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...