jfitzgerald1992-blog - Tumblr blog

[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

My grandmother…. what can I say about such an impactful woman in my life? From as early as I can remember she was always telling me that I was going to go to college. When I was young I told her of course I would go and that I’d get a degree in something that I enjoy. As I grew up I realized how hard of a task and that being able to obtain a college degree was only done by a select group of individuals. If you would have asked me about college in high school I would have never told you that at the age of 25 I’d be graduating with a Bachelor’s degree from USF. The one thing that I remember from her while growing up was her always asking and then what? Because you can always push for more, there’s always another goal or objective to obtain after you have obtained the one you were working towards. There’s always more work to be done and there isn’t enough time in one day or one lifetime to accomplish everything. I’ve learned that you always have to keep striving for the next thing that you think is great in your mind.

[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

I spent too many summers working with my dad doing tile work and working with the company that he works for. When most people think of tile, they think of their bathroom and kitchen and see these tiny pieces of tile or maybe a 12x12 piece of tile. When I think of tile, I think of doing a 10,000-sq. ft. church and having to spend days ripping out the carpet before we can haul in the 2 tons’ worth of materials. I spent hours trying to rip out stones on a multimillion dollar pool patio asking myself what I was doing wrong with my life and how I’d gotten to this point in time. I mean it’s only 95 degrees outside with no shade, what’s the big deal? This is the warehouse that I’d go and collect my check, leave any leftover material, pick up material for a job, and/or just meet up with coworkers before we’d go slave away for the day. I didn’t realize that it would help mold me into the hardworking individual that I am today. It’s been a blessing in disguise because it’s not for the faint of heart and most aren’t cut out for the backbreaking manual labor matched with the heat stroking temperatures of Florida.

[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

I think it’s safe to say that food is a necessity of life, but the joy of making your own food and developing the best taste possible is shared by few. I find so much fun in creating food because let’s be honest, food is amazing. I am blessed to have grown up in the United States because I can make crazy creations that I find on the internet and don’t have to wish I could create them. Sometimes they’re time consuming, but the taste is always immaculate. Here we have a pig in the blanket spiral dish covered with a chili cheese mix. It wasn’t one of my healthiest meals, but it was an awesome dish to have while I was watching football last season. Cooking allows you to practice your own personal creativity and building a community around food that people truly enjoy and can’t get enough of. There’s a satisfaction in knowing there was a happiness created from something that you personally created from your own bare hands. Cooking can be a very simple or it can be as intricate and detailed as you desire. It’s all about how much time and dedication you decide to put into your own craft.

[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

Music is universal. Regardless of where in the world you come from, there’s a type of music that you enjoy and there’s others that enjoy the same type of music that you do. There’s magical escape when you’re able to turn on your favorite song and just forget about the worries that you’re having for the day and just to imagine something that’s greater than your current situation. It allows individuals to just to create a happy sensation that is felt throughout their entire being, not the mentally, but physically, spiritually, and sometimes even emotionally. You can tell a lot by an individual by the type of music they have in their music library. A music library is as unique as a finger print. Looking at an individual’s personal music can give you a glimpse into the reality and imagination all at the same time. I personally have noticed that most individuals tend to lean to music that would best suite their life if they were playing their own personal music in the background as if you were watching a movie. If you were to look at how an individual’s taste in music changes over the time you would be able to see how they’ve grown as an individual. That’s my own personal theory.

[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

Memes…. what a time to be alive. My friends and I have a group chat that all we do is send these to each other day while we have free time so that we can try and share a laugh while we’re all busy at work or school. This is what my virtual community consists of, unfortunately my friends have a very twisted sense of humor so this is one of the more G rated ones. As you can tell the internet has become very fond of taking pictures and editing them into very comical ideas and thoughts. There’s so many different communities that an individual can be involved in compared to just two decades ago when the internet was used just for instant messaging on AOL and having to lose the use of your phone in the process. Now you can use your phone in your hand and do the same exact process while still having a completely free computer to run video games or whatever your favorite Netflix or Hulu episode that you’re currently watching. Communities will never die, but they will evolve as they have since the very beginning of time and it’s just the communities that we choose to associate ourselves with that die.

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[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

This is the house that I have lived in since I have been in college with my grandparents, my parents, and my sister. When my parents moved my sister and me to West Palm, I stayed at my grandparents’ house most the time because I was able to get away with a lot of mischief. Looking back at those days it had a really profound affect at how I view the world and how much I have taken from them while I grew up. I’ve noticed that my mannerisms are that of an older society. Some would say that I don’t necessarily fit in amongst my peers because most of them never got to live with their grandparents over an extended period of time. I have learned to develop more patience with them because even though I do tend to get irritated I know it isn’t their fault. Growing up I remember going over to their house and having them take care of me so I feel almost obligated to do the same for them in their time of need. Not only do I get to live with my grandparents, the neighbors are absolutely amazing. We have an annual block party where everyone brings food and their family to have a good time and to just socialize amongst one another. Something like this would have never occurred in my old neighborhood. To say my perspective on life and how to change my life has changed over the past 6 years since moving to this house in Clearwater, FL.

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[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

Growing up I never realized how rough my neighborhood was until I moved to West Palm Beach, FL when I was 13 so that my mom could work with my uncle. When the recession hit, we had to move back to St. Petersburg, FL, by that time I had already gone to 5-6 different schools growing up. I bounced around before graduating high school and attending 4 different high schools because we moved so often. Each school was different, each group of friends from different backgrounds and ethnicities, and each time I noticed a reoccurring trend amongst them all. Money, money was on the minds of each individual that I had ever met. Now their financial standings differed, some come from very off backgrounds where their parents attended college and they don’t necessarily have to worry about their finances to individuals that had parents with drug issues when they were younger or still had them to this day. Money plays a vital role in how individuals view the world and their perspective. Growing up my family never really had money, but I knew at a very young age that I was going to make more money than I could spend and that anyone I’d ever associated myself with would be taken care of when I reach my goals.  I’ve paid my way through college and in the next 10-15 years look to run my own multimillion dollar organization.

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[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

Weight lifting, while most individuals seek to go to the gym to find their perfect body or impress the opposite sex. I tend to find the gym where I can just lose myself mentally and just truly escape from what’s going on in my personal life and around me. Growing up I moved a lot and found myself alone trying to find something to keep myself occupied. Lifting weights was a way for me to keep myself entertained while also staying out of trouble. It didn’t hurt that after a few months of doing nothing but working out you started to see some real results. It has been almost 10 years since I have started lifting weights and I can honestly say I don’t know where I would be in life I had never started working out. Not only have I found self confidence in myself, I have noticed that I have encouraged others to start working out and making a difference in their own personal quest for their ideal body. I have never really pushed anyone to do anything they don’t want, but I am definitely the individual to encourage someone to try something they haven’t done. I notice a lot of the time people like to ask what I do for workouts and how long I have been lifting weights. People tend to be in shock when I tell them I’m not one of those overnight stories where I woke up with muscles.

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[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

Principles of finance, where to truly begin with such an awful yet much needed class for every business student. I have begun to develop such a very strong love hate relationship with numbers because it’s what makes the world go round, but at the same time it drives me absolutely nuts to try and decipher what is going on in this class because of the in depth nature of it. I find it extremely fascinating to find be able to find these important financial figures, but at the same time it makes me very happy that I will be able to pay someone to do these calculations for me. I have noticed that this class is a necessary torture for business students to be successful because what is business without the numbers? Every business student that wants to graduate from the University of South Florida has to take and pass this class in order to receive their Bachelor’s Degree. Although many of the students struggle to just get by, there are some students that enjoy the process of the problem solving. My friend’s girlfriend is one of those weird individuals and says it’s what she actually wants to do for a living. My cousin does a type of accounting and I personally think they’re a different type of crazy.

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[jfitzgerald1992-blog]

When it comes to a sense of community, home, belonging, and just an overall sense of being welcomed in with open arms I'd look no farther then these three retards in this photo with me. Two Iraqi combat veterans, one convicted felon, and just your average everyday college student. We've known each other for almost a decade and regardless of where life takes us we always end up back together at some point in time to share the stories about what we have seen and done. I find myself thinking about my journey through life a lot as we talk about how communities we have grown up in and left for better or for good. All four of us have ventured far away from the rough neighborhood we grew up in and are all trying to make something of ourselves. I find it extremely interesting and somewhat lonely when i realize that I was the only person that managed to go to school. But, then again everyone does have their own sense of purpose and success. Looking back on it now though, not getting accepted into the Navy because I told them I had smoked weed might not have been the worst then to have happened to me growing up as a kid. Growing up almost every teacher I had told my parents that I was extremely smart, but only did just enough to get by. I think maybe going to college was my way of proving that I could do much more than just get by, but even succeed more than most; even if it has taken me a little bit longer than most. I sometimes find myself trying to assimilate to the University culture that is very abundant on campus, but for some reason i just can't relate to a lot of the people on campus. Whether it's growing up in a rough neighborhood, having gone to four different high schools, having my uncle and father diagnosed with cancer and having two of my best friends pass away all in the same 12 month period, I have had to deal with so much mental stress to get where I am and I feel like most people wouldn't be able to relate. With all that being said, when it comes down to needing someone to talk to, these three individuals know who I am and accept me for me. I know no matter what happens that at the end of the day I can count on these three retards to help me get through whatever it is that I am going through.