kilt," he says, not breaking stride. I think running in a kilt would be hard to pull off in a Colorado winter, but it's a freeing thought.


-Daniel K


*Which, honestly, I wouldn't have recognized if we hadn't watched a clip from Braveheart in Philosophy Class the other day...

At The Movies.

Tired of Valentine's Day activities* and completely bored, Big Mike and I decided last night to head up to Arvada and see a movie at the Elvis Cinema. It's one of those theaters that plays movies a couple months after they debut, so we payed $3.50 and headed inside to see Marley and Me.

The entrance was packed full of junior highers kissing each other, big families crowding around the candy displays, and serious-looking teenagers buying popcorn for their oh-so-clingy Valentine dates. Big Mike and I plowed our way through the crowded lobby and had the un-enthusiastic ticket taker rip our stubs and point vaguely off to his left, muttering, "theater four." Walking into the darkened room, we made our way to some empty seats and sat down just as the movie started.

Marley and Me. It's basically a movie about a young couple starting their family, who first decided to get a puppy who grows up to be a rambunctious and out of control best friend. The story line follows the couple and Marley as they have first one, then two, and finally three kids. I won't say how the movie ends for safety reasons,** but I can tell you that it was one of those movies where you walk out thinking about life and its mysteries and complexities.

Those are the best movies, in my opinion... Movies that make you see new beauty in previously mundane thing. Movies that make you look at your own life and wonder, "Am I worth making a movie out of?" Movies that spur you on to write yourself a story worth re-telling once you're gone.

When I die, will anyone want to look back and trace my life's course through time? Will I be in history books? In the minds of the people? Will there be any movies made about my life? Will what I do while here on Earth echo after I leave?

During my winter term class, Prof. Hartwig said that his favorite quote regarding leadership is this: "Leadership is not measured by what you do, but by what others do because of you."

So this brings me back to the here and now. I think we have to ask ourselves, "Is what I'm doing worth anything? Is how I'm learning or speaking or interacting with others counting for something?" And more importantly, I think we have to make sure it is. We should live our lives realizing that making history or changing the world isn't nearly as impossible as the books and movies make it out to be. Everyone starts somewhere insignificant. Everyone knows of other more famous or distinguished people who have come before. Yet everyone has a chance.


Thanks for reading,

-Daniel Kenneston



*Or lack thereof
**Ruining Harry Potter for Mingy is something she'll never let me live down, so I've learned my lesson.