Random Thoughts with Will

     As 2018 comes to a close and 2019 quickly approaches (side note: next year is the last year of the 2010s - how crazy is that?) , I thought it best to look back on the year that was 2018 and reflect. 2017 ended with me hanging out at Dunkin' Donuts and drinking coffee...and 2018 is wrapping up with me hanging out at Dunkin' Donuts and drinking coffee. And if you've read my blog long enough, you know that I made a similar joke to that last year. Nonetheless, here are the life lessons learned this year: Life comes at you fast: Don't you wish there were a way to schedule when things would happen? That when multiple events pop up at once and require your attention, that you could postpone some of them? I found myself wishing this multiple times this year. In January, I took a quick trip to Kansas and as I was waiting for my flight to Wichita to take off, I learned of news from a friend that created sudden uncertainty for me and our other friends. It didn't help th...

     Over the past few months, I've found myself coming across songs new to me that I keep playing over and over again. That's something that I  tend to do - find a song I like and keep playing it over. At one point, this was "I'm Blue" by Eiffel 65 and more recently it was songs from La La Land . Now though, the song "How You Live" by Point of Grace has been at the top of the list.      The song "How You Live" is about, well, the importance of how we live. A lot of the lyrics talk about doing small things like using good dishes, seeing our folks more than just Thanksgiving and Christmas, or going to ball games. As someone who's a fan of the small things in life, it probably comes as no surprise that I enjoy this song. The chorus talks about take chance, a sentiment the legendary teacher Ms. Frizzle would love. Her catchphrase, of course, was "Take chances, make mistakes, and get messy". The chorus then goes on to say that when ...

     Last year, after rebooting the blog, my first post centered around Thanksgiving, about how it is often that forgotten holiday tucked in between Halloween and Christmas. Thanksgiving is a great holiday in its own right - food, family, fall weather, football, and...giving thanks, of course! It's pretty cool that there is a holiday carved out to giving thanks (pun intended).      When you're a kid, odds are you were always told to say "please" and "thank you". And if you grew up in the south, you were also taught to say "yes sir/no sir" and "yes ma'am/no ma'am". The thing about "thanks" and "thank you" is that they get said and used so much, I think we sometimes forget the importance of them. Saying "thanks'" or "thank you" becomes so routine that it's probably a good thing that we have a holiday to remind ourselves of the importance of giving thanks. Gratitude goes a long way - ...

     This upcoming week will be a cool personal milestone for me: it will mark the 1-year anniversary of  resurrecting this blog! It all started on a Thursday afternoon at work when I was board and was trying to find things to do on the side. When having a blog came to mind, I was reminded that I made one my freshman year of high school, where I did a few posts about song parodies and some college football predictions. That blog was called "Bringing the Wheat". Needless to say, this blog is a lot different than it was 9 years ago (wow!) - then again, so am I.      With all of that in mind, I thought that I would do a special post about some random stories I've had in the past. Another way to put it: stuff that belongs in this blog. After all, if you're going to have a blog with the word "Random" in the title, shouldn't you at least do something like have some random, untold stories in it? Without further ado, here you go: Wheat Goodfellow ...

     Ever since the pilot of Spongebob Squarepants , Spongebob's eternally optimistic attitude can best be described by his catchphrase: "I'm ready". Whether Spongebob is applying for a job at the Krusty Krab or about to take his boating exam for the umpteenth time, he confidently shouts "I'm ready" a few times. As it turns out, Spongebob was ready for the job at the Krusty Krab - but to this day, he's still never fully ready for that boating exam, no matter how many times he says "I'm ready".      Sometimes in life, we may say or believe that we're ready for something...only to realize that we weren't ready. We may have been overconfident, we may have underestimated what was in store, we may not have fully understood what was in store, or there simply was no way to fully be ready. As a nod to old Nationwide commercials (pre-Peyton Manning and Brad Paisely, of course), life comes at you fast. Life doesn't wait until you...

     When I was in high school, I ran cross country all four years. One year, at the end of practice, we were talking about t-shirt ideas for our team. One idea that our coach suggested was "'Walk' is a four-letter word".  We didn't fully understand it in the moment, but his rationale was that it was a bad word like other four-letter words. You know, in a sport that's about running, walking is a bad thing.      In cross country, walking is the last thing that you want do during a race. However, outside of the cross country course, walking isn't so bad. Over the years, walking is something that I've come to really enjoy. There's just something simple yet relaxing about walking. It's a way to get in some exercise, but also a way to take in the sights and sounds of the area. Walking provides that peaceful, soothing feeling that allows one to get lost in one's thoughts. Come to think of it, I've also found walking to be a good stress-reli...

     When most people hear the name "Ringo Starr", the first thing that comes to mind (if they know who that is) is that he was the drummer for The Beatles. For me, the first thing that comes to mind is that he was the first narrator of Thomas the Tank Engine & Friends and even starred (no pun intended) as Mr. Conductor on the PBS show Shining Time Station at one point, a role that later went on to...George Carlin. That's pretty incredible - the first two narrators for a little kid's show were a member of the Beatles and a comedian most famous for 7 words that can't  be said on television, let alone a little kid's show. But I digress...      Going back to Ringo Starr the drummer, while John Lennon and Paul McCartney did most of the singing for the Beatles, there are a few songs that Starr was the lead vocals on. One of those songs "With A Little Help from My Friends". The title explains the song pretty well - Ringo sings about how he gets by wi...

     There's an old saying that "You win some, you lose some". Truth is, not all "wins" and "losses" are created equal. Sometimes, one win be a little more sweeter than another or one loss will sting a little more than another. For instance, winning the lottery and winning a key chain are both wins, but most people would prefer winning the former. Likewise, losing a stapler and losing a phone are both losses, but losing a phone hurts a lot more than losing a stapler.      Two weeks ago, I went up to Wisconsin and got to do something that I always wanted to do: watched the Wisconsin Badgers and Green Bay Packers play. Going in to the Badgers game, I was pretty pumped. They were coming off of a 13-win season, were ranked in the Top 10 in the polls, and were considered a College Football Playoff contender. I arrived in Madison that morning and had the fun of exploring the campus and pumped for the game, one that I fully expected them to win.     ...

     Last weekend, I went up to Wisconsin for a few days. I got to cross two big items off my bucket list - going to a Wisconsin Badgers game at Camp Randall (not to mentioning jumping around) and going to a Green Bay Packers game at Lambeau Field. While those were the two main reasons for the trip, there was one other thing that I ended up doing that I really enjoyed: grocery shopping.      Last fall, my parents went to Wisconsin for a wedding. While there, they came across a grocery store named Woodman's, a supermarket chain with locations in Wisconsin and Illinois. Two things that parents mentioned to me about Woodman's was the sheer size of it and the incredible amount of selection in the store. When I checked it out this past Sunday night, it turns out they were right on both counts - and then some!      Going to Woodman's truly was quite the experience. Never in my life had I seen such a wide selection of ice cream, frozen pizzas, s...

     A while back on the Internet, I stumbled across a quote that was a stunning realization: that a different version of ourselves exists in the minds of everyone that knows us. It's really amazing to think about - we encounter people at different times in our lives. Our high school friends, college friends, coworkers, family members, and so on are all going to have a different version of who we are in their minds. And this doesn't even take in to account one other person's perspective: our own. The way that we view ourselves can be completely different from the way others view us.      They say that everybody's a critic (and sites like Yelp make that possible), and sometimes our own worst critic is actually ourselves. Our critical selves can create this completely distorted image of ourselves in our minds. We pick up on flaws or insecurities that others miss or don't really see - and then wonder how they could possibly miss them. They become all we ca...

     If you were Christian kid that grew up in the 1990s/early 2000s, odds are you're familiar with VeggieTales , an animated series where fruits and vegetables teach kids stories and values from the Bible (albeit in a more fun, children's themed way). One of the highlights of any VeggieTales  video was the "Silly Songs with Larry" segment, the part of the show where Larry comes out and sings a silly song. My favorite "Silly Song" just might be "The Pirates Who Don't Do Anything", a song where Larry, Pa Grape, and Mr. Lunt are dressed up as pirates and sing about how they've never been to Boston in the fall -- and how they don't do anything. For those who haven't seen VeggieTales , I promise it makes more sense than talking fruits and vegetables dressing up as pirates and singing about doing nothing.      When the word "nothing" is used, it normally comes with a negative connotation. Nothing means...well, nothing. No t...

     It's that time of year again. Summer is starting to wind down (except in places like Texas, where it stays hot until November) and school is getting ready to start back up. Well, except in Virginia - Richmond kids still have until the day after Labor Day before school starts. Growing up, August was always a "sad" month for me in the sense that it meant summer was winding down, school was on the horizon, and the novelty/fun of summer has long passed and it's just plain hot. Admittedly, it's a little more enjoyable now that I don't have to go back to school anymore. In some ways, it's still a weird feeling that I don't - and I definitely have never had bad dreams that involve taking a test or being in classes since graduating.      Before I go any further in writing about school, I need to get this on the record: School. Is. Important. This post is by no means to bash school and say that it's not important - quite the opposite! School is imp...

     During the Golden State Warriors' NBA championship run in 2015, there was a slogan that became a rallying cry for the team and fans alike: strength in numbers. Thousands of fans would wear "Strength in Numbers" t-shirts for home playoff games. It is said that Steve Kerr, Golden State's coach, came up with the slogan. Golden State did find strength in numbers - a deep roster with Klay Thompson, Draymond Green, Andre Iguodala, a raucous home crowd, and of course MVP Stephen Curry that won the NBA Finals in 2015 (and has since added Kevin Durant and won 2 more titles). Then again, when Golden State used that same rallying cry in 2016, it turned out that "Strength in LeBron James" was slightly stronger.      There's a lot of truth to the idea of "strength in numbers" - they say that many hands make light work. Tasks that may seem daunting alone aren't so bad when others are there to help . There's even Gestalt psychology, which sug...