My Past Weekend

 

    With school starting up, I haven't been having as much fun as I did during the summer. I spend a lot of my time on campus or doing assignments at home. I needed a break to have some fun. That is exactly what I get this weekend. Friday was a fun day in which I went out to eat with my friends and hungout with them all night. We ended up going to a party in the next town over, which was really fun. We didn't go to bed until late, but I was still up in time to watch the Notre Dame game Saturday. My brother and I watched college football all day Saturday. I love watching football, so it was really nice to do that and relax during the day. Saturday night was probably the best part of the weekend. My friends and I got a limo to the Thomas Rhett concert in Tinley Park. It was my first country concert, but certainly not my last. I had a great time watching the performance. There was almost 20,000 people there and the energy was crazy. I think we even broke the record for loudest crowds at one of his concerts. I capped off the weekend with a relaxing and fun Sunday. I watched football during the day with my family and at night I played two softball league games. Overall it was a great weekend. Sometimes it's good to take a break from things to just have some fun. 

Filling a Void

 

    Ever since I started college, I felt as if something was missing from my life. At first I did not know what it was, but as I have started my sophomore year I have finally figured it out. I miss playing the sports that I love. I played sports all of my life, and it was something that I was very passionate about. I loved competing everyday and sports were also just very fun to me. I think that sports allowed me to put all of my problems to the side and just go out there and enjoy myself. Another thing that I miss about playing is being with my teammates. I played baseball and basketball, so I had a good group of guys to be around all the time. Some of my greatest friendships were made from the sports teams that I was on. Sports were a huge part of my life.

    When I first stopped playing last year, I constantly felt like I was doing nothing with my life. I really didn't know what to do with myself. I felt like I was doing school and only school. It was very hard for me to accept the fact that I was done playing. However, this year I have been doing things to help fill the void. I try to play as much as possible. I go to the YMCA to play basketball and I also joined a softball league with some of my friends. It's not the same as being on a real team and traveling to tournaments, but it has definitely made things better. 

Documentary Project

 

    I was a little nervous coming into class today because I had fallen behind on my paper. I went out of town Friday trough Sunday and did not work on the paper like I thought I was going to. I barely had my summary done and I was a little confused on where the analysis was going to fall into place. I also thought that we were going to be peer reviewing today, and I was not ready for that. However, after class I realized I had nothing to worry about and was very relieved.

    I found the class today very helpful. Specifically when Dr. Kyburz went over the structure of our paper and demonstrated how to do a RAD. I was confused on how to set up the paper, but after her explaining the structure I knew what I was going to do. Seeing the process that went into the RAD was also beneficial to me because I saw what needed to be done to analyze a scene properly. Lastly, Dr. Kyburz answered a good amount of questions of mine that made me feel better about this project. I encourage you guys to ask questions if you have any!

A Little Bit About Me

 

    I realized that I had not made a post about who I am as a person and felt that I should tell you guys a little bit about myself. So here it goes. I am 19 years old and am currently a finance major at Purdue Northwest. I spent my Freshman year at Purdue Lafayette, but I did not have the year I expected to have, so I decided it was best to transfer home. Before college, I attended Hanover Central High School where I played basketball and made a lot of great friendships. I genuinely loved High School and made a lot of great memories there. 

    Outside of school, I like to hangout with friends and play or watch sports. I try to get out of the house and play basketball or softball a few times a week. I think it is a really fun way to stay busy and also helps keep me in shape. I also enjoy watching movies. I have been watching a lot of movies ever since this school year started. One last thing that I enjoy doing outside of school is going out on the lake. My friend has a boat and jetski and we usually spend every Sunday out there. 

    As for my family, I grew up in a house of 4 in St. John, Indiana. I still live in St. John, just moved a few blocks over. I have one older brother who is a senior here at Purdue Northwest. He and I are very close, and I appreciate all that he has done for me. Majority of the rest of my family lives here in St. John and I am very close with them. We try to get together for family dinners once a week, which is something that I enjoy. Family is very important to me, so having them all in my life is extremely nice. 

The Tillman Story

 

The documentary I chose was The Tillman Story. It was a great film and I am glad that I picked to watch it. One scene that stuck out to me was the scene where they explained the death of Pat. There was a lot of controversy of the death of Tillman and this scene finally cleared it up. The scene showed how he and his other squad members had split up and how he was killed by friendly fire. It did a great job of mapping out how the event went down. It almost felt like I was there watching it go down. The scene also included family members and fellow soldiers giving their perspective on what happened. It was a very interesting scene as well as emotional. Seeing the family members and soldiers talk about what happened was very saddening. The scene made me relieved and also emotional. I was relieved because the truth had finally come out, but it was emotional to see the family members and other soldiers talk about Pat's death. 

I was very surprised to see the military and government try to cover up the death of Pat Tillman. I think that I was so surprised because these men sacrifice their lives for our country and you would think we owe it to their families to tell the truth. However, the film showed that was not the case. I was also surprised to see Pat leave the NFL to join the army, but that just goes to show the kind of person he is. 

After watching the film, a few questions popped up. One of them being, what else does the government/military lie about or cover up? The film showed that things are not always what they seem. Another question that popped up was what were those men thinking firing at their own soldiers? My feelings of anger also stayed with me after watching the film. I was so mad for the Tillman family because they were being lied to about their son's death. I also had feelings of respect for Pat Tillman. 

I think that we should avoid research in our summaries because it limits us on how we can interpret the film. If you go into the film with someone telling you what it is about, then that is the only way you are going to think about it. I also think that doing research before will cause you to be less engaged because you feel like you already have a proper understanding of what is going to happen. Research forces us to have tunnel vision. 

If you guys think you might enjoy this film, here is a link to the trailer to explain more:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daccIQzKVkg