This post is part of my 5th Grade Journal series. Each week in 2016 I share a journal entry written for one of my 5th grade classes, along with any new thoughts and perspectives I may have developed since.

September 9, 1997

What makes my family unique, is that every other week my dad goes to California, for work. This week my dad and mom, are in Alaska. The other day they caught a 13 inch salmon! My mom is coming home late tonight. That’s why my family is a unique family. [Read more…]

This post is part of my 5th Grade Journal series. Each week in 2016 I share a journal entry written for one of my 5th grade classes, along with any new thoughts and perspectives I may have developed since.

September 8, 1997

If I was the president of the United States of America, the new law I would make is, that guns could only sell guns to police men. There is a lot of killing going on, these days, and there shouldn’t be any more. That’s why I would make that a new law. [Read more…]

This post is part of my 5th Grade Journal series. Each week in 2016 I share a journal entry written for one of my 5th grade classes, along with any new thoughts and perspectives I may have developed since.

September 5, 1997

I would wish that people would stop poluting. Many animals have died because of polution in the ocean. It is becoming to dirty for people to swim in! Some turtles mistake plastic bags for jellyfish, and choked, and then died. That is why I think all people should stop poluting. [Read more…]

This is the first post in my 5th Grade Journal series. Each week in 2016 I share a journal entry written for one of my 5th grade classes, along with any new thoughts and perspectives I may have developed since.

 

September 2, 1997

I once had a teacher that was good in several ways. First, she had a scence of humor. Every thing that she would teach us, she would make a joke about it. Second, she was a good teacher. She taut me a lot of things I never used to know. [Read more…]

Over Thanksgiving I was helping my Mom clean out some old boxes when we came across my 5th grade school journal. I’m not exactly sure which class it was for, but apparently I was asked to write a short journal entry each day throughout the school year.

Flipping through the pages was as hilarious and nostalgic as you would expect (who writes in cursive anymore?), but I was struck by how many of the entries sound eerily similar to something I might say today. Granted, it’s written the way a 10 year old version of Bryan would put things, but a surprising number of topics and statements are consistent with how I view the world at 28 years old. [Read more…]

Is it better to be idealistic or pragmatic?

On the one hand, realism gets things done. Nothing can move forward, and no real change can happen, without connecting the dots between ideas and how to manifest them in the world. A foundational skill set grounded in reality is required by anyone hoping to implement ideas of any size, let alone the lofty ideas expressed by the most idealistic among us. Pragmatism is a virtue in this regard, ensuring ideas progress forward towards some attainable goal. [Read more…]

My roommates and I had dinner together on a recent Tuesday night.

No laptops. No cellphones. Just the three of us, sharing our company and a meal we made together.

It had been a while since we sat down together and just talked. Summer plans, traveling, and general life busyness kept us hopping in and out of each other’s lives for the past few months. We’d hang out and have a great time, but it never resulted in the kind of deep interactions that foster meaningful connection among friends.

So we decided to put aside our busy schedules and catch up, distraction-free. [Read more…]