The Old Man and His Best Friend

So there was this old man who was getting up in his years. His wife had passed a few years back, his kids were all grown and gone out in to the world and had their own kids. The only friend the man had left in the world, was his dog. Every day the man would take his dog out for a long laboring walk around the block, and he would spend his time lounging on his porch, just sitting with his best friend. 

One day in the middle of a very hot and humid summer, the man set out to take his best friend for a walk. It was particularly hot on this day, and the man was sweating and soon became very thirsty.  He was crossing the road when he was overcome with heat and lost his balance. Another man who was late for work that morning looked away from the wheel for a split second and the old man soon found himself walking down a very different road. 

His dog was still walking faithfully beside him as the old man walked up to a large golden gate. It was beautifully polished and he could see a beautiful drinking fountain on the other side of the gate. The old man suddenly remembered how thirsty he was and he went up and called out for someone on the other side of the gate. St. Peter came running with a large smile on his face and opened the gate for the old man. 

"Welcome to Heaven!" He said, "You can have and do anything in your wildest dreams! What would you like to do first?"

"Well," the man replied "I'm very thirsty and I would like to have a drink from that fountain!" He started moving towards the fountain when St. Peter stepped in front of him.

"Oh I'm sorry, but you can come in a drink as much as you want, but you can't bring your dog in here. They aren't allowed."

The old man smiled at St. Peter, and said "Then I guess I'll find somewhere else. Thank you very much." and with a gracious nod of the head he turned around and walked out through the golden gates.

The man walked for quite some time. He was getting very thirsty when he came across a second set of gates. These gates were rusted, and covered in vines. There were weeds growing up around it, and he walked up to them and called out as he had before. 

St. Peter came running towards him and opened the gates. The old man looked puzzled.

"Welcome! Come on in! There is a fountain for you to drink from and your friend is most welcome here!" he said

"I don't understand," The old man said "Why wasn't my friend allowed in at the first set of gates, but he is here?"

St. Peter smiled and placed a hand on the man's shoulder. 

"It was a test, someone who would leave his best friend behind doesn't have a pure heart. You understand the value of true friendship, and you shall stay here eternally and in eternal happiness." 

And the man and his best friend did. 

New Years Resolutions 2010!!!!!

So yeah its already the 12th but it took me a while to think about them OKAY!!! 

1. I want to do much better this semester in school. I need to put more focus into it.

2. I want to try and be more organized with everything, my school work, my room, my schedule. I already went out and bought a day planner and I am keeping track of things so thumbs up for that.

3. Improve my grammar and spelling skills. I are English major who fail at these things.

4. Do really well with my new job. I have a huge opportunity with the company I'm with and I really want to take it. 

This one is the most important to me:

5. I want to be a better person. And I mean that in more ways than one. First of all, I want to be happier. A lot of the time I seem happy, and I'm just go with the flow of the group and I'm not really in a great mood. But I want to really make an effort to see the good side of things and focus on the positive in my life. I'm going to make a daily routine of writing down 10 good things that happened to me during the day before I go to bed so that I go to bed in a good mood and I am thinking about the positive things that happened that day.

Another thing I want to work on is being more outgoing. I am some what shy when I meet new people, and then when I get to know them I tend to get out of my shell and open up more. I really want to just be myself around everyone and be outgoing to people I am just meeting. Last night at the party I tried it out and I have to say that it worked out really well. I introduced myself to (hopefully) every person that was at the party and I was friendly and outgoing to every single one. And I was myself. I'm really proud of myself for that and today I am feeling really good about myself, and I'm feeling happier already :D.

Also, I want to stand up for myself more. This comes along with not being shy as well but I have let people walk over me and say things to me that I just let go and I've let people pick on me and I don't do anything about it. Well I'm not going to just let it happen anymore. I'm going to stand up for myself and not be pushed around. Now I know I have to pick my battles, and I'm not going to be getting upset over every little thing, I just want to be a stronger person who isn't going to take crap from people.

Which leads into my next point: I have always been a "follower", but never a leader. I really want to improve on my leadership skills and take more initiative on my own, rather than waiting for others to take the lead. I'm not so sure HOW to go about that as of yet but I'm going to figure it out.



Well thats about it I suppose, I guess those are my 5(or so) resolutions for this year. #5 is kind of a bunch rolled into one category but you get the gist.