2015

I hope everyone is excited to begin a great 2015! Even though the world may seem amiss, there is a lot of great innovation everyday from normal people worldwide, and people everyone are being educated faster and more efficiently than ever before.

Seeing the news headlines with sad stories often reminds me of Grima Wormtongue in Lord of The Rings. It is as if someone has taken control of everyone's brains and only thinks of dark depressing news, yet Gandalf could come in and show the light and restore hope in everyone. I would imagine the conversation going something like...

Grima: Police brutality is at an all time high, the government is spying on us, the economy is failing, everyone is going to college but isn't going to get a job.....

A beam of light blasts into the room...
Gandalf the white appears majestically with a deep voice and a giant wizard staff

Gandalf: NIGERIA IS FREE FROM POLIO, POLICE DELIVER TRUCKLOADS OF GROCERIES TO WOMAN WHO STOLE EGGS, THE ECONOMY IS STABILIZING AGAIN, QUALITY OF EDUCATION HAS INCREASED DRAMATICALLY THE PAST FEW YEARS

YOU WILL NOT DAUNT THE HOPES OF MEN, GRIMA WORMTONGUE! AMONGST THE SHROUDS OF BLACK THERE IS STILL GOOD IN THIS WORLD!

End Scene

It's like what Bill Clinton once said...

Follow the trend lines, not the headlines.

Love to hear your thoughts!

-Hayden

Awesome

Barriers of the Universe

Today was a pretty great day to be alive. I don't mean that sarcastically, I do mean that genuinely. I just recently saw The Theory of Everything, an independent film about the life of Stephen Hawking played by Eddie Redmayne (If you have seen Les Miserables from 2012 then you know exactly who I am talking about!). 

Though it is late and I am mostly writing on my blog so that people visiting my website will see that I do regularly post things (aside from Twitter), I have to say it is always great to see life from someone who seems to have nothing and still perseveres to become a legend. I am currently going through finals week at my university, and I am also performing multiple shows a week due to the Holidays. (I say Holidays because I am including New Year's, and I am doing Christmas parties too). I like to tell myself that my life is hard sometimes, so that I can feel like the underdog in a hollywood movie. 

Knowing that a man is almost completely disabled, yet continues to diligently work on his studies is just inspiring. It makes no task seem impossible. I start to get a shrinking feeling, but in a good way. It is a great reminder that I, and many of my colleagues, are not as important as we would like to believe we are. Our lives are not that hard. I am a 20 year old middle class white male in the United States of America during 2014 - Not only this, but I am healthy and educated. I am most definitely in the top 5% of quality of living in the history of the world, and I should be more thankful for it. 

I know things aren't totally perfect. I still need to waste hours of my days studying for exams, and I practice and rehearse my magic relentlessly sometimes with no results, but I can't use these as excuses for not achieving something great.

What's holding you back?

See you soon!

-Hayden