I am exited to start my blog this semester. I have always wanted to do a blog but never found the opportunity until now. I am a senior education major at the University of Nebraska at Kearney (Go Lopers) this is my fifth year of wrestling at UNK (I redshirted when I was a freshman), and I am one of two seniors on our wrestling team. I am beginning to realize how quickly the real world is approaching as I just started my last semester of classes today toward my undergrad here at UNK. I am not really 100 percent sure what I want to do with my life yet, but I am sure God will give me a gentle shove down the right path when that time comes. 

One thing that I have learned throughout my college career is that I want to work with people. I student taught this past semester in 7^th grade science and 8^th grade history, although it was difficult at times, I really enjoyed the chance to build relationships with the students. Another major influence in my life that has given me a love for people is my friends; God has blessed me with some awesome friends that have shown me how enjoyable life can be when you are around great people. I'm sure I will be going into more detail about them later (like for instance how one of my best friends/teammates Paul can hang from his toes on a pullup bar). So as far as my future is concerned, I don't think I can say it any better than one of my all time favorite hobbits said it, when Frodo Baggins said "I will take the Ring, though I do not know the way."  

Enough about me and on to our weekend at the Cliff Keen National duals in Cedar Falls

Iowa; we ended up going two and two on the weekend and taking 4^th place out of a field of 16 teams. We had a battle against Pittsburgh-Johnstown in the first round which actually ended in a tie score of 17-17, but we got the win because our 174 lber. Kamarudeen (we call him Marty) won by a technical fall (a margin of 15 points), which gave us the tie-breaker criteria. We then won against Western Colorado, which put us into the semifinals. In the semis we wrestled Newberry a school from South Carolina and lost a close dual, which put us into the 3^rd and 4^th place match against Minnesota State Mankato where we lost another close one by three points.  In my opinion national duals is one of the coolest tournaments that we wrestle in.  It is held at the University of Northern Iowa and features every single collegiate division out there. Schools from DI, DII, DIII, NAIA, Junior College, and Club teams compete within there respective divisions to find out who has the best dual team. This is another reason that national duals is so awesome, the dual atmosphere really brings out the team spirit that most people didn't know was such a huge part of wrestling. Wrestling is often times considered to be an individual sport, but in my opinion it is just the opposite. There is no better experience in wrestling than getting wrapped up your teammates matches; the entire team screaming at the side of the mat until their voices are hoarse helping a teammate to dig deep and find that extra ounce of energy to wrestle his hardest until the end of the match. Well there is perhaps one thing that can compare with that, going out to the steak buffet after an all day tournament, but I guess that is a different kind of enjoyment! Well I can tell that I have already been long winded enough so I will let it rest until next week, we have a home dual coming up this weekend which will be a nice change of pace from all of the traveling! So until then Peace-Out and Sauerkraut!