Thursday, September 22, 2011

How I Separate the Real Friends From the Fake Ones...

As I look at the gadgets on my desktop, I’m happier than ever to see September flying by so quickly. The month of September for me and I imagine many other students is one that I dread. One of the reasons I dislike this month so much is the fact you have to adapt back to going to school, doing homework again and getting used to the all new stress of your new level of school. I imagine this is the reason that I share with kids all around the world.

What separates me from the rest of those kids most of the time is that there is another thing I have to deal with at the beginning of each school year—Friends that have moved. For those of you who do not know me well, I go to a different type of school where people are constantly moving and going because of their parent’s jobs.

I started this school year not knowing who I’ll be hanging out with in the next couple weeks, whether it be someone completely new to the school, someone who already goes to the school that I just haven’t made an effort until now to know or maybe, maybe if I’m feeling down, I’ll exclude myself.

That is the feeling that often invades me but thanks to that small group of people who don’t go anywhere for at least another year, exclusion is not an option.

I’m not going to drown you in the downsides of moving friends but rather tell you what I’ve learned from it all:
Sometimes friends moving is good because it allows you to not only reach out and give some else the pleasure of a new friend but also you find out whether or not your friend who moved is really a friend. With technology these days, there is no excuse for people not to keep in touch with you.

What I’ve found is that they’re lot of people who you thought were your friends but really just were looking for someone to hangout with because there was nothing better and that can be sad, but the ones that make an effort to keep in touch with you, those are the real friends and those real friends make all the difference.

So for those of you who live somewhat normal lives (where people don’t move all the time), next time a friend moves first decide if this friendship is worth your time. If you want to try, then reach out. Now you’ve done your part, all is left is to see what happens. If you’re lucky you’ll have changed two lives for the better.

In the words of an anonymous philosopher, “Fake friends are for a while, real friends are for life.”

Thursday, September 15, 2011

Hiking in the Alps of Austria

I've decided to base this first post not  as an explanation for what I'm going to write about on this blog simply because that is too much of a cliche' and life is too short for us to be the same. So instead of that I will start this post as I would any post, so enjoy...


Is it normal for a 14 year old boy to spend half a week hiking and swimming in the alps of Austria with his entire grade simply to just get to know each other? I guess not really but hey I'm not really the typical guy with the typical life am I? :)

Just the beginning of the hike!
Even so, I try my best to take advantage of these experiences and I can say with a full heart that I've never been on a hike like the one we went on -- anywhere. I'm a boy scout so I know hikes and I have to say there is something rather majestic about hiking above the tree line in the alps of Austria. I've attached some pictures but to be honest they don't truly capture the depth of the beauty of this hike. All I can say is that when I have those days in Vienna where I miss America all I have to do is think back to those glorious mountains, the sheep bahhing and the small path winding around and around the deep never ending valley to fix up my mood.

Now don't get me wrong, the hike wasn't all just a beautiful and mesmerizing journey through nature :). First I had to convince my Austrian friends that Americans actually know a thing or two about hiking and mountains, and that we aren't all fat and stupid. Like I haven't had that debate before...

Then towards the end as we got low again we were walking on a road full of construction and I became so exhausted that  I stuck my thumb out to a giant tractor and the driver (not expecting him to stop) actually stopped and looked out the window. With a grin he shouted out to me in German, "Wo muesst du gehen?" (In English: "Where you want to go?")

"Schuldigund aber dein Tractor ist zu klein fur mich!" (Sorry but your tractor is too small for me!"  I shouted back over his massive roaring engine. He laughed and drove on. Wow I didn't expect that to him :).

All in all it was a great trip! Check out the pictures below! By the way the photos are courtesy of my friend's Lauren D.F. and Danielle D.

Incredible Alpine Waterfall!
The Austrian Flag being used as a trail marker.
What a Hike!