"Differential Diagnosis"

The excitement of finding someone new to connect with, the nervousness that engulfs your body as you make your approach, the extreme curiosity that develops as you get to know each other, and ultimately the raw sexual magnetism between two terrestrial bodies. The beginning stages of a relationship are often the most exciting, but sadly it’s short lived.

Before you truly know that person, they’re often the embodiment of your ideal partner, perfect in every which way. Your conscious brain tells you, “It’s too good to be true…investigate!” , and investigate you do.

Searching for any scraps of relevant information, you go through their Facebook & MySpace profiles. You approach their friends and yours in hopes of catching any red flags, but we all know better…if any red flags do turn up, we’ll promptly ignore them and press on anyway.

As the relationship runs its course, the veil slowly comes off, revealing someone much less “perfect” than you once thought. The rainbows and butterflies begin their metamorphosis into thunderstorms and moths. Before you know it, the relationship is over, and you find yourself wishing you had been more careful with your heart, or perhaps paid more attention to those red flags you discovered earlier.

Such is the cynicism of a man frustrated with relationships and the deception associated with them.

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“Bzzz! Bzzzzz! Bzzz!” My phone vibrated loudly just as I was stepping out of the shower. A text message from a girl, but not just any girl, this was the girl who’d motivated me to start working out with her and my coworkers. This was my accomplice for several fun filled weekends, and this weekend would be no exception. I ignored the text message for the time being, but quickly returned to it once I was shaved and dressed.

“Come by my place tonight, I have a surprise you won’t want to miss…bring drinks.” I smile a sly, devilish grin for a few moments as I thought to myself, “I love her surprises,” and gathered my wallet & keys. My first stop, the liquor store to pick up a few of our favorite drinks, then off to her place for my “surprise.”

Her place, a large co-ed dorm located on a military installation, is much like a typical college dorm on the inside, but it’s outward appearance is that of a quiet, orderly building. The hallways and common areas are homey and elegant, but within each private room a multitude of happenings goes on mostly unnoticed. From underage drinking, to adultery, and even domestic abuse, things aren’t always as nice and orderly as they may appear.

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What Kind of Power Ranger fan would I be if I didn’t at least mention the apparent end of the Power Rangers series. With the conclusion of Power Rangers RPM, after almost 16 years, Power Rangers is over for the time being…

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Looking back at the last twelve months of my life, I realize that this was probably one of the more exciting years I’ve had in quite some time. Sure, I’ve experienced several ups and downs, but that’s what makes life so great sometimes.

Early this year I lost something very important to me, the Taekwondo dojang/dojo where I spent a good majority of my free time training in Taekwondo. Not only did we lose the facility, but I lost contact with many of the outstanding students who attended; many of who looked up to me for inspiration and guidance. The Korean Taekwondo master and his assistant, along with the American Taekwondo master, have long since vacated that empty building, but they will forever be a part of me.
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Written sometime in 2009:

The heart, it resides within the very core of our bodies and silently manipulates many of our actions on a daily basis. One of the many organs which our lives depend on, but the one organ from which love blossoms; beating from the earliest stage of our life???s development until the very end. Its no wonder why so many different cultures place such significance upon the heart.

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My mind, so focused on various objectives and martial arts has grown strong, and it has instilled in me a strong sense of self and determination unbreakable by any challenge.

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In martial arts, your skills are constantly challenged during friendly sparring matches against fellow classmates. During PT, the only way to assess my improvement was to compare myself to the other runners. Unfortunately, the same group of people don’t always attend PT due to various work obligations, schedule shifts, and leave. I wanted solid evidence of my improvement, but just wasn’t sure how to go about it.

The answer came to me in the form of an e-mail sent to my university address.  The university was requesting student volunteers for the 2nd annual 5k "Walk for Autism" in the next town over. This was just the challenge I needed to help push myself towards further improvement!

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