I Wish

This is a song preformed (and I would assume written by) by Blake Gardner of the once existent rap duo called Pushmode. The song is called "I wish".

I wish. I wish.

I wish that I could handle,
I wish that I could sing,
I wish that I could be good example what a man should be,
I wish that I could make people understand my thought,
Forget people, I wish I could understand my own thought.

I wish that I could be a better Christian,
Wish that I could crawl inside your ears and make you listen,
I wish that my position wasn't here on a stage with a Mic, but it's the best way that I know that I can show you all the light.

I wish that I could learn to stop complaining,
Wish that I could learn to enjoy the weather even when it's raining,
And I wish that I could learn to love people, like I know you love people, but sometimes I need reminding that we're equal.

I wish that depression didn't run in my family,
I wish that a lesson could be learned from these casualties,
I wish that oppression could be ended everywhere,
I wish my nation would be changed by a prayer.

I wish that I was different,
I wish that I was better,
But I'm better off writin' off my wishes in a letter,
And I better not take my little wishes too far, cause my own wish is none to next to what you have in store.

I wish that I was different,
I wish that I was better,
But I'm better off writin' off my wishes in a letter,
And I better not take my little wishes too far, cause my own wish is none to next to what you have in store.

I wish my past didn't exist,
I wish that I backtrack and take back what makes me like this,
And I wish that friend would stop cutting her skin,
I wish she knew true beauty truly lied within,
I wish that suicide wasn't easier than life,
And I wish that you and I could sit down and make it right,
And wish I could play chess with my granddad again,
But he died of lung cancer and I'm stuck with the pen.

I wish that could toss my material things, just take up my cross and nod my head to the king,
And I wish that I could eat my own words with a spoon, but if I did that I'd be eatin' here until noon.
Assume just for a second I guess, what if we all got own wishes would it be like this? Or would greed supersede and everything fall apart? I think sometimes we take our own little wishes too far.

I wish that I was different,
I wish that I was better,
But I'm better off writin' off my wishes in a letter,
And I better not take my little wishes too far, cause my own wish is none to next to what you have in store.

I wish that I was different,
I wish that I was better,
But I'm better off writin' off my wishes in a letter,
And I better not take my little wishes too far, cause my own wish is none to next to what you have in store.

That's what I wish.
That's what I wish.
That's what I wish.

That's what I wish.

"I Wish" by Pushmode

Careers

massage therapist $64,000
art teacher $48,000
state police trooper $57,000
doctor $76,000
chiropractor $73,000
mechanic $39,000
art professor $59,000
studio artist $41,000
painter $36,000
team building facilitator $68,000
graphic designer $59,000
comic book artist $68,000
computer programmer $75,000

View Larger Salary Graph

I do not know how accurate these estimates are. I think they are based on http://www.indeed.com/'s listing for those jobs by employers.  I was brainstorming today though, thinking that I am probably going to need a better paying job than working in this factory for the rest of my life.

Some of these jobs have higher estimates than I anticipated. Like Studio artist. There must be some studio artists who are doing really well financially. And comic book artists seem to be in demand it looks like.

This all stems from me starting to look at apartments in the area and thinking "Wow. If I pay ___ for rent each month, plus ___ for car insurance, plus ___ for electric, ___ for gasoline and ___ for groceries and ___ for cell phone and etc. etc. .... there won't be much left over, based on my current average income.

Summer

Well, I've been working at CTS for about 10 months now. The 4 month probationary period at the beginning was the long part. Since then time has gone by pretty quickly.

Somewhere in my time there, a new guy named Wesley (who's also a Christian) got a job there. It's really nice having him there because he lightens up the mood in the workplace. He's always got a funny story or a joke or something to keep things light hearted. And God knows I'm the guy who needs to lighten up most of the time.

It seems like lately all I do is work. So, I haven't felt like I really have anything to blog about.

However, I recently (a couple days ago) went to my friend Evan's wedding. He talked with me for a little bit after the dancing got going and the official wedding events were largely over. He asked me if I was still doing that blog that I had started, and said that he had actually started a blog partially because of me doing my blog. He encouraged me to keep writing. So here I am, picking back up with the blogging.

Disc Golfing:

Well, I've started disc golfing with friends from time to time. It's fun. You throw these miniature discs which some people would call "Frisbees," (but I think Frisbee is a brand name. ... and they're not called that. They're called "discs" apparently. ... but if you call it a frisbee I won't hold it against you. .. I probably won't even correct you). Anyway, you throw the discs from the tee off location toward a large basket which may be a couple to a few hundred feet away.
Last night I got a birdie (which I think is two under par) on a par 4. It was really exciting.

It's great because you are in the great outdoors, doing something physical (as opposed to playing video games) together with friends, working on your arm strength and throwing techniques, and socializing. It makes a great activity (if you enjoy disc golfing that is. Thankfully, throwing things like horse shoes or discs seems to come somewhat naturally to me. If I was really bad at it, I might not have as much fun).

Art:

I must admit I have hardly been doing anything with drawing or painting or any of that recently.

Music:

However, I have been playing piano still. And since I recently bought a fancy android smart phone, I can now take pretty decent recordings of the music I play on my phone. They aren't studio recordings or anything, but it's a nice thing to have.

Bair Lake Bible Camp:

For those who have been familiar with the fact that I worked there. I am no longer employed at Bair Lake Bible Camp. However, on rare occasions I still do work for them in their Adventure Challenge Education programming (e.g. leading rock wall climbing activities, or high ropes course activities, etc.) 
I was blessed ( and I do mean blessed. It was a blessing to be there) to attend half of camp as a camper last week. I attended Youth Week, which is the camp week for the college aged kids. We had some amazing worship times. I was able to talk with one of the adult counselors, Bruce, for a couple hours about some things I'm struggling with in life. I had some fun bonding time with new friends on a road rally. It was a great time. It also turns out that it is the last year that those directors for Youth Week will be directing that week. It was their 32nd year of directing youth week.

-Stephen