Today I Became A Man

What a morning... I woke up at 8 AM, did my devotion and decided that I would mow the lawn which I anticipated would take me about 30-45 minutes. After finishing the front lawn, I proceeded to do the backyard. I got finished maybe 40% of the backyard and the lawn mower dies so I figured it was out of gas. I proceeded to walk to our shed to get some gas to fill up the tank. So after filling it up some, I stopped and plugged the tank back up and attempted to start the mower back up. To my surprise, after three tries, the lawn mower didn't start back up. I looked down and I realized I had put the gas into the oil tank... you would think I would've checked twice before filling but in my defense, the oil symbol is way too similar to a gas symbol in my opinion.

I panicked and immediately thought I broke the mower. I texted my roommate Caleb because he's a handy person and enjoys figuring out to fix things/figuring things out (see our conversation below). He was in Boston with his girlfriend Lauren whale watching this weekend so I was on my own on this one. I pulled out my phone to use the ever trusty Google to look to see if others have made the same mistake as I have. It seems like this is actually a fairly common mistake, of course the first posting I read was from a high school kid who was scared his dad was going to ground him but that's besides the point. So I figured out what I needed to do, empty out the oil tank and refill it with new oil, simple enough right? My initial thought for some reason was Home Depot so I got in my car and off I went. Let me tell you something, Home Depot is a very intimidating place, there are far too many things to look at so I came up with a plan B and went to Wal Mart. Good old Wal Mart would surely not disappoint, low prices and had everything I needed.

Just in case you wanted to know I also stopped by 5 and below to buy candy to reward myself for this adventure.

I got home and emptied out all the oil/gas combo into the pan. I then poured in new oil (yes into the correct tank) and used the stick to measure how much I needed to pour. I put down the oil and went into the house to grab a paper towel. When I came back the oil spilled... are you kidding me? So out of frustration I was like whatever this must be enough. I then filled the gasoline in the CORRECT tank and was excited to see if the lawn mower would turn on. I tried three times and nothing... defeated I dragged the lawn mower back to the shed. Determined that I did everything right, I tried it one more time before placing it back in the shed and IT WORKED!

So I pushed the renewed lawn mower to the backyard and finished the job I set out to do nearly two and a half hours earlier. I had a few thoughts running through my head the whole time, 1) how stupid do you have to be to put gas into an oil tank, 2) I wonder how much this will cost me if I do end up breaking the lawn mower and 3) I hope this all works out and that I make Caleb proud!

I hope this was as exciting for you to read as it was for me to have experienced. I'm hungry and I need a nap now.

Here is the conversation between Caleb and I.

ATTA BOY!

What an awesome 50th post on my blog.

Life of A Second Year PT Student

              We just finished our first week of PT school and it is so different than my experience last year. I cried my last day in Maryland last year, there was so much uncertainty ahead and I was fearful of what was to come. Comparatively, this year I was ok leaving home because I knew exactly what to expect and what needed to be done. God has already blessed me with so much as I miraculously made it through the first year, my first clinical rotation and I felt somewhat prepared to go back to school. I knew I had 9 more months of in class studies followed by 9 months of clinicals and I was ready to be one step closer to that goal of becoming a PT.

            Moving back to NH was a fairly smooth process, it took my roommates and I a while to lock down a place but I'm happy it did take so long because our house is amazing (i'll post pictures next time). Luckily Nick helped me move in which helped a lot and he got a short vacation before he started school which was him basically eating everything in sight. My school actually moved to a new facility in a new city (weird I know) but they did it to provide a better learning environment. The program last year was in Concord, NH and was on the top floor of an office building and honestly there was not much to look at. This year we moved to Manchester, NH and we are on the 3rd floor of the old mill buildings and the new school space is awesome. It feels like a REAL school and overall just a better atmosphere except theres no water fountain... The lab spaces are way bigger and we can fit our entire class of 38 into the lab rooms. The incoming class has 50 students because the school can now accommodate that many students.

           It was interesting talking to the first years at the welcoming party because I was just in their shoes a short year ago. Many of them felt the same way I did last year and had many questions about what to expect about the program. It really is amazing to me that I am here today as a second year because that first year of school went by in the blink of an eye and I couldn't even begin to express how difficult it was for me. There were certain times I wanted to give up and go home but my classmates kept pushing me along and I'm extremely thankful for that.

         I've been looking for a new church in Manchester and have tried a couple so far and both have been good. I'm excited and eager to find a new home church here and hope that I can be more involved than I have in the past. I'm hopeful that whichever church I end up selecting I'll be able to connect with the not only the services but also the people.

         The first week of second year is so different than the first year as we really havn't gone to in depth into any new material yet. One of our teachers also isn't in right now because he had surgery a few weeks ago so the work load will pick up soon enough. I'm excited to get this term started because that means I am inching towards that finish line. I will be 50% done with PT school after this term!