How a lifelong BYU fan now loves the University of Utah.

I grew up as a Brigham Young University fan.  I avidly watched BYU sports. I owned BYU hats, and shirts.  My favorite color has always been blue; I've owned few red shirts. Three of my immediate family members, and many extended relatives, graduated from BYU.  In short, through childhood experiences, and family association I clearly should prefer BYU over it's "rival" the University of Utah.  Up to this month, that has always been the case.

On March 05, 2014 that preference changed; dramatically and permanently. That was the day that I received a notice from the University of Utah Nurse Practitioner Program.

"Congratulations! You have been admitted for graduate study at the University of Utah for Fall 2014 in the program of Nursing Practice DNP."

Those who are close to me recognize how long I've been working towards becoming a Family Nurse Practitioner.  I've had several detours along the way, including two bouts with cancer and two separate bachelors degrees.  It was relieving to hear the news that I am going to enter into the final portion of my education. I'm not sure who was more relieved. Myself that I got into my primary choice; or my wife who was relieved that she didn't have to deal with a husband stressing over more applications.

After the euphoria of receiving news of my admittance it wasn't long until I realized that I could no longer dislike the Utes. In fact, I should probably start actively cheering for them. This was no small paradigm switch. Imagine my surprise when I discovered that my father also underwent a paradigm switch of his own. 

My father unveiling a brand new Utah shirt

This seems slightly unfamiliar

His paradigm switch could only go so far.  He thought about but just could not convince himself to buy a shirt with the full Utah red.  A black shirt with "Utah" and the Ute logo was as far as he could go. His personal qualms did not stop at buying matching shirts for my wife and baby.

 It still feels slightly weird to say this, but it has to be said..

GO UTES!

Dare To Share

For one of my nursing classes I'm reading a book called Dare to share. It'd actually a book about presenting. It seems to have a lot of psychological components in it.

For example. The first couple chapters involved naming and drawing your inner critic, reciting a creativity mantra, and setting time regularly for an artists date.

One part also discussed the benefits of free writing. In free writing you respond to a question in under two minutes. The book claimed that this is the best way to improve writing ability.

It did make me think. I enjoy writing and even journaling. I don't do it regularly because I usually think i need to write a novel. Writing a novel takes time.

Maybe instead I should think of writing or journaling more as a series of small two minute thoughts. Especially since I have a smart phone that would be able to facilitate the writing fairly easily.