My being here was no mistake. It was planned. I wanted it, so I went for it. Nothing compares to the satisfaction that you can give yourself for accomplishing the goals that you set out for your life and this is part of what I will center this public message around.

I will give you some of my most prized knowledge this time, but you have to work for the rest of it. It’s out there, in this world. Put in the work, get off of your gluteus maximus and you’ll find it. The master appears when the student is ready and other clichéd statements to this effect. So, without further ado, let’s begin.

Be open to adventure. “How are you truly going to be satisfied with your life when you haven’t done things you’ve always wanted to do? It’s like someone handing you a pineapple and an orange (in this case that you have never eaten a pineapple before). You say that you always wanted to try pineapple, but you go with the orange because you already know what it tastes like,” says Jason Alvarado, best friend and personal adviser, spitting out high class analogies and blessing you with his mindset. Moving forward, there are many moments in your life where you can become in tune with your very own adventurous spirit. I guess that sometimes certain people are not inclined towards adventure. Other times, a certain personality can bring it out of someone. There is always an open door that is waiting to be walked through.

Create, never destroy. I would quote myself, but that would seem a little distasteful. I want to begin this topic by stating that you might not want to burn down the bridges in your life, but it's okay if you absolutely have to. In another sense, people should be more inclined to give to their community than to take away from what the community already has. Furthermore, if everyone in this community, the Midwestern State University Community, were to seek out more mutually beneficial relationships, then everyone might be a lot happier. A good sum of people will be getting what they want and intentions would be less eschewed. You have to give to get, my friend.

Help others. This goes along very well with the aforementioned idea. A person offering to help someone else is, therefore, creating a connection with someone and increasing the amount of good deeds that are being done on a daily basis. On a micro level, the time that person A helped out person B may not seem very significant, but when this continues to occur and more people begin to imitate this beneficial behavior, then we can better visualize the effect we have created on a macro level. We just changed the world or, at least, our University. Once the ball starts to roll, it is very difficult to stop it because an object in motion stays in motion unless, of course, some sort of strong external event occurs that shifts the current of the river.

Learn and conceptualize all types of knowledge. Knowledge is key. No, scratch that, the application of knowledge is what is really key. Not to brag, or to place myself above everyone else, but I do read from time to time. It's not a lot, but it's enough. It's enough to stay educated and alert in today's rapidly changing world. I believe that people have to stay somewhat more in tune with their environments, such as the social media world and the real world, in order to really understand the things that people are saying and what people really want. If you want to understand others, then this is essential. I tend to dip my toes into many waters and that is what has increased my worldly awareness by some notches.

Wishful thinking is the best kind of thinking. I absolutely love to visualize my own success. I don't know about the readers, but I find that this puts me in an exceptional state of mind. Things just happen to go my way when I think wishfully. In other words, it opens up another world that some people are just not used to perceiving. Perception is a very tricky thing. People see the world through different lenses. Not one person is the same and we have to appreciate this all of the time.

To wrap things up in a nice bow, shaping your own reality is not a simple thing. There are many factors involved with this process and some people might have to go out into the world and explore it in order to understand this concept, but others might just intuitively know this fact of life. This is a very abstract topic and I hope that I have better helped you to shape your own reality today. I hope that you decide to make a difference in our fair university and if you have any questions or if you want to know more specific examples of how to apply these concepts to your daily lives, feel free to find me on campus and ask. I like to share my knowledge and I like transparency. Have a good day and stay blessed.