A Bette rYou

Hey everyone! I decided to put this song on my blog so I hope you enjoy it! I will be writing a lot more music soon. Let me know what You think! 

Important People

This Post is about the people who have made a serious impact in my life. There are a select few whom I would say have made a direct change for the better in my life. And this is for them in no particular order.

Rylan Swank- Even though we have only known each other for less than 4 months, which is crazy, I consider you one of my best friends. You make me want to be better with everything in my life that is important. And on that note, you help me realize what is important in life. Faith, Family, Fraternity, Friends. lol. I know that we will push each other for the next few years in a healthy little rivalry lol whether we state it or not. You challenge me as a musician, which is why I am learning guitar haha. And I love your relationship with God and being around you has helped my relationship with God and I love where it is going. Thanks for being so awesome man.

Corey Meyer- Well, Father...I am glad that you are my father and will be there for me for the rest of my life. We have a whole lot in common. Theres a few of us that I know will rock Culver-Stockton and will continue to change people throughout our lives. You are so inspirational and are the epitome of who I want to be like when I grow up. You are an awesome brother and an even better friend. I am excited about the next year and a half with you in the house!

Tyler Whiteman- Dude. You are awesome. I remember when we met for the first time when the Country Show at Six Flags was sitting out/protesting or whatever and I, or you, didn't want to be a part of it. so we went outside and just messed around with the guests. Then we had frightfest together and that is where our friendship blossomed. You are one of my best friends too. You are such a motivation and you have such great talent. I know that You will go far in life in whatever you decide to do. and I know we will continue to be best buds until the end. We'll make it an annual trip to Branson or at least a trip. lol. Love you man. Thanks for everything.

Christy Wilson- Mom, You have always been there for me and you have shown me what Family means. The way in which you call your sister and your Dad every single day have shown me what life should be like. You have always been there to support my dreams and aspirations in whatever I do. Football? Sure. Singing? Sure. Graduating Early? Go ahead. lol. I love that about you and i love you. Thank you for all you have done for me.

Philip Wilson- Dad. I know I dont tell you this enough because I dont see you a whole lot. But I love you so much. You are such a great father whether you think so or not. You work a couple jobs to bring home the bacon and the passion in which you do everything is astounding. Your are a great father. And as lame as it sounds, I am crying writing this because I know I dont tell you I love you enough. So.. I love you. Thank you for the support you've shown me throughout the years. You are a great person. Dont let anyone ever tell you differently. I love you dad.

Thank you all for everything you have done in my life. You are all amazing. And to all the other Amazing people out there, I love you all. There are so many more people I could write about but I think my laptop would explode. Haha. So Thank you. :)

A Mid-Winters Afternoon Daydream

Snow. It is a beautiful thing. Majestic, pure, white, and peaceful. Seems like God's work at his finest. It is always nice to look outside your window in your hot room and stare at this beautiful thing without the interference known as the cold. I used to love Winter. I used to love everything about it. But after coming to Cold Culver Stockton I realized that I couldn't deal with it for that long. I realized that I do not like Winter at all. The only thing I like about the season is two things, Christmas and the scene. When I say scene, I mean the look of Winter. Not the feel. Cold stinks. But dead trees and snow are amazing. And thats about it. Especially when you are single. Because I know that there is nothing better than being able to cuddle up and watch a good movie in a warm room with a warm relationship. Nothing is better. But when you are single, the warmth of the room dies down and even if there are ten people in the room watching LOST, you still feel alone. The only person right by your side the whole time is God. And Jack Sheppard. When I woke up this morning to go to Delta Upsilon's Initiation, the weather was my favorite weather. A brisk, damp mist where you can smell the rain that has previously fallen and you can feel the mist and cold pulling on the inside of your nose. Chicago. My dream city. I know it is cold but the city is amazing and the weather is "clean" if that makes sense. I love it. And I can't wait for summer.

My Mood Tonight. Stream of Consciousness.

So it is Friday night. Almost everyone in Canton is at OC's Christmas Party and me, Rylan, David Lee, and Eric are sitting in my room just sitting on Facebook and debating on watching a movie. It is hot in this room. Whenever it is hot in a room, I get edgy. I don't like being in this kind of mood. People are talking. But I don't listen. I write. Or I try to. Its been a long day. Scratch that, its been a long night. People coming in and out of the room, yelling, talking about things that don't matter, bad planning for hanging out with people, etc. What a great Friday night huh? What do i need to be doing? Anything but just sitting here. I need to be at least watching a movie, listening to music, having real conversation. Am I going to? Probably not. But I think this is one of the nights that I need to be alone, outside, reading, in a dark room, something. Anything. I can't wait for break, where I can wake up, work out, play piano and guitar all day, and then go to sleep. It will be amazing. But will I miss anyone? A select few. And they know who they are. But there I go again, making music and God my number one priorities. Which I am perfectly fine with. Would I rather be alone and have music? Yes. Because with music, you are not alone. You can change people with your music. And right now, it seems like tonight would be perfect. This writing thing does help. I recommend trying if you haven't already. God Bless.

Music

Why should people appreciate music? This question was asked to me by my brother Rylan Swank. Since i am going to be a music teacher I think it is imperative that I show what I think music means to me and what it should mean to the world and why people should appreciate it.
Music is not just a form of expression. Music is a way of life for many people across the world. For me as well. I have grown up with music as a vital part of my entire life. Music changes my outlook on life. Like it can change yours. Music can help you understand what other people from different cultures, generations, and countries are going through. People can show through song and music the feelings that are trapped inside of them where no other form of expression can express it.
Music can also be used to express your own feelings. More often that not, people use other's music to "vent" their feelings, whether those feelings are for good or bad. and Music doesn't necessarily mean it has to be with lyrics. Some of the most moving pieces of music I know are instrumental. And Another way is to write music. I love writing music and it makes me happy because i can show my true feelings for something or someone.
Music is a way of life for everyone and I suggest listening to as much music as you can while you can! because you just may learn that you actually don't hate country music, or that classical music calms you down after a long day, and that music is what you are and can define what you believe.
So keep listening, keep playing, and keep writing. :). Let music be who you are.  Music= life=music. :)

Culver-Stockton College(Why does it lose students?)

So I know I haven't posted anything in a while. And it was bothering me. But now that I actually have a little bit more time on my hands because shows are done at Six Flags, I can get back to writing. This post is going to be about why Culver-Stockton loses a lot of students. The retention rates at Culver are not very good. And I believe there are definitely a few options when it comes to fixing this problem. I will divulge into some of these. But there is one solution that I think could help this college extremely. And I know this will make many people mad. But this blog is for my beliefs, not yours.

So everyone knows that Culver Stockton's Athletics are not the greatest. And thats fine. I have many friends in the Athletic department and I am NOT trying to put them down by any means. But the problem is that athletes come here expecting to do great things, (and why not?). But what they have to realize is that it takes a long time to rebuild. This holds true to not only sports teams but for any organization looking to restructure. You can't just add a few new "players" or push a button and expect things to just happen. So when athletes come here and are mad that they only win one game, (which for football was the first win since 07.) So the athletes need to be smarter about their choices when almost half of the freshman team is leaving due to reasons like previously stated. In all honesty, I don't think Culver-Stockton should have a football team. If you were to take out Football, retention rates would be much more positive for freshman, and a lot of money would not be wasted. I agree, football gives people the chance for the college experience with scholarships and such. So do many other fields. And you are not going to play professional football, statistically speaking, so find out what you are actually going to do in life! The money being wasted on our football team needs to be saved or put into another department, whether that be English, Science, Business, Fine Arts, or Math. There were a few colleges where I was looking that didn't have a football team. One example of this was Drury University in Springfield, Missouri. They did not have a football team, and for good reason I believe. This gave the opportunity to have more money available for scholarships in other programs or fields of study. Drury's campus is a bit larger than Culver's, but Drury was smart enough to say, "We have very few students as it is, Why have our retention rates go down when athletes see that our sports teams can't do very good against school over ten times our size like Lindenwood. Lindenwood beat Culver Stockton 90-19. Yes, Lindenwood let the score get out of hand, but why not? It was their homecoming and they were playing a school of less than one thousand people. Schools like Lindenwood should be able to have football teams. Culver-Stockton should not. And this is something relatively minor in my mind that could help.

Another thing, is the campus housing. The dorms are either very nice, or not at all. I live in Shannon Hall, which is one of the two Freshman dorms. The dorms over in Wood Hall are much nicer in my opinion. And of course that is the dorm recommended to show on tours, (I am a tour guide.) Wood Hall also has carpeting and air conditioning. Yes, Air Conditioning. I find it odd that a school where the overall cost is a little less than 30 grand, that there are any buildings that do not have air conditioning. There are two off of the top of my head that I know do not have air conditioning, Shannon Hall, and Tau Kappa Epsilon's house. Once people get here, they hear about, and see, how great other people's dorms are in other places. I agree, that you shouldn't be in your dorm that much to begin with, but it would be nice to have more than two plugins in a room for two people. And it would be nice to not have to turn EVERYTHING off in the room to microwave some popcorn or anything. In Shannon, you have to be careful with what you have on at the same time. I have to unplug my refrigerator to microwave anything. It is just some minor things that eventually get to people. Hint to incoming freshman anywhere: ask to see the worst possible place you could be staying if you went to that school.

And now it comes to what I believe is the most essential reason why Culver is losing students. And this is also where I may lose a few acquaintanceships and followers, but it is things like this why I have a blog in the first place. Culver Stockton is a religiously affiliated college. Culver Stockton is affiliated with The Disciples of Christ church. And through this church come a lot of funds for our school. Now, you do not have to be a Disciples of Christ member to be enrolled in the college, which is a good thing, because I am not a member. I am a Christian, as many of you probably already know. I was raised mostly Methodist and have gone to a lot of Non-denominational Christian Churches and even Baptist. I read and live by the Bible and Jesus Christ my Savior and I show no shame in saying that. But going back to my point, I am involved in two religious organizations on campus, this includes DOC which is Disciples on Campus. DOC does some bible studies and some outreach programs in the meantime. And the other organization is CIA which is Christians In Action. This is much like DOC except the main goal in CIA is to come together as a body of believers in Christ. It is to create a community of friends who share similar beliefs. And in these organizations, this is what grinds my gears, there are a total of roughly 20 people involved in both of these organizations, combined. Loosely affiliated and no longer affiliated are two different things. And just because the sign on the front of campus says CULVER-STOCKTON COLLEGE: DISCIPLES OF CHRIST, doesn't mean anything. It is what we do with those words that affiliate us. And if a total of 20 people are in both religious organizations, then something is wrong. As I said earlier, some of our funds come from the DOC church. And if I were in charge of those funds and came to visit Culver-Stockton and saw that this small number of students are actually doing something with the affiliation and with Christ, then I would take away the funding until something was done. After doing the math, the two main religious organizations on campus make up 2.2% of our student body. That is ridiculous. I think Culver Stockton needs a fresh sweep, a clean slate, and a new start. They really need to look at who they are bringing to this Campus, and if that means that the numbers go down, then they go down, they can't get much lower. But I believe that if this Campus turns back to God as their rock instead of Athletics and Finances, then the rest will come after. "Through God, All things are possible"- Matthew 19:26. Culver needs to get back to their "roots." I believe they, we, have strayed from what this college is supposed to be, a Christian College. I have grown closer to Christ and God since coming to Culver, but I am luckily one of the 2.2 %. If God is our Rock, the hard times will soon be past and things like Finances and Athletics will thrive in due time. It's time to make a change at Culver-Stockton. And I am ready to lead it if need be. And this does not mean lets sign a petition and revamp this college, this means I am looking for a large group of people looking to do good things with this campus and redefine what Culver Stockton College is. And I believe this is something that CIA can be. Culver Stockton needs a change, and I believe that we can do it!

Note: CIA meets Mondays at 9 p.m. in the PAC in the Chapel. DOC meets Mondays at 6 p.m. in Johnson 112.





Culver is full of great people who are going to do great things in life, no doubt. And Culver Stockton is a great College full of great opportunities. I have made friends for life that are outside of that 2.2%. And that will always be.

Going Away

So its 2 a.m. and I am sitting in my room thinking about all of the things and people I will miss when I go away to college in a few weeks. And now that I look back, there are a lot of things I have taken for granted and people as well. I am going to miss sticky summer nights playing baseball or football in the backyard until we could barely walk. I am going to miss my mom making sweet tea for those summer nights. I am going to miss my cat KC. I am going to miss all of my friends I have made over the years at Fort Zumwalt and Warrenton. From Fort Zumwalt, I'm going to miss my friend Tyler Wirkus who I would watch Lost with until the sun came up ALL winter break long. And yes, we did watch 5 seasons of Lost during winter break. I'm going to miss Josh Hayden, whom I've known for almost 13 years now. Josh has been my most consistent friend I've ever had.  I'm going to miss Kevin Spies, Danny Clemens, and Chaz McPeek, who together we have enough inside jokes to literally write a book. I'm going to miss Lindsay Smith who made my senior year that much better :). And from Warrenton, Brandon Griggs and Eddie Coleman who have always and will always be there for me. I am also going to miss home cooking. It may not have been the best every night, but it is free and it really was pretty good. I am going to miss my mom the most more than likely. I know that sounds weird and cheesy to say but my mom is amazing. From fighting off cancer like its a mosquito about to bite her, to building middle school choirs half the size of the school. She is an amazing woman and the strongest person I know in my entire life. My dad has always been such an awesome person too. Over the past few years I haven't gotten to see him nearly as much with the "every other weekend" rule. And I hope he knows it isn't because I don't love him nearly as much. I love him with all my heart. He is so persistent and strong. Times can be hard but I know he will support me no matter what I do. I love you Mom and Dad. I'm going to miss Six Flags, even though I am auditioning next summer and for Frightfest as well most likely. Tyler Whiteman, you have been my best friend for the past year now. It seems no matter how sucky our day has been we can always be there for each other to make each other laugh. You are just like me and I want to be like you when I get to be your age. You are an awesome friend. I am also going to miss the peace of mind I had knowing that I would get to have my own room every night. I am probably going to add on to this post soon because I am dog tired and I need sleep. But thank you for reading and I am sorry if this sounded like an Oscar acceptance speech. hahaha