Okay so basically I don't have much time to talk today, I'm at work but soon my sister and brother-in-law are coming with their kids to come clean the shop, so once they get here I'll be busy being the fun uncle! Haha but this has been a fun event I've gotten to do for the past year or so. Every Monday they come to clean and I'm always here at the end of the day so I always get to see them at least once a week! And I love those little kids so much, my niece Emma and my nephew Cole, they're so much fun! And they keep me on my toes and going everywhere. So it's been fun. Sadly, today will probably be the last day I will get to do this with them, because next week they're coming in too late for me to reasonably stay after work and the next Monday is two days before I leave, so I'll have quit work and I'll be real busy then. So I'll cherish today while it lasts.
That's actually becoming a new theme in my life, saying goodbye to things. It's really weird though, it starts to hit you that you're actually leaving by degrees, a little more every time you have to say goodbye to something, or someone. But so it goes. It's all bittersweet. Well, they're here, so it's goodbye for now, until next time!
Okay so right now instead of continuing my life story, I'm going to let you in on some feelings of my life right now. So most of you know that I'm leaving in a few weeks, about 2 and a half actually, and I can't help but take stock of what's happening, or what's going to happen, with my life. I got my mission call on November 5, 2008, which was about 3 and a half months ago. Back then March 4th seemed like forever away. Heck, it wasn't even in the same year! I was ready to just pack up and get started with it, but I had to learn patience and keep myself occupied for a while. So I sat back, relaxed, and maybe got a little too comfortable in my eternal wait. Everything was so easy, just casually working, hanging out with friends every weekend, and kicking back, while of course seriously (mostly) preparing for the Mish (that means the mission). You see, all my life I'd known I was going on a mission. No brainer. But it just seemed so far away. Then I started working on my papers and it all seemed suddenly so real. I was really leaving! To Mexico! As I would later find out. So it became a reality. But now its been so long in coming that it's turned unreal again. I just seemed like my life would continue forever this way, eternally waiting and preparing for a day that was always too far away. And I had mixed feelings about it. I mean of course I wanted to go on my mission, in fact some days I wanted to go REALLY bad, because I felt like I was wasting my life here, just sitting and watching everyone else live theirs, and I wanted to get out and do some living of my own. But other days some anxiety would creep in. I would suddenly get scared to go, not because I felt in anyway lacking spiritually, but for stupid reasons, reasons that I had to throw out of my head immediately. Reasons like, I didn't really feel like working hard and I don't think I'm gonna like the food in Mexico and I really HATE being hot and that's all I get for two years. Just dumb physical stuff.
It was at that moment that I had to remind myself why I was going. I KNEW it was the right thing for me to do in my life, I KNEW it would be the greatest experience I would ever have (despite the adversity), and most importantly I KNEW all of it was true. The church, the Gospel, everything, I knew it was right. And I also knew that there were people out there who weren't as lucky, scratch that, blessed as I was to have the truth of the Gospel in my life. I knew absolutely, without a doubt, the reasons why we are here and earth, and where we're going, and why nothing else in the world matters except turning your life towards that, the Gospel and teachings of Christ, no matter what trials you face along the way, or more importantly, taking those trials and learning from them and letting them turn you into a better person. And I wanted to share that with everyone else in this world that I could. So during these months I have prepared, and I have grown and matured more in these months than in the last two years combined! Spiritually that is. So right now I continue to persist that my feelings are complicated, that I want to go and yet I feel sad leaving my family and friends behind. But when I really think about it, my feelings aren't complicated. In fact I don't think they've ever been less complicated. Right now I am completely at peace with my life, because I know I'm doing the right thing. So I guess what I'm saying is that sure I'm nervous about leaving, but honestly, there's nothing I'd rather do than what I'm doing.
Finally, at long last, it's going to happen. Only a few more weeks left and I'll be gone for two years. It's finally starting to hit me and now it's real again, more real than it's ever been before. I know that I'm not ready, but as my good buddy Jacob Kap said this morning (who's leaving next Wednesday), I don't think anyone could ever really be ready, but as long as we leave with faith that we'll be okay, nothing can stop us. And to that I say, amen.
Okay, so today I'm not sure I really feel like telling more of my life history (today's the "high school years"), but one thing you must know about me is that I'm slightly OCD and I have a hard time leaving thing unfinished once I start them. They must be completed. So, the story continues.
Alright, well, I began my Sophomore with very high hopes for my future, high school sounded amazing. Although I was disappointed to find out that high school did NOT have Wendy's, McDonald's, and other food chain lines like I was promised (I really thought they did when I was in Elementary. Someone told me that once...) But besides that it all sounded great. I continued life with my awesome group of friends and started to reunite with old friends I had left at North Ogden Jr. High, along with making entirely new friends with "the Valley kids".
Now I'm going to give you high school in a nutshell, because I don't feel like writing anymore. Sophomore year, Titanic the Musical, I play a 3rd class passenger named Edward Watson Ford, Learning to drive, driving everyone everywhere, everything is new, First Homecoming week we lost to Davis Darts, first dance=Sweethearts with Brittany Hathaway, Prom with Nikelle Holbrook, I am embarrassed ask me why, my friends start to split up I am very sad, I'm friends with all of them regardless, Junior year, Thoroughly Modern Millie, I play a promiscuous party boy (I got "drunk"), Homecoming with Shay Larsen, Halloween Dance with Colette, I go as a cow and she's a farmer, I pretend to eat hay, I join the National Honor Society, I start working at Decker Plumbing Supply, Nikelle asks me to Sweethearts our group is really small but it was fun, I asked Colette to Prom, Patrick helped me with his broken leg, we arrived in an RV and got looks (jealous), I apply to be an Honor Society officer and am accepted, I volunteer to be President, My friends are now all over the place, the glory days are over, I still manage to stay friends with everyone, Senior year, Beauty and the Beast, I get drunk again and attack a castle (and also have a line in the show, "He'll come stalking us at night!"), Homecoming football game we lose to Fremont, I take Kelley Hill to Homecoming Dance, I do much National Honor Society business, During Quarters and Cans week I get hypnotized with my buddies Monk and Mike, it's not like you think it is, but it's awesome, Mike, Jordan, and I have been going to Project Lead the Way classes all through high school and we quit the last class because it's unbearable, Jessica Griffin asks me to Morp, we were the Incredibles (it was hero themed), I ask Amanda Lallas to Senior Cotiollin and have a blast at my last dance, I've now accumulated many friends and acquintinces and have friends in many groups and walks of life, We all graduate and share joyous moments together, we almost die from exhaustion staying awake til 4 at the senior party. Done.
Okay, there you go, all...well most, of the major events of high school. Of course that's only like 1% of all that happened but there you go, you now know me up til I graduated. Tomorrow I'll finish my history by telling my life from graduation til now. Most of it is made up of looking at this computer. Until tomorrow, see ya.
So, we've gotten to the point of my 9th grade year in my life story. Really, don't ask me why I cherish it so much. I just do. I guess that was the year I really found my identity and started t0 grow up (Physically, as well as in every other aspect haha). So I'll begin. Keep reading if you dare. Or if you have fifteen minutes with nothing else to do.
So 9th grade started and by that year so much was starting to fall into place. I was starting to accumulate a good group of friends, I was starting to head down the path of what I wanted to be when I grew up, I was starting to gain a real testimony spiritually, and the start of seminary really helped me continue that, and finally, and what I know you've been dying to hear about, I knew that this year in NAL was going to be EPIC. And it was.
At the beginning of the year, I began a class that became very important in steering my career life. The class was called "Principles of Engineering" or POE, and it was part of a new magnet program that began that year, Project Lead the Way. The program was set up to begin teaching kids who wanted to pursue a career in engineering the basics of engineering, and would build on different elements of it every year until your senior year. So I began that class with my buddies Michael Johnson and Jordan Blechert, whom I've already talked about. And it was great fun, we had many many good times in that class. It was because of that class that I really cemented my desire to become an engineer.
Socially, this year was my best year so far. You see, I'm the type that only keeps a small, close group of really good friends and doesn't like to branch out. But this year I branched out a bit. Now I'm not saying I became a social butterfly, far from it. I was still slightly reserved and content to sit back and watch the action, but the people I was previously friends with started to introduce me to knew people that I really got along with. This was the year I met many of my current friends, and got to know better people I already knew but never really got to know, you know? This was the year I got to know Colette Heslop better, even though we'd went to school for years together (but we didn't REALLY get to know each other until Sophomore year right Colette?). And many many other friends that became part of my very close group of friends that I'm still friends with today. So we all started to get closer, and hung out more and more, and we started to refer to ourselves as "The Group". Creative I know. Unfortunately that group didn't last throughout high school for various reasons but that's a story for another day. So throughout the year I have many good time of us doing things together, and will always remember the good times we had...
Now for the NAL front. I have to be careful with this because I could easily write a book on our season that year. That's how great it was. But I'll give you the condensed version. I do have to say though, that I know you probably don't care about this as much as I do, in fact I'm sure of it, but just humor me. Or stop reading, either or. So this year I tried out and once again made captain, or co-captain rather, with Eric Schmidt. Wow, this gonna be really hard to condense...okay, I'll REALLY condense it. We were really good and won the district championship. We went to nationals and won two games to make it to the final four, where we lost. However the team we lost to won 1st nationally so that gave us 3rd place. In the nation. Pretty good right? Yeah, it was awesome.
There was so much that happened that year I could never write about it all. But needless to say it was a great year. So much good happened in my life that I'll never forget that year. But I actually have to get back to work so I gotta stop. Get ready tomorrow to hear all about high school! Yay!
If you don't get the title, it's a joke. Nostalgia is defined as a "bittersweet longing for the things of the past." So in the title it would be longing for longing for things of the past. Ha ha? Anyway, I thought it was funny. I didn't know if anyone else would get it though....
But in case you haven't figured it out, today's blog post is about the past, or rather MY past, because you are here to hear all about me right? Yeah I thought so. So I figured I'd give you all a brief life and times of Cameron James Decker, from my point of view (because most of you already know somewhat of my past, but from your point of view). So buckle your seat belts cause here we go.
I was born in, well, Ogden technically, the old McKay-Dee Hospital, but my family and I, which then consisted of my parents and three older siblings, then lived in Clearfield, in a little ghetto house which is now literally in the ghetto part of town. Good thing we didn't stay. We moved when I was two years old, to Pleasant View, in the same house we currently live. So I've lived in the same house in Pleasant View pretty much my entire memorable life.
In order to spare you from all the many details of my childhood, which would literally turn this into a novel, I'm going to skip ahead to Junior High (We are going to use school and grades as the measurement of time in order to simplify). At the beginning of 7th grade my best friends were Michael Johnson and Patrick Ulrich. To rewind a bit, I met Mike in 3rd grade (and we remain best friends to this day), and Patrick in 4th grade (though I didn't really become best friends with him until Junior High). I went through the year as a tiny (yes, believe it or not, I was actually pretty scrawny, or at most only average 7th grader size), timid, goofy kid, who didn't really have much of an identity. I was just boring old white bread. I didn't do any sports then and I wasn't really involved in anything. Then I heard about the National Academic League, a "team" of kids who competed with other schools in academic events. When I heard about it I was like, "Perfect!" It was just the thing a brainy yet uncoordinated kid could get into. So I went to tryouts and days later was surprised to find I had made it! I was so happy! Now right now I could go into SO many details about that year's season (which was awesome! Except we lost the district championship game and only got 2nd...) but I'll continue. Actually the most important part, I consider, of 7th grade and NAL, is that it's there I met two people who are now two of my best friends, Emily Mikhail (Hi Emily!) and Micah Orton. Man did we have some good times...
Then 8th grade rolled around and not much happened except I moved from North Ogden Junior High, to the newly built Orion Junior High. Luckily almost all of my friends came with me. That year was filled with gaining new friendships and learning lessons of life. I had my first dance with a girl that year (That was you Em!), my first hug from a girl (Seriously, that was a big deal for me back then), my first ki-haha gotcha, no that wasn't then. Anyway, it was an interesting year. I consider one of the biggest events of THIS year to be that it was the year I met my buddy and still best friend today, Jordan Blechert (technically we met in 7th grade but that's a story all in itself). But that year I also again I tried out for the NAL team. Imagine my utter surprise when not only did I make it, but I made TEAM CAPTAIN! Yikes! Usually only 9th graders are captains of the team, so I was really surprised. Although, I can't place all the glory on myself, I actually attribute it to the fact that we had a severe lack of 9th grade talent that year, and most of our team was 8th graders. We said that year that because we had so many 8th graders, next year when we were all 9th graders our team would be awesome! That prediction turned out to be oh so very correct. (Wow, I have to be careful, this is turning into a biography of my days in NAL) So anyway, the year rolled by and it was great, but nothing could compare to next year, my 9th grade year.
I'll tell you now, even though I had TONS of fun all through high school, I still consider 9th grade to be my greatest and most exciting and memorable year of all school. Really, it's so awesome that right now I'm going to cut this post short, and will dedicate tomorrow's post entirely to that year. That's how good it was. So I hope you've enjoyed the journey of my life so far. It seems like every time my post just ends up way too long, and I have to apologize for it, but I don't want to cut any of it out! It's all so precious to me! Plus if you're really dedicated to reading about me on my blog you won't mind. So I hope you don't mind.
So today has been fraught with all sorts of misfortune. I woke up this morning and I was still sick, which I am angry about because I HATE sore throats. I also woke up to be slightly swollen from my gums again. I'm going backwards? No way, not acceptable. Then probably the worst thing that happened today, my car got absolutely buried in my little parking cove (the place where I park has to be the worst place to park in the universe in winter. When it snows it all gathers up in this little area that is surrounded by rock walls, which makes it really hard to remove the snow and unbury the car) because of the ridiculous amounts of snow we got at my house (if you don't know, my neighborhood has it's own weather system where 2 inches of snow in the rest of Ogden means 6 inches at my house) So it took me an hour and a half to unbury my car and finally get it out after many unsuccessful attempts of trying to back it out. I was an hour late for work. Then when I get here I realize that I forgot my glasses at home, and computer screens, and especially my work computer screen, are heck to use without my glasses. So the day has not gone so good so far. Here's to hoping it will improve.
As for that I don't really feel like writing anything else. Right now I'm having to squint with my face a lot closer to the screen than I'm comfortable with, so I'm annoyed. Hopefully tomorrow everything will work out and I'll be able to see so I can entertain you with my life. Until then, peace out.
So recently I've started to become obsessed with Zombies, probably due to the fact that I'm reading this book about a fictional Zombie "War" called "World War Z". The book is basically a compilation of fictional interviews where people from all over the world give their point of view of the "Zombie War" from pre-war, during war, and post-war viewpoints. It's really very interesting. I would recommend it to any fellow Zombie fanatic, along with another book I've acquired, "The Zombie Survival Guide" which is just as it sounds, and survival guide with all the knowledge you need to survive a Zombie apocalypse. Oh you may scoff now, but don't come crying to the only guy around with a Zombie survival guide once those rotting buggers start coming for your flesh.
Now that I think about it, I liked Zombies before I got those books, and it was the whole reason I got the books in the first place. I remember months ago beginning to form my "Zombie Plan", what I would do if Zombies attacked. It would take WAY too long to detail here, but if your interested, just let me know. To end this portion, I'll leave you with this: I once heard a saying that I totally agree with, "The worst part about a Zombie apocalypse would be trying to pretend it wasn't cool."
Now for part number two of this blog entry, my recently gum surgery. I know, it sounds packed with excitedment, but I just thought I'd give a brief synopsis of the details. So about...six months ago I went to the dentist, and normally when I go to the dentist I get nothing but compliments. I've never had a cavity and brush every morning and night (the only question I mess up on is "Do you floss?" Of course that one is a no, who really flosses that isn't OCD?) But this time they actually had some bad news for me. They told me that four teeth on my bottom....mouth, part, had receeding gums, or the gums at those teeth had gotten low, to the point where my roots were almost exposed. So they recommended me to a Periodontist, or gum dentist. At first I was sort of in denial, I wanted to just blow it off and pretend like my mouth was just fine. After all who's just dying to go and get surgery anywhere near their mouth? Or surgery in general?! But after a few months my mother, being the saint she is, convinced me to do something about it before I left on my mission and we made an appointment with Dr. Cassity, the Periodontist. The first time I went to him he checked me out and detailed the procedure, then we made another appointment for two weeks later to do the surgery (which I'll go into soon. Lucky you.)
Well that two week later appointment was last Monday, and I was NOT happy to be going. I hate having things done to my mouth, it felt like I was getting my wisdom teeth out all over again! Except this time I was awake! So they take me and get me settled, and the assistant lady rubs numbing stuff all over the area of the four teeth where the operation was to be. I made the mistake of touching it with my tongue so it got to be numb too. Then Dr. Cassity comes in and- well before I go any further I should have a warning to all those who are squeamish, especially as it deals with mouth parts, which makes some people even more squeamish. So here it is: WARNING!!!! THE FOLLOWING SENTENCES CONTAIN GRAPHIC WORDING ABOUT YUCKY AND OUCHY GUM SURGERY PROCEEDURES!!!!! DO NOT CONTINUE IF SQUEAMISH!!!!!! Okay there you go, from now on you can't blame me for anything. So the good doctor comes in and first thing takes out the needles. I'm so happy at this point. Luckily, the stuff the assistant rubbed on worked and I barely felt the needle. But now my entire lower jaw goes numb, which is weird but I'm actually happy about because I don't have to feel anything. Except I would prefer to not be awake altogether. But I am so I have to deal with things happening in my mouth to that I know are happening but I can't feel. It's a very odd feeling. So this is where it gets gross. The first thing he does is-are you ready for this?-he scrapes what gums I have left on those teeth open, the where the gum is hanging off my teeth a bit. I can feel him scraping it off and it makes me cringe even though I can't feel it. Then he takes donated tissue (from a dead guy, which I thought was really cool but apparently not all people do) and covers up the area that was exposed before but wasn't supposed to be. Then he stretched the gum part that he scraped off over the tissue. Finally, he sewed the gums shut, which was actually the longest and worst part of the procedure because I actually felt it a little bit, and he had to sew all the way around the four teeth individually. Then it was finally over, and wasn't so bad for a few hours until the numbing stuff went away. But eventually it did...
And boy did it hurt! It was worse than getting my wisdom teeth out! I've probably told most of you that I actually didn't do too bad when I got my wisdom teeth out. There wasn't too much pain and I didn't really swell at all. In fact I helped someone move the day after I got them out. Impressive right? So I guess now I had to pay for that. I've been hurting from Monday until about yesterday night, when most of the pain and swelling died down. I can still feel it of course today, but it's not too bad.
Actually, you know what the worst part of this whole thing is? Because of where the teeth are, I am forbidden for TWO WEEKS to eat anything that I have to bite into, which includes sandwiches and hamburgers and all kinds of things! Because if I do, it could open up the stitches and mess everything up. Also I can't really eat anything crunchy or crispy like popcorn or chips because of the same reason. So everything I eat has to be super soft, for the reasons above and also because my teeth are just plain sore, and it hurts to really chew anything. So I can tell you that I've had more pudding and jello in the past week than I ever have before! And I still have more than I week of it! Argh! This is gonna be tough...
So once again, I've written a novel. I guess it was a mistake to include two subjects but hey, they were both on my mind. Anyway, thank you for getting this far and thank you for reading my blog! Come back tomorrow and I'll have more tales of adventure and intrigue from my life, along with crazy ramblings from my head. See ya!
