Thoughts on Improving Talents

As I witness the final closing days of my summer vacation of 2011, I realized that I have improved significantly in my talents that God has given me, such as art, singing, cooking, and dancing.  I have used these gifts to make new friends, rekindle old friendships, and to help me gain greater happiness than ever before.   I will let the images and videos do the talking of my progress.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/52243271-78/autistic-sketchup-google-students.html.csp

Thoughts on Hometown Cultural Experiences

There has been one major lesson I've needed to learn as well. Having been to countries like Mexico, Guatemala, Belize, and Honduras and in the Carribbean islands like Puerto Rico, Bahamas, U.S. Virgin Isles, and St. Martin, i realize that while experiences in other nations give us a gift of treasured memories, however, there are those like me that cannot afford to go abroad due to personal expenses. That thought brought about major observational skill in my life. I discovered that the most international cultural experiences I had in my life came from my own homeland in Northern Utah. For example, I had a foreign culture family home evening night this night with my family. We went to the Royal India Restaurant in Bountiful's Main Street area and we tried out Indian food there. Tyler, my older brother, recently got back from Ecuador and Peru in South America and I tried out Peruvian chocolate and Ecuadorian treats. Another cool experience in my family came when my adopted sister Rachel Hebert Snow came back from Austrailia and New Zealand and bought home a snack called Tim Tams, a cookie snack popular in both Austrailia and New Zealand and Lemon and Paeroa soda, a popular lemon flavored soda brand in New Zealand. Most of this blog seems to say that food is the best way to experience a country's culture and I couldn't agree more with that. I found a lot of comfort in listening to Arabic music recently and I felt like I was in the Middle East when I listened to this song as well. Youtube has lots of music from different countries as well, and can be used to experience a country's culture. For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_tkoGyIlSYo (Arabic music) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qrTN0c3Nbuk (Pan Flute-Peruvian music). So take advantage of cultural opportunities in your hometowns such as being a host family to a foreign student, trying out restaurants of other nations.

Thoughts on Trasitioning Life Stages

You know the quote that says "Life is like a stage, there are entrances and exits." plus, there is a center stage for the best moments.  It rings true especially if one switches from one lifestyle to another lifestyle, whether it be from a relaxed lifestyle to a working lifestyle like school, or it can be something like going from being single to getting married.   What I really discovered is that it's not a matter of when the transitions come, it's a matter of how we handle the transitions.   If we change and become better people with the transitions coming along, we enjoy them a little more, while if we treat a transition like an unexpected transition, it can overwhelm us easily.

Thoughts on Interacting with People from Other Nations

I recently wanted to share how interacting with others from different nations can help us develop a greater love and understanding for others we meet in our lives.   I recently had the opportunity to take a group of Chinese students I go to school with to Temple Square to help them learn more about the history of Utah's settlers and I got to learn more about their culture too, which is awesome.  Another such opportunity came when I talked with a member of the LDS Church from England as well back in August and we had some fun interacting with one another too.    From both of those experiences, I gained a greater appreciation of the different customs each person goes through in their lives, which means I get less prideful and more humbled knowing that a simple key to peace  in our time is to respect others and not be mean to anybody.  Such interactions open our hearts to learning more knowledge.   So, be a friend to someone from another nation, it's a great way to be less prideful.  I hope I can have some more blogs coming up soon.

Thoughts on Worry and Stress

I decided to post this blog to help those who read it since many of us are busy with school or work and tend to get stressed so easily to the point that we start to stress about the unneccessary small stuff, such as worrying about what a friend thinks of you.    What I have learned through my experiences in returning back to Weber State in the fall semester is that stress is really something you put on yourself and you can choose to be stressed about a particular situation or not.   I made sure I wasn't stressed by not only taking 4 classes worth 11 credit hours, I determined that I needed a balance in my life and I made sure I added LDS Institute of Religion classes and I was part of a Campus Connection Committee that has really blessed me in my life with the Spirit and great friends whom I can talk with and associate with.   I started learning about the "grand scheme of things" idea, which helped me a lot to distinguish between what to really be stressed about and what not to be stressed out about.   The best stress to feel is constructive stress, which motivates us to change and to avoid the destructive stress that only tears us down and limits our potential.   Here's how my "Grand Scheme" test works.  When a stressful situation comes up, think about that situation  for a few minutes and ask yourself, "How will that particular situation happen if I acted or don't act upon it,"  If the stress is based from a minor source such as video games or feeling irritated by siblings, then it's mostly destructive stress, avoid it at all costs.   If you were thinking about a major source of stress, such as getting your college classes paid for and how that decision would affect your future, then it's neccessary to feel constructive stress knowing that if you get that task done today, you'll have greater peace tommorrow.  Natural stress only happens for a short time,  usually, but don't make it more painful by adding more distractions to that natural stress.   By following these tips, you'll have greater happiness in your life.

Words by Austen Snow

Thoughts on Education

In recent days,  I had the opportunity to once again be a part of a cool classroom learning experience at Education Week at Brigham Young University in Utah.   I saw how there are opportunities of learning everywhere within the campus that fit the interests of everybody and the joy that we feel from each of the Education Week as part of the learning process shows that life is really about the journey, not just the destination.   When we have a certain interest in learning, it motivates us to study further until we have a deeper problem within ourselves that we need to solve with the use of knowledge.   As I start school again this coming Tuesday, I wanted to share some thoughts on how education can impact us for the better.   A lot of times, many of us don't quite understand the value of going to school because we tend to feel stressed about the temporal demands that life places upon us.   When we desire to learn something, even a subject we hate very much, we find in ourselves a new talent and a new passion.   Nelson Mandela once said that education is the most powerful weapon we can have for changing the world.   Education also removes the barriers of ignorance and prejudice that we tend to keep in ourselves.  When we shut ourselves off to learning, we're shutting off the opportunity to grow and become better people and we don't develop talents that can bless ourselves and others around us.  So take any opportunity to educate yourself, you'll find that you have more potential than you can imagine.

Thoughts on Friends

Friends really are important.   Good friends that encourage you to do you best are just as important as your family, you can't really live life without them.    It's like this quote on a tile that's on a bookshelf at my bedroom, "Friends are: allies, supporters, companions...the family you keep."    Besides serving others, be a friend to everybody regardless of background, race, gender, religion, etc. that are really sincere and do really care about you, and try as hard as you can to keep those real relationships as possible.  Cyber friendships are good too if you know what you're doing and are careful, but unless they cultivate into a real friendship, you're just talking to a picture with words on a screen.   So take time to make real friendships, your life and the lives of others will be greatly enriched as you do and friendships are more valuable than all the super nice material things like gold and cars put together.