Breadcrumbs To Get Me Home...

Should I be blogging this right now? Probably not. But I feel it would be rude and ungrateful if I didn't express some of my feelings tonight on here. I have the GREATEST friends in the whole world. Hands down. You might think yours are better, but I can guarantee they aren't. My friends are the greatest examples to me and I love them so much. I hope they know that. They are one of the reasons that I'm serving my LDS mission to Sydney, Australia because I want everyone to be able to feel what I feel. So, once again. I love you guys, see ya in two.

Signing off,
Elder Hayden Christopher Loftus

True Love

So, as I was sitting at my house today contemplating the problems of the world my mind began to drift to life after the mission. Dating. Engagement. Marriage. Children. All of these words have something in common: they terrify me to no end. Anyway, while I was thinking about all of this I began to wonder to myself about dating. Let's be honest, have I dated a lot of women? No. Have I had much practice with women? No. I came to the conclusion that after the mission I'd be lost in a world of women. Some people may disagree with me but I don't think that sounds fun at all. I like to know where I'm going or what I'm doing. How am I gonna know the girl I'm supposed to marry? I have no idea. I'm hoping that it turns out something like this...

I know it isn't really going to be like this but I definitely hope that there's some kind of hint as to who that special gal in my life will be. But for now, I can only dream about how that will go. 

Signing off,

Hayden

I Wanna Be a Super Hero

Why is it that nerds, dorks, and geeks all look up to these fictional heroes? And yes, I'm totally included into that nerd category. I'm not so sure on the other ones but I'm sure someone well correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway. We look up to these guys because they're who we want to be. The muscles, the powers, the humor, and of course the girls. A super hero is every boys dream.

What's the difference between Peter Parker and Spiderman? Spiderman gets the girl. Isn't that what it always comes down to? Being the one that's strong enough, fast enough, or big enough to beat out the competition and win over our woman. Sure it'd be nice to be able to fly, or shoot lasers, or turn into a giant green muscle mass, but the only way those things are worth it is if they win us a girl.

I'd love to be able to have that damsel in distress that I could always be saving, always be sweeping her off her feet in the best of ways but you know what my super power is? Emotions. When I get upset, I cry. Oh man, powerful!! No. Wussy. Oh, wait wait, how about the ability to "give great hugs?" Nah...I can't hug someone into jail.

Okay, so I don't have any of those special powers. Who cares? I'm my own super hero. Where's my Mary Jane or Gwen Stacy? When will I get to save my Lois Lane from pure destruction? Or how about my own super heroine? Like Jean Gray or Rouge? How about Catwoman? I don't know. She's out there somewhere and I know that someday I'm going to find her. I might not be a masked vigilante but I'll be her hero. And for that day I can't wait. Because it'll be super.

Signing off,
Hayden

Change, Not The Kind In My Pocket

"There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction."
-Winston Churchill
"Life can either be accepted or changed. If it is not accepted, it must be changed. If it cannot be changed then it must be accepted."
-Unknown

Change is inevitable. It's constantly happening to us, around us, by us, next to us. Everything. Whether we're changing our classes for a new semester, changing from living alone to living with the family again, or changing from living in good ol Utah to living in Sydney Australia, change is always happening. And just like my good friend Winston Churchill said, I don't really mind change if I'm going in the right direction. Which I feel like I am, but really who knows. I guess I'll know in about a month right?

Change doesn't always affect everything, it's like the English language because it doesn't always make sense. I know that I'll always be friends with the great people I met at USU and I'll always be friends with the amazing bros that I roomed with. That will always stay the same no matter what happens. Even if I don't see someone for two years, and that will be a lot of you, I know that when I get back it'll be like I was never gone because we'll just jump right into it again. And I can't wait.

I'm so excited to see all the things that will change while I'm gone. I'll have friends get married, friends will be getting engaged, and when I get home I'll be freaked out. But, whatever's meant to happen will. It'll be interesting to see how many of my friends marry each other, or marry someone I know. It'll just be like one big web of friendship. And then I'll have my high school reunion and I'll see how much some of my fellow classmates have changed and that'll be interesting. Some will age well and I guarantee that some of them won't. But it'll still be fun to see. Technology will be advancing like crazy and then I'll have to retrain myself in the ways so that I don't seem like an old person. Zoe will help.

Speaking of Zoe, she'll be 17 when I get home. Well into the world of dating and dances. Just a disclaimer to all the boys that will date her: I already don't like you, so be ready for some serious harassment. I can't believe she'll be so old. I can't believe how old I'll be. It's crazy. Sawyer will be 9, I'll miss his baptism and a lot of sports games for that kid but he'll have plenty more! Who knows how old my parents will be, I'm hoping they don't change much.

And, when I get home I'm gonna try and go by Topher. That'll be weird. It'll be a whole new name for me. And I'll have a new cell phone number. Woah. Now things are just getting crazy.

But, all in all, I'm excited to see what this crazy world has in store for me. So, bring on the change!

Signing off,
Hayden

Dating Rules?

When did dating become so hard? There are rules to follow, special occasions we've gotta make, and if we don't follow those rules we lose. I've never understood why we can't just play the game with our own rules. We're all different people so we should all have different rules. None of us are the same and none of us play through life the same anyway. I've got some rules that I think are ridiculous but oddly accepted in our day to day lives.

Rule #1- Wait 3 days before calling
Listen, if I go out of my way and out of my comfort zone to get a girls number I'm not gonna wait to text or call her. I'm gonna do it as fast as I want to and when I feel comfortable. Three days? What's that supposed to do anyway? Keep the girl interested? I don't think so. If I don't hear from someone in three days I usually think they aren't interested. I move on. Why wait around when I could be talking to them as much as I wanted to.

Rule #2- Screen the calls
So...after I wait three days society wants me to not answer if she calls me? This must be to keep up my mysterious nature, oh wait, I don't have that nature. Okay, so she calls. I get really excited but don't answer because I'm not supposed to. Then, a couple days later I call her back. Seems dumb. What if that's what she's doing too and then it ends up that we never talk because we're both "screening" the calls. Nah, I'm gonna answer if the girl I like calls me. I'm not missing that opportunity. Sorry society, I disagree.

Rule #3- Don't flatter too much
This one I actually do agree with. Girls, and occasionally guys, tend to get freaked out when they are showered with compliments and gifts and all that jazz. Just relax, save some of the "love" for later when you've gotta keep the relationship fresh. Don't go all out in the beginning. They went out with you for a reason, so they obviously like you just a little bit already. They didn't say no when you asked them out right? So just play it cool and relax. Keep the money in your pocket, save some of your sappy lines for later, and just have fun.

Rule #4- Don't meet their friends, don't let them meet your friends...yet.
Friends are embarrassing. We know that. One of my group of friends favorite things to do is to harass the date and always, always, always make sure to yell out, "don't forget to wear protection!" That's like, the most important thing. Occasionally we like to keep the person we're trying to date secret, keep them to ourselves and not share them. Eventually we bring them around but in the beginning we keep them all to ourselves. I don't get this one. At all. I love my friends so the person I date should love them too. If they don't, chances are that I'm not going to date them. Sorry ladies, you've gotta like my slightly perverted yet oh so fun friends.

Rule #5- Only the guy can text first
I don't know if this actually really qualifies as a rule but I've heard SO many different girls say that they won't text a guy first. They'll wait and wait until he texts them. Sometimes the guys wants to know that the girl wants to hear from him too. Just so you know. I love when a girl texts me because I then realize that the spark I felt between me and her might be felt in her as well. She's not just texting me back when I text her to be nice, she legitimately wants to talk to me.

I know that there are so many more rules to this "game" that we call dating. Some of them make sense, most of them don't. But I guess that's what makes things more interesting. If we didn't have any rules we wouldn't sit up late at night wondering if what we did is right, if what we did will impress the person of our dreams, and if what we did wasn't completely stupid. So, looking back on it. I guess these rules are keeping us on our toes so that we don't get too comfortable around the opposite gender. Just remember, keep it fun and don't worry too much about the rules.

Signing off,
Hayden

Utah State Aggies- Snow 201

It's sad really, but in all honesty I've been home for literally five minutes. And I'm already sitting down to blog about Logan, Utah home to the Utah State Aggies and my hometown for the past nine months. As I was driving to my home in Centerville I was thinking about all the good times that took place in Snow 201 home to the best kids ever: Mike Huff, Jacob McKenna, Taylor King, Devin Franke, Preston Hill, Tony Brown, and of course me. It's amazing that the last nine months went by so fast, it feels like yesterday that we were all moving in and getting to know our neighbors, who later went on to become some of my best friends in this whole world. I'm going to type down my favorite memories but really the list just goes on and on.

 Blue darts. Enough said? I think not. I can't remember how many nights were spent passing a lighter between us just lighting up our room with flame from a fart. I loved it all. Sure it was gross, and made everything smell bad, it even leaked out into the hall but did we care? Nope. We were all just laughing, and we kept making them. Poor Tony, we made him throw up because of the smell. But I wear that with a badge of honor knowing that I can make someone throw up with what God gave me.

Scary movies. I've never been a fan of them until I moved into college. Now I can't get enough of them. I love the feeling of apprehension, something scary coming and knowing that it's coming. I've watched countless numbers of them. I've watched scary movies with so many people in Snow Hall that I feel a very special type of bond with all of them. We've watched a scary movie with upwards of thirty people in our room.

Speaking of upwards of thirty or more people, what about Jersday Thursday?? Yeah, that's right world. I, Hayden Christopher Loftus, am a Jersey Shore fan. I love it and apparently so does everyone in Snow Hall. When I would blow my grenade horn (yes I have one) people would come running and we would all gather around the TV and watch some Jersey Shore every Thursday night. Did I mention GTL too? Because that may or may not have happened. I dunno. Haha, yeah...

Hey Jake, remember that one time our room got glittered? Yeah it sucked. Follow up question: Hey roommates, remember that one time we annihilated Sunny and Sydney's room? I sure do. I don't really think much needs to be said on this part because let's be honest, a picture's worth a thousand words and I've got quite a few pictures. You know what? I'm gonna tell the story anyway, but only about how we got all the paper. So, three bags came from Tay's mom, three and a half bags came from Snow 302, and 9 bags came from the Industrial Science building on Utah State Campus. Thanks USU!!! You made this prank happen. Oh, and not only did we throw paper everywhere but we also sprayed silly string, threw packing peanuts everywhere, sprayed really nasty old lady perfume, and ripped open a microbead pillow. In case you're wondering, those things go EVERYWHERE. And I mean everywhere. 

What about the night where some complete strangers came into our room and decided to throw a sip hop? Six random boys came into our room and saw our soda wall so they decided they wanted to help us add onto it. They quickly ran out and bought a twelve pack of Red Bull which we all quickly downed and added onto the wall. The BCB's, or Big City Boys as we decided to call them, decided that we were going to finish up the second layer of the wall that night. They went around to all of Snow Hall, collected about 60 bucks from the kind residents of Snow, and invited people to our apartment. And so, at about 10:30 at night we had somewhere around 80 people in our room. What a great night. I think that all in all, we pounded in the range of 210 sodas collectively. Needless to say, our soda wall was basically completed. Thanks again BCB's!!!

Wow, this is an extremely long post so I'll just throw out some quick little comments. Tweeting constantly, late night runs to McDonald's, staying up all night, playing volleyball and basketball in a church until 1 in the morning multiple times, skinny dipping, Cleaning the Sink, sand volleyball, and so, so, so many more memories. So listen, if you've got a memory that you wanna add to this post, put it in as a comment so that we can all remember the good times at Snow Hall because let's be honest. They rocked!!!

Signing off,

Hayden

Live Life With No Regrets

Well, it doesn't matter how hard I've tried to avoid it, college is ending. Yeah, I'm super sad about it because I've made tons and tons of new friends up here but hey, I'll keep contact with the important ones and of that I'm 100% sure. Don't worry though, this isn't my post about all the sad times that will come with leaving college. No, this one is all about some of the crazy messed up things that we've done only because I'm determined to not have any regrets in my life. The sad college memories one will come later, when I've moved back home and have time to focus on my past, when I'm not having the time of my life in my last week.

Anyway, living with no regrets. Sounds difficult right? It definitely can be, but you've just gotta make sure that you take all the opportunities to do the things that you're comfortable with. I hate looking back on my life and thinking, "If only I would've talked to that girl", or, "If only I could've gone to that party". I don't say these things in my life anymore. I've moved on and now it's become, "Good think I talked to that girl", or "Man, that party was so freakin sick"! I love it. I really do.

Living my life with no regrets has led me to do some stuff that normally I wouldn't have done. I put my number on a sticky note and put it on a girl's bike, I've been skinny dipping (multiple times, and every time was a blast), I've met some of the coolest people ever, we has a sip hop with the Big City Boys (we'd never met these kids before but man that night was sick, I'll blog about that later), I've skipped numerous classes just to make sure that I'm having the best Freshman year that is physically possible, I've washed my car at 11 at night just because it was dirty and I felt like it should be clean, and I've been to McD's so many times late at night that I swear they should know my name, and these are just the beginnings. I will admit that I have one small regret though, only one. It's just this: I wish that I would've had the guts to sit by a cute girl earlier in the semester because I would've have more of a chance to get to know her. That would've been quite nice actually. She's cute. Super cute actually.

As I've traveled through my life I feel like I have gained a ton of knowledge, even though my parents would beg to differ but who cares, this is my blog not theirs. I know that deep down inside I really don't know that much and I've got so much more knowledge headed my way and I'm stoked for it. So just remember, next time you're debating on if you really want to go to a party, talk to that cute girl/boy, or just do something out of the ordinary or extraordinary. Do it. You won't regret it. Live your life with no regrets.

Signing off,
Hayden

Come What May And Love It

There were two different things that I wanted to blog about today and as I started thinking about them I realized that they both lead to the same thing. It's being happy with what you've been given. It's taking those lemons and really turning them into the lemonade that makes us the people we truly are. Or, as my roommates like to say, "When life gives you lemons, just say eff the lemons and bail." Just because we've been given a bad string in our lives doesn't mean that we've gotta continue living with it. Just forget it and move on to the next things in your life.

We can't have the good without the bad. That's one thing that I've tried to focus on throughout my first year of college. Living alone, being responsible, and worse of all actually turning into a real adult. It sucks. I'm not embarrassed to say that I can't do it. I know I can't because I'm not mature and I'm not responsible. Growing up scares the hell out of me (25 cents to the swear jar, sorry Kandis). But with everything bad that comes along, something good is coming up right behind it. It's worth pushing through the bad to get through to the good. Some examples from my life: things don't go well with a certain girl (none in particular), the next day you meet someone new; get a bad grade on an assignment, on the test you really understand it because you've studied it up; have a super long, crappy week, party all weekend with great friends. The good is always out there. Always. It's whether or not we choose to focus on the good or the bad that decides who we are going to be. I want to be someone that focuses on the good, maybe even helps others to find that in their lives as well.

Life's good. It really is. As I begin to go out and become even more of an adult I've begun to realize that good things do come with responsibility and maturity. A girlfriend is definitely one of them, haha! Eventually, anyway. A mission's in the works and beginning to change me, I can feel it now. I'm so excited to be able to spread the gospel to the people of Australia and come back with an even better attitude on life. Who knows where my life will take me in that time and especially the time afterwards. But you know what? Come What May and Love It.

Signing off,
Hayden

Treat Her Like A Princess

This week rocked. We had our old roommate Preston Hill come up from Colorado and spend the week with us. We really miss him. A lot. We basically just kinda had some fun and played just like we always did but this time Preston was with us, just like old times. We drove down into Salt Lake City to show Preston and Tony (our new roommate) around a little bit. We went to the Gateway, the Capitol, and The Pie. So good. If you haven't been there, google it and go. It's delicious. Anyway, now to the point of my story.

I like feeling like a gentlemen. I like driving girls around when they need to go run errands, or run to the store. I like being able to pay for girls when it's something small, and occasionally the big things too. This trip the girl that I was paying for was Becca Campbell. She is definitely one of my very best girl friends and I love being with her. When we got to the Pie I realized that I didn't have any cash on me, so Becca and I left to go run to an ATM. She wanted to come with me to get cash but I wasn't about to let her get any, her dinner was on me tonight. As we were walking back to the Pie Becca commented on the fact that I wouldn't let her pay. I thought about it for a minute and soon it made sense. Here's what I think: Sometimes you'll hear guys say they don't want to go on dates because they don't want to put money into some other guy's wife. I think just the opposite. I want to spend money on other dudes' wives because that's how I want my future wife to be being treated. Like the Princess that I know she is. So it doesn't matter to me that I'm spending money on a girl because some cool dude out there is spending money on whovever my future wife is.

Seriously though. I wasn't expecting anything at the end of the night from Becca. I didn't ever consider that once the whole time that we were hanging out. I was doing it because 1) I love her and I want her to feel special because she is 2) If I do marry her, I'm ahead of the game a little bit because she already knows how I want to treat her and 3) I want my wife to have stories like this for me when I finally meet her. I want her to feel special by some guys, but especially me. I want my wife to have been treated the best that she possible could have been. Not pushed around, or dumped, or treated like crap. I want her to be surrounded by the "nice" guys because let's be honest here, they make the best husbands. We all know it. So guys, next time your hanging out with a group of friends be the gentlemen and pay for one of your lady friends, they'll appreciate it and eventually their future husband will too. And ladies, let the guys be gentlemen. Chivalry is not dead. I'm convinced of it. So just remember to Treat Her Like A Princess because that's how you want your wife to feel too.

Signing Out,
Hayden

The Perfect Present

So, I came back up to Logan Sunday night and what did I find sitting on my bed? A birthday present from my neighbors, Taren and Mia. My birthday present consisted of a gallon of my favorite drink, five boxes of Peeps, a monkey Pillow Pet (which I sleep with every night now), and my most favorite present ever was a paper with a whole bunch of sticky notes on it. I'm sure that you're thinking I'm crazy saying that was my favorite one but it is because each stick note was covered with memories that we've all made together. I loved it. Every single sticky note has been put into my journal so that I can remember everything that they've remembered, even some of the things that I had forgot. It's amazing to me that there are people in the world like Taren and Mia because people like that really make this life worth living and every day I am so grateful for having them in my life. Thank you so much!!!

Let's Play Major League Baseball

I honestly can't think of a better day to start blogging then today, March 31, 2011. Why you ask? Because today is the Opening Day of Baseball. I've always told people that God is a fan of baseball but today it was confirmed. Up in the good ol city of Logan we had great weather today to be able to play baseball outside with my roomies!! They are Mike Huff, Jacob McKenna, Taylor King, Devin Franke, and Tony Brown. Man do I love these boys. Anyway, back to baseball. I would much rather watch baseball than any other sport. My favorite team, the Dodgers, played today. And it was just an all around great day. Baseball. Only true fans can really enjoy the sport because they see the magic in the rules and the dimensions of the game. I won't try and go into those because there are a lot of them, and to be honest, I'm still learning a lot but I'm getting better at it. I'd just like to thank my Dad for instilling this love of baseball into my life. Thanks so much! It means the world to me because baseball is everywhere!