Steven Sanchez, Jr.

Growing up, I didn’t have a rocking horse. I had a rocking cow. 

I talk about it in more detail in a previous post. My family came across this old photo, so I wanted to share.

My Graduation Tassel

Coming up in just a matter of days now [*note* I am posting this now, however I've been graduated for a few weeks now], I’ll be walking across the stage wearing my black cap and gown and my white tassel. I will be graduating with a bachelor’s degree in communication. It is crazy that that day is so soon. Thinking back when I was growing up, I honestly don’t know if I ever saw this day coming. I will be the first in my family to graduate from a four year university. This will be closing this chapter of my life and I will be moving on to the next chapter.

Just these past four years of college have flown by so fast. I can still fondly remember walking into Krause for the first time. I remember seeing my room for the first time, and then I remember watching my parents leave me here at this strange place that I would indeed call home for the next four years. I have lived with some awesome guys over these past four years and have made some great relationships.

I also recall not exactly knowing what I wanted to study or major in once I got here. I knew I liked music a lot and wanted to continue performing music (as I had since 4^th grade), but I knew that it wasn’t the right course for my life to pursue a degree in it. Some of my initial plans were to become a teacher so that I could go back to my old high school and be the activities director there – that idea didn’t make it, however. Then I was pursuing a double major in business and communication. I was going to cover my bases so that after graduation I could do anything. I felt that those were two majors that would have been safe.

Needless to say, I didn’t hang on to the business major long. I dropped my business major to a minor, and then eventually dropped it all together. I did not enjoy the business classes at all. But I was really enjoying my communication classes and so I declared myself as a communication major.

My college experience is definitely catch all for these past four years and really has made me who I am today. I’ve been blessed with the privilege to travel to Vietnam and all over the United States while in college. I’ve made friendships that will last a lifetime. I’ve deepened my faith and continued my walk with Christ. With my white graduation tassel, I have ‘left my parent’s home as a boy and left college as a man’ as our own President Merrill Ewert says it.

Conclusion

Having shared those stories, I was definitely raised to be unique and to shine and to stand out as a leader. I know not of what my plans are in the future, for it is not up to me, but it is solely up to God. I have plans of taking steps in certain directions, hoping that it is in the right direction in life. I know that if I am going in the right direction, doors will continue to open – and if I’m not going in the right direction, doors will close. Over these past few years I have learned and grown and transformed so much. With all of this change I’ve undergone, I pack it away and prepare to start a new journey in life. It makes me extremely proud to know that I will be the first to receive my bachelor’s degree in my family. It also excites me to continue my education and pursue a master’s degree in leadership studies. Before I start the next journey, though, I need a break. I plan on taking this year off and simply resting for a bit. Then from there, we’ll see what is in store for my future.

“‘For I know the plans I have for you’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future’” Jeremiah 29:11

My Starbucks Gold Card

I bought my Starbucks Gold Card last summer. This past summer I lived in Nashville, Tennessee. What took me out there? The best answer I can give is this: a good friend and God. One of my really good friends, Dave, was graduating and I was finishing my junior year. Dave had been planning on going out to Nashville for a while. It wasn’t until one day when I was researching some internship possibilities that I saw there were some summer opportunities in Nashville. I shared with Dave and I brought up the idea of me going to Nashville with him for the summer. He was cool with it and thus began our Nashville plans.

I had applied for several internships with some music companies out there in hopes of doing some marketing and other communication related work. One of the companies I applied for was Country Music Television. I thought for sure I had that internship in the bag. I sent in my application, and then a few days later, I called them to make sure they received it. They asked for my name, and I told them, and then they recognized it by commenting that I was ‘the guy from California’. I was stoked that they knew who I was. My application was fierce. I thought I for sure had this internship in the bag.

Several weeks passed and we were nearing the end of the semester. Dave and I had our plans set for Nashville. It was at the end of the semester (I was currently Student Body President) that I found out I was unable to run for a second year of presidency. I was torn about that. In the same week, I found out that none of my applications for the internships were accepted. I was a mess. Nothing was going as I had planned.

I ended up still going to Nashville. I had no job lined up, nor an internship. Looking back, it really was a work of God that I ended up in Nashville. He took me away from everything and provided a summer of relaxation, a summer of great friendship, and a summer of great memories. It was in this summer that I bought my Starbucks Gold Card. I never had a job while in Nashville. Instead, while Dave was working, I walked down the street and spent time at my ‘office’. My office was Starbucks.

I did ninety percent of my blogging while I was at Starbucks. Now that I am back, Starbucks is still a place that I will hold close to my heart. There are so many good memories that are tied with Starbucks. I became a regular in that Starbucks and I got to know the other regulars at that store. I also love coffee. I always have. My Gold Card provided me discounted coffee, free internet, and a lifetime of memories. It will be expiring here in a few months. That saddens me just a bit, but I’m also okay with it. Because of my Gold Card I had access to internet that allowed me to blog about my experiences so that I can easily revisit them.

My Blog

I have a website. It is http://www.stevensanchezjr.com. I use the website as a personal blog and as a means to share some of my photography with the world. The point of my website is to simply share my life with anybody who may be interested in what’s going on in my life. On my blog, I’ve also included a mini-feed of my tweets. My tweets serve as a mini-blog, while my website serves as a more in depth, more detailed blog. Now, why do I post my stuff online? Who needs to know what I’m doing right now or what I’ve done in the past? I don’t know anybody personally who needs to know … but I do know people who enjoy to know.

One of my biggest fans of my site would be my mama. I don’t always call home as often as I should to keep my parents in the loop of what I’m doing. Somehow, however, I can find time to post my stuff online. By posting it online, my mom is able to keep tabs on me and share in my stories and adventures that is my life away from home. Then, aside from my mom, I have several friends who I don’t get to see regularly but keep tabs on me via my blog.

It is kind of funny how my blog came about. I had never really thought of being a blogger until this past summer. I started my blog in preparations for an internship that I would be doing the next semester. So starting my blog wasn’t necessarily by choice, but it has become something that I’m proud of and enjoy having. Over the summer I was publishing something to my blog on a daily basis. This was also part of my preparation for my upcoming internship. In doing this, I was creating a presence for myself online. Blogging during this particular summer was one of the highlights, to be honest. I really didn’t think that I was a blogger because I had never cared for writing at all. However, I found blogging to be a great way to process my thoughts throughout the day, or simply to share funny stories that I had encountered that day.

Another drive that kept me blogging was that I had actually acquired a following. I would keep tabs on the statistics of my blog. Over that summer, I had about fifty to sixty regular followers that checked my blog. I really didn’t think that I would gather a following at all, let alone fifty plus people to be looking at my site every day! It was really neat knowing that there were people who were interested in what I had to say.

In terms of what I published to my blog: randomness. I remember that my first post was really off the wall. I was directed to stay away from the “okay world this is my first post, so here goes nothing” message – and I also wanted to avoid doing that myself. So, my first post was about a show that I was watching at the time. The show? Dirty Jobs. On this particular episode, they were making dog food out of unused animal parts. It really was an interesting first post. But after revisiting some of my first posts, I really had some entertaining ones in there. I was new to the blogging thing and was trying to get a feel for what type of content I wanted to publish.

I was also on the east coast at the time. So a lot of my posts were also updates on my travels, life, and experiences. Now that my internship is completed and almost a year has gone by, I still treasure my blog. I am saddened a bit that I haven’t been able to publish to it as regularly as I did. Now I’m lucky if I can get two posts in a month or so. Owning my own website and having my own blog has really helped me improve my writing abilities as well as helped me in simply expressing myself. It is often too easy for me to keep things to myself. But since I’ve had my blog, I’ve posted trials that I’ve been going through, and then in doing that, people have written back with their trials and provided words of encouragement.