Random Thoughts with Will

     This probably comes as a no surprise to no one, but I'm a fan of Spongebob Squarepants . More specifically, I'll watch just about any episode from the first 3 seasons (the ones that came out before the first Spongebob  movie). There's one early episode where Squidward attempts to hide from Spongebob and Patrick, but ends up getting stuck in a freezer for 2,000 years. When Squidward is thawed out by Spongetron (a future Spongebob) and learns that it's been 2,000 years, he freaks out and just keeps saying "future".       While we may never find ourselves trapped in a freezer for 2,000 years, I think just about anyone can identify with Squidward in regards to freaking out about the future. A common question people ask others is "Where do you see yourself in (X) years?" Oftentimes, that number is 5 or 10 years, but the amount of time doesn't matter too much. When we start thinking about our future, all sorts of agonizing questions pop up. Wh...

     When I was a student at Baylor, I had the privilege of going to the greatest coffee shop this side of the Mississippi River: Common Grounds. Okay, that statement may have been a bit of a hyperbole, but CG and its 8th Street Blend and specialty drinks will always hold a special place in my heart. Naturally, when I moved to Houston, I wanted to find the "Common Grounds of Houston" and check out as many coffee shops as I could. Thanks to suggestions from a Baylor friend from the Houston area, I found myself exploring Houston one coffee shop at a time on the weekends. When I found myself planning potential trips, I looked around to see what were the "best" coffee shops in the area. I also found myself searching the Internet to see the best coffee shops across the country in general. And during this time, one thought dawned on me: there's always going to be another coffee shop.      I could go to all of the coffee shops in Houston ranked on someone's ...

     Growing up, my family had this de facto tradition in the early 2000s of watching NFL Primetime  on Sunday Nights on ESPN. Hosted by Chris Berman and Tom Jackson, the show would provide highlights and analysis of the day's games. Each game would get a 2-3 minute highlight reel with the big plays and pivotal moments in the game. There was also some really awesome music that went with the highlights, but that's beside the point.      If our lives were to be a "highlight reel," odds are that it would showcase the "big" or "pivotal" moments in our lives. These moments may include graduations, starting college, starting a job, making friends, vacations, getting married, children being born, and so on. Unfortunately though, Chris Berman and Tom Jackson aren't there to provide witty commentary and analysis and there's no sweet background music, either. But nonetheless, our "highlight reels" would be a snapshot of the best parts o...

     As far as sports in the U.S. go, Super Bowl Sunday is probably the closest thing that there is to a "Sports Holiday," so to speak. Plenty of bets are placed, friendly wagers are made (such as Super Bowl Squares), and plenty of watch parties are hosted. The Super Bowl has become a cultural phenomenon (and the most-watched event in America each year) not just because of the game itself, but also because of the festivities that surround it, such as the unique commercials and halftime show. However, as a sports fan, Super Bowl Sunday is not my favorite day on the sports calendar: my two favorite days of the year on the sports calendar are the first two days of the NCAA Division I Men's Basketball Tournament, colloquially known as "March Madness".      March Madness may be the only annual sporting event in the U.S. that comes close to rivaling the Super Bowl as a cultural phenomenon. Like the Super Bowl, people that normally aren't interested in the sport...

     President Franklin Delano Roosevelt famously said that "the only thing we have to fear is fear itself". In reality, we have all kinds of fears -- public speaking, heights, spiders, death, loneliness, and so on. One fear seems to stand above all the other fears. This fear is one that just about everyone has and one that just about everyone has been impacted by: fear of rejection.       There's just something about rejection that cuts deep. You would think being told "no" (or a form of that) wouldn't hurt so much, yet it does. There's all different kinds of rejection, whether that's getting turned down for a job, not getting in to one's dream school, being told "no" by one's crush, getting cut from a sports team, or anything else in between. No matter what type of rejection it is, that same feeling of sadness and disappointment persists. A lot of times, the act of being told "no" hurts less than what that "no...

    When I was in high school, it was common to hear someone in class say "I lost the game". Right after one person said this, multiple people would then say that they lost the game, too. The thing about this "game" was that it is a game that everyone is playing, even if they didn't know it. However, if one thinks about this game, then one loses the game and has to say "I lost the game". While I have "lost" that particular game plenty of times, I've never been mad or sad about it. However, there is one game that I can't stand (no, it isn't Monopoly). I've never able to win this game, yet I still find myself "playing" it anyway: the Comparison Game.      Truth be told, the Comparison Game isn't a "game" in the way that Monopoly, tag, Duck-Duck-Goose, or Uno are games. It's not even a game in the way that high school game is, either. Still, the effects of playing -- and inevitably losing -- are trem...

     This weekend, the Super Bowl, the biggest American sporting event (and most-watched U.S. telecast year in and year out), will be played. If the Patriots win, countless article will be written about Tom Brady and Bill Belichick's enhanced legacies and record 6 Super Bowl victories. If the Eagles win, countless articles will be written about Nick Foles, a guy who kind of looks like Napoleon Dynamite and Shaggy, admirably filling in for the injured Carson Wentz and leading the Eagles to their first Super Bowl win. Either way, it will be about so much more than winning the Super Bowl. It's about the road and the path taken to get there. A road and path that goes far beyond football.      Whether you're 5-time champion Tom Brady or just a proverbial Average Joe, getting to the top requires facing -- and overcoming -- obstacles. Life has a way of throwing the worst obstacles at us. Some of these obstacles seem darn near impossible and lost causes. Other ...