Random Thoughts with Will

     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...