Final Reflection Blog

           This will be my final reflection blog for the semester, which has flown by faster than I thought it would. So many things have happened. So many memories created. It’s been fun to not have the pressures of being a student athlete this semester. Most significantly though, the biggest change this semester has been my involvement in Beta Upsilon Chi, the Christian fraternity on campus.

            I have been a member of BYX since the fall of 2011, but I haven’t done a whole lot with the fraternity since that initial semester. That’s mostly because of my other obligations, like running for TCU, but even so, it didn’t feel like I was really investing in my relationships within BYX. However, this semester was different. I was determined to be more involved, and I think I did a pretty good job.

            I have done a lot of things this year within BYX. I got a Little this semester. He’s actually in my Lit and Civ II class. We have a lot in common. We like the same books, the same TV shows, and the same jokes. It has been a lot of fun getting to know Mark this semester. I have also taken a greater role in BYX. This semester was the first semester that I tried leading a cell group (Bible study) within the fraternity. It was a bit of a stretch for me because I’m not a fan of public speaking, even with a smallish group, but I think it helped me improve my leadership and communication skills.

            I also was elected to the office of Treasurer for BYX. I wasn’t expecting a nomination, but when I got it I decided to run for the position. I had to run against my roommate, which was less awkward than it sounds, and the chapter elected me to be the Treasurer. I’m grateful for the opportunity to serve my brothers, and it has already been a blast working with the other officers to keep pushing BYX in new directions.

            All in all, I think that my semester in BYX has been fantastic. I am more involved than I thought I ever would be, and it has been rewarding beyond what I can describe. I think I have definitely grown a lot as a leader. And I have definitely enjoyed this semester more because I have taken a larger role in BYX.

            Speaking of fun, I don’t think it would be right for me to finish these blogs without reflecting on Lit. and Civ. II. The class has been a blast. First, we studied the various methods that people use to describe and define humor. That part was a little dry. But, then we started looking at humor across the world. We learned that humor is similar in different parts of the world. We all like to make fun of our leaders, and we all can find humor in making fun of ourselves. We read two books that essentially outline the differences in humor between guys and girls. For the most part, guys like over the top exaggeration, while humor for girls can be subtler. I’m not saying this is always the case. There are female comedians with jokes more over the top than I ever care to say aloud. We also looked at the tools comedians use to make people laugh. These tools include exaggeration, the Rule of 3, comic opposites, and a ton others. We even got to practice using these tools in class, which was definitely one of the highlights of the class for me.

Overall, I have had a fantastic semester in Lit & Civ II, my other classes, and just at TCU in general. I’m sad that I’m well over my halfway point in college. TCU has been so much fun for the last two and a half years, and I’m so excited for my last three semesters here!

Uncontrollable Laughter 2

           It’s time to write about another time this semester where I laughed uncontrollably. Last time, I wrote about the time I helped my brother Mitchell move into college at Ouachita Baptist University. He’s a freshman, so the process can be kind of scary, but we were able to share a great moment together that at least I will remember for a long time. And just to update everyone, Mitch is doing great at Ouachita. He loves his classes and is doing great in them. He is also getting involved on campus and hopes to join a fraternity in the spring. Ok, I think that’s enough about Mitch.

            I mentioned her in the last uncontrollable laughter blog, but if you didn’t read it, I have a girlfriend named Sydney. Sydney and I met on campus at TCU our freshman year. Actually, we met for the first time before classes had even started. But that’s another story for another time. We have been dating for a little less than two years now, so naturally we hang out all the time. A few weeks ago, Sydney and I were perusing the Internet, switching back and forth between iwastesomuchtime.com and BuzzFeed or something like it. Most of the time we look for funny things or lists or whatever that will make us laugh a lot. This time, though, we hit the jackpot.

            Sydney stumbled onto some compilation of “22 dogs that just can’t handle it right now” or something like that, an we started going through the list. Sydney is a big fan of dogs. She used to have one, but after she moved out of her parents’ house for college, they gave the dog to her grandparents. I’m also definitely a dog person, although I don’t think I see as much humor dogs making weird faces as she does.

            As we go through the list, Sydney laughs at every picture, and I’m laughing too. Most of the pictures are dogs making weird faces in the water or something like that. We get to this one picture, I forget which one it was, but Sydney starts laughing hysterically. Suddenly, I start laughing uncontrollably as well. I think that my laughter was caused more by Sydney’s laughter than the actual picture. We must have laughed for a solid minute or so before we calmed down.

            This fit of uncontrollable laughter definitely improved my outlook on the week. I think I was stressed out about a bunch of tests coming up and a project presentation that I was definitely not prepared to give, and it helped me to not dread those things as much. If I had to guess, I’d say it had a similar effect on Sydney.

            I think it’s really important to laugh. It’s a great stress reliever, and everyone can use a good stress reliever nowadays. I’m not sure why those early Christian theologians were so against laughter. Maybe it’s because they weren’t especially funny. Since no one would laugh at their jokes, maybe they decided that no one could laugh at anyone’s jokes.

Reflection 3- What I have learned

            So far for my learning blogs, I have written about what I have learned about myself and about some of what I have learned in class. My first learning blog was focused on my transition from D-1 student-athlete to normal student. Like I mentioned there, I wouldn’t trade my time with the TCU Cross Country team for anything, but I am happy with my choice to leave the team. In my other blog, I focused on some of the things that I learned in my supply chain class that I will probably use in my career. Just recently, I was asked to interview for a logistics job near my hometown, which would be fantastic because I would like to stay at home over the summer if possible.

            For my third learning blog, I think I’d like to continue discussing some of the interesting things that I have learned in class that I can hopefully apply to my life, either in my career or otherwise. Also, I’m a bit scatterbrained, especially with finals coming up, so I will probably jump around a lot.

            This semester, I took a class on financial management. Basically, the purpose of the class is to teach us the basics of simple investments. We learned a bunch of financial ratios that we can use to evaluate a company to determine if its stock is something to invest in or not. We also learned about the cost of capital, or the cost of borrowing money to finance various ventures. Different forms of borrowing carry different tax rates, so you have to keep that in mind while making a financing decision. You also have to think about how long the borrowing term will be. Different lengths of time call for different forms of financing. Lastly, we learned about the time value of money. Basically, less money now can still be worth more than more money a long time from now. All though I don’t intend on going into the finance industry, I think I can definitely use some of these tools in my life. I intend on investing in the stock market, so these ratios and other tools I have learned about will help me evaluate which stocks to choose.  Wow that was a long paragraph. And it probably bored a lot of readers. Sorry about that. Finance isn’t for everyone.

            Next, I took a Microsoft Excel class this semester. As it turns out, Excel can do a lot of things other than simple pie charts (as an elementary, middle, and high school student, that was pretty much all I ever did in Excel). One of the more important things it can do is sort through a ton of data and retrieve the stuff that you want. For example, if you have a table of a thousand different products, but your only looking for the ones from a specific factory or whatever, you can use filters to find them easily. It’s a lot easier than reading through a ton of data one line at a time. I will probably be dealing with a bunch of data in my job, so I will be able to use this tool to search through the data quickly.

            Ok I think that’s all for now. I’ve got more coming, though. I hope I didn’t bore anyone with some of this technical verbiage. Excel and finance can be kind of dry sometimes.

Last Conversation Partner Meeting

            Time to write about my last meeting with my conversation partner, Guilherme. Turns out I’m not as excited to be done with this assignment than I thought I would be. It has been fun meeting with Guilherme over the past month or two. I think the best part about meeting with Guilherme is that he always had a smile on his face. He was just in a good mood every time, which made the meetings a lot more enjoyable. I hope that someday I have that same effect on people.

            So this Wednesday, which was actually the last day of class for the semester for regular students, we met at Dutch’s, a really good burger joint right next to campus. Guilherme had never been there before, so I thought it would be cool for us to meet there for our last meeting. I think Dutch’s has some of the best burgers around, but I haven’t been able to go there a whole lot this semester because it’s kind of expensive.

            I got there a little before Guilherme, so I went ahead and ordered. I’m a slow eater anyways, so it was probably better that I got my food first. Guilherme got there a few minutes later, and we found a table about in the middle of the restaurant. Dutch’s is unique because it looks like an old restaurant, with concrete floors, old, wooden tables and benches, and painted wood paneling, but it’s actually pretty new. I think Dutch’s was first opened around 2007 or 2008.

            When we sat down, we talked about what we did over Thanksgiving. I stayed with my grandparents in Lake Worth, Texas. Their house is pretty close to TCU, so I go there every now and then on the weekend. Anyways, I stayed with them and then went to my aunt’s house for Thanksgiving dinner. My aunt and uncle just built a new house out in the country and wanted to show it off. Meanwhile, Guilherme traveled all over Texas. I don’t remember all the towns he mentioned, but he was all over the state this past Thanksgiving weekend.

            Then we talked about our plans for Christmas break. Guilherme is going to stay in Texas instead of going back home to Brazil. I think he’s going to stay with some friends over the break. As for me, I’m going back home to Arkansas. I’ll probably stay there for the entire break. Sometimes my family tries to come down to Fort Worth for Christmas, but they won’t this year because they made it down here for Thanksgiving.

            We also talked about what Guilherme’s plans are now that he is done with the Intensive English Program at TCU. He is going to study hard for the GMAT and hopefully pass it sometime in the spring so he can get into a graduate business school in the fall. He still hopes to get into TCU’s MBA program.

            That was just about all we had time to discuss. I had class later that day and needed to prepare for it. I have really enjoyed meeting with Guilherme this year. It has been fun to get to know someone from such a different background than my own. This has definitely been an interesting experience, and I’m glad I got to do it.

Another Reflection Blog

Here comes another class reflection post. As a junior, I am finally starting to take classes that are directly related to my major. Going to a liberal arts college is cool and all, but I’m not a big fan of history. Or math. Or any of the sciences. But I do like business. Now that I’ve completed just about all of my Gen. Ed. Requirements, I can focus on my classes in the business school. I may have mentioned this in an earlier blog post, but I’m a Supply Chain and Finance double major in the business school at TCU.

            If you’re not familiar with supply chain, it’s basically the management of the flow of goods, money, and information between businesses. The goal is to make this flow as efficient, fast, and cheap as possible. This semester, I am taking a supply chain class called Systems Planning and Process Analysis. It’s a boring title, I know. But it has taught me a lot of things that I will need to know when I move into the work force.

            Anyways, in the beginning of the class we talked about bottlenecks in a business process. A bottleneck is a step in a process that is slower than all the others, like a particularly slow machine in a manufacturing plant. To avoid a buildup in work-in-process inventory (which increases carrying costs), a good manager has to be able to find these bottleneck and work around it. Basically, you can either slow down the rate inventory coming in to match the output of the machine, or you can find a way to increase the output of the machine. Either way, it has to be dealt with.

            To apply this to real life, I like to think of really tough situations, or homework assignments, or projects, or whatever as bottlenecks. This might sound cheesy, but you need to identify the bottlenecks in your life and manage them. One way to do this is to take care of the bottleneck, or homework assignment, first. In a manufacturing process, if it is possible to do so, putting the bottleneck machine at the beginning of the process will prevent an inventory buildup. Likewise, getting that homework or whatever taken care of before the other stuff will be a big relief and will allow you to focus on the other stuff.

            Actually, this principle of doing the hardest thing first was something I was taught a long time ago. It was at a leadership conference type thing. They called it “eating the big frog first.” Don’t ask why. As a TCU student aka a “horned frog” I find the term borderline offensive. Ok not really. Anyways, this advice comes from multiple sources, so it can’t be bad, right?

            We learned a lot of other stuff in that class, too. We learned all about different processes and methods to develop a system. Unfortunately, not a whole lot of it translates into life lessons (or maybe I’m just not trying hard enough). Ok, here’s one. When designing a system, one of the first things you have to do is “define the scope” of the project. Basically, you need to know exactly what you want the final product to look like. I think this is a lot like other projects in life. You need to know what you want the end product to look like before you start working on it. For example, who starts remodeling their kitchen without an idea of what they want it to look like? Yeah, there may be some changes along the way, but you should know what the basics are before jumping into a huge project like that.

            Ok, that’s all for now. Bye bye!