Brandon's Blog
Hometown: Pueblo, CO
Major: Biology (Pre-Med)
August 2008
If I had to pick one word to sum up the summer [ha…puns], I would say…octopuhlicious. Octo- because the task can be accomplished in no less than eight, well-deliberated-over pointes. -Puh- because – one word!?... puhlease. And -licious because the suf- – nay – postix reminds me of food; and, in this morning hour, I’m kinda hungry. I started skipping breakfast this summer in order to cut back on grocery costs. See, this was my very first summer away from home. Three of the great men from the DIGs and I, found an apartment on the south side of town. If you’ve read any of my previous blogs, you know [“]I love the men of the DIGs[”]. And you can quote me on that. I’ll even package it up for you ([] ß there). I must admit though, I was a little nervous going in. I’d heard horror stories about even the best of friends having trouble living in such crowded quarters. But – and I feel foolish for having had any doubts in the first place – we did great. Greater guys really just don’t exist. To you who are going off to accomplish your great accolades and infect respective workplaces and whatnot with DIGs’ style class, “best wishes.” I’m going to miss you like non-summer months miss Pineapple Whip™. And you both know I mean that. To you other blogs readers who’ve not yet had the opportunity to mean much to me, here’s my octopuhlicious account. Enjoy ( ;
U-HAUL – CHEMWIPES – BUGBITES – POTATO BLUFFS – MUSHROOM? – SQUARE – PINENSULA – KAPEESH ( ;
April 16, 2008
Springfield, aside from the fact that it contains the greatest university on the planet, is also home to some of THE most priceless attractions. This past weekend, several of my fellow gnomies and I decided to head out to the Ozarks for some good, wholesome fun...barn swinging. Imagine standing on a 30-foot platform linked knee and thigh to six of your closest friends. “On the count of 3”, you’re instructed, “leap off to the left as hard as you can.” The platform folds back as soon as each of your feet leaves it, and you descend sinusoidally from the anchor linking you to the rafters of the old barn. A lil’ unorthodox, perhaps, but the experience may be defined as just less than spiritual. We went on to make silly competitions of the joust and tug-o-war contraptions, ending the night with wide-eyed exhilaration at the prospect of Doenig’s Sports world-class paintball battle-ground. “Oooh, what’s going on next weekend?” Daniel inquires, met with a verbally enthusiastic conjecture from Levi, “Floor Event!”
April 2, 2008
EU24 = “rockin-cool EU preview”
To those of you who did not flew, catch a bus or join the shrew…let me make this whoish claim, “The missingest factor was your name [on the event registration form].” There were truck loads of narcos, of blasters and shreds… guitars with sick pick-ups and gnarly gold heads. The Word bringers were relied, full bellied the crew; still, the missingest factor to this masten was you. So call out to your P-mens, type open their flaws; for next year’s excursion will feine your applause. The hosting we’ll boasting, don’t miss out again. Rewind, thus, -nn-you’ll find us still awesome…The End ( ;
March 20, 2008
With all the hype wrought by the recent fruition of our much anticipated eu24 event, it is easy to overlook the recent dearth also impressed upon our campus. I’m talking something long held “a pride” of second-year gnomies from the DIG’s. Well before the advent of Spring Break. One, noble J-Daniel Poole proposed the insinuation of all implications.
This is what transpired upon return from our quaint Spring Furlough…
We’re thinking about making it a new tradition for sophomore/second-year (which ever comes last) DIG-boys. We don’t really have any sort of initiation for any of the floors or groups on campus…just opportunities. The way we see it, if you can get enough people to do it with you, just about anything can be passed off as “just another saweet college thing”.
February 28, 2008
A lot of great guys will be graduating this semester; and, seriously, a tear is beginning to glisten in my left eye as I think about everything they’ve meant to me. As a result – I guess – of the proximity to the end of their EU experience, many of them are beginning to reminisce about the beginning of it all. It’s so funny to hear all the freshman stories about these guys I’ve come to look up to so much…the kind of people they were coming in and the expectations they had. Already, as I reflect on the past couple years, there’s been so much change from the person I was to the person I am, and I gaze with optimism toward how my style will manifest as a version of them. Then, I look around at some of the freshman…those with whom friendships have developed not from a sincere fondness (initially) but, rather, from a not so natural toleration…haha. You know… those, perhaps, still out to prove something, to show off what they think they have going for them or those just out-rightly denying the absence of their autonomy. It was me not so long ago. And, boy, if they knew… What if I’d known…? What if they’d known…? There is so much to anticipate; I can’t help but wonder what kind of roll I’ll have the opportunity to play in what the Evangel experience comes to mean.
Farewell boys…I hope to make you proud.
PS-I really don’t know what the problem is with my right tear duct…
February 15, 2008
So, I guess around this time each year, Burgess Hall hosts a house party. I don’t know how I missed it last year; but, when it comes to all the groovie things I’ll be reminiscing about senior year, I think being unable to say that I participated in this grandiose escapade each year will bring me an immense amount of sorrow. I had a lot of fun. The girls from the hall decorated the entire residence in holiday theme and each floor competed to be named this year’s most awsomest. Our sister floor (B4N) ended up ‘taking the gold’ – a pun of sorts as they reclaimed the title from B1S whose theme was St. Patrick’s Day – with [appropriately themed since the previous weeks upset] Super Bowl Sunday…Oh Yeah, we know how to pick em. Among the other themes were Earth Day, Christmas, V-Day, Presidents Day, B-Day and New Year’s Eve. Each had their own activities and plenty of food to make the experience all the more fulfilling ( =
January 30, 2008
Dreadlocks, they’re a beautiful thing. I had some once…they were on my head.
Alright…it feels good to get that off my chest. I wonder if [chin] hairs can be dreaded. I was about to say ‘chest’, but that’s just wrong. Girls don’t have chest hairs. I mean… I’ve never seen any who did. Not that it’s a big thing if you’re a girl who does. I saw a magazine once with pictures of two anonymous girls with happy trails on their stomachs. I don’t think I’d ever imagined anything like that, but I’m pretty sure that if I had, I would have felt much more disgusted about it. The fact is, it didn’t look all that awful on these particular girl stomachs. I think that’s where movie producers go wrong sometimes. They try to define something from their imagination and just fill in the blanks where the physical demands more. If they just elude to it, however, the viewer would probably come up with something similar or even greater; but, in either case, it would almost certainly be something more relevant to the viewer than the producer could ever have fabricated on screen. But, then, maybe that’s the point. Yes, that’s it. I think it’s time you stop imagining what the greatest college experience looks like and just submit your application. Here’s the link.
Oh yeah, chin hairs…I’ve got ‘em.
January 2008
So, Christmas break was awesome. I got to hang out with old friend s and spend some quality time with the family. My lil’ bro, Dominic, actually accompanied me back to Springfield since his classes weren’t to begin for another week. I like to make the trip over night to avoid traffic; and, aside from getting pulled over midway through Kansas, it was a nice drive. Dom and my roommate from last year, KC, had become chums of sorts over the past few visits so, shortly after our settling into the dorms, who else should arrive to place a sappy greeting on Dom’s sleepy forehead but the man himself. The week was filled with wonderful little escapades. KC took Dom to the overnight grand-opening of a new Chick-fil-A in Fayetteville, AR. They had loads of fun with the others Scott[Hall]-ites who joined them, and Dom quickly became just another one of the guys. It was so funny to see how quickly one – for lack of a less social-science-like term – assimilates into the EU community. I’m actually pretty sure I saw tears in some of their eyes when they came to the realization that Dom wouldn’t be here for the remainder of the semester; and, at one point, they even devised a plan to kidnap and hold him for the price of a possible missed flight and minor contribution to a gas fund. As Dom and I prepared to leave for the airport, however, they all gathered to wish him well. As they said their goodbyes I found myself reminiscing about the great relationships I’d formed in my first weeks here and how much those people still mean to me.
November 2007
Iche-keh-biddle! Iche-keh-bha! homesick-n-missing… Rha Rja Rah!!!
This blog goes out especially to all of you who’re not real sure about this whole goin’ outta’ state for college thing. Maybe you’ve got some close ties with friends and family back home or, perhaps, you just love your climate and the various recreational opportunities that go with it. Whatever it may be, I feel it necessary to inform you all concerning another aspect of Evangel that you might have previously failed to consider. You see, home is an almost entirely different place for pretty much every student who attends here. Meaning, each one has an experience and worldview specific to his-or-her background; and, most likely, it is one to which you’ve never been exposed. So, what results is this paradox where even the most uncool person just seems like the coolest person you’ll ever meet, and the insights you can glean are just profound (even coming those who don’t exactly sit atop the most elevated hieroglyphic on the intellectual pyramid).
And, as far as leaving close ties back home…yeah, it’s hard, but I think you’ll find that the bitter really sorta’ becomes the sweet. For instance, my little brother is my best friend, and I knew that leaving him meant missing out on life moments I’d never be able to reclaim. However, the growth that has taken place in him in my absence and vsv is something that would never have happened had been together. And, there are other perks as well.
I’m from Colorado and leaving the slopes behind was another tough sacrifice. But, here’s another cool thing about the relationships you form at Evangel. Like I said, each of them calls a different place home. So, seriously, you wanna' go to a beach? Chances are you'll probably have someone on your floor who lives near one and wouldn't mind having a few friends for a 7-hour-or-so road trip on any given weekend just to kick it. And, it’s not a terribly rare thing; you’re almost sure to meet people and/or run into opportunities like these all the time: lake house, ski lodge, hispanic capital of the United State (my home town)… whatever. The biggest problems tend to be not if there are opportunities or even how much they'll cost but, rather, of which and when or how often should you take advantage of them. Here’s a pick taken from a little excursion some of ‘gnomies’ took over the summer when one of our floor mates got married…
Yeah, if you didn’t catch it, his fiance’s family is from Hawaii, and all we had to do was get there.
October 2007
Hey, It’s Brandon Montoya comin’ acha’ once again from the depths of the Digs. If you were wondering, I did have an awesome summer…great memories made with some great folk from back home. Not gunna’ lie though; saluted with a kiss after each story time and tucked cozily into my bed at night, I couldn’t help but feel the sweet entice of the life I’d left in Springfield. Furthermore, come mid-August and with my lil’ bro accompanying, I remember driving back and gently taken with an odd sense of nonchalant familiarity as we entered the city. I was just [pause for rhetorical affect] back. In fact, it really felt as though I’d never left. And, being my first time… back, I’d come to a new appreciation of Evangel as an experience on the whole. Understand, despite the forthcoming innovations that keep the university rolling atop the currency, Evangel has this way of presenting itself as, yet still, just my school (equal vocal/mental emphasis denoted to each of the past three words). And, given the opportunity to, now, see the wide-eyed freshman class in nostalgia as one somehow metamorphosized from the past, it is truly an amazing thing to once aga – huhem – [still] be a part of it all.
July 3, 2007
So, I’m home 4 summer, and it’s good to be home. I really can’t define, in words, how amazing it is to feel so valued by those you left behind. I’m not gunna’ lie, leaving friends and family last fall was pretty tough, but finally getting back has been a much more ummm…”insightful?” experience than I’d expected. A lot of things seem much different than I remember, and the some-odd nine month absence has manifested a number of realities I had often – I guess – overlooked. Up ‘til the day you leave for college, most of the lessons learned have been learned as a community or, at least, within the confines of a community bias. But, when you leave that home state or town or country or maybe even just that home address, you become part of this multidimensional melting pot that is the community of EU. Students and faculty alike have come from all over the world with backgrounds as diverse as the automobiles that fill the parking lot as school comes to term. The experience is mind expanding, to say the least, but as you return to that community from which you were spawn two semesters later, you come to view those things formerly taken so familiar and common through new eyes. People, places, and endless, active combinations of the two may now be appreciated beyond the humdrum “it’ll be great to take the next step” mentality and embraced with wonder as you find yourself, once again, at home.
May 7, 2007
Hello to all my faithful leereers*,
I would like to take this opportunity to announce my retirement from the University Student Blog Posting Profession at Evangel. It has been my great honor and privilege to serve as the liaison by which you beautiful students [in prospect] may experience the near imaginary, dream-like, fairytale land that is Evangel University. It has truly been quite the voyage aboard this great vessel USBPPE, and I feel as attached to you as the rind to a watermelon as it is deseeded. Now, as we bring this ship of grandeur into its summer harbor. I would like to recite to you a poem of passion that immolates in totality my experience, thus far, at Evangel.
“Starting Out”
Oh EU, recall when we met and I came so wide-eyed.
How you welcomed me in, and you treated me tight.
With your really cool buildings and awesome caf food,
You made me feel welcome; it’s cause of you that I grew.
Now I smell the spring flower, and I must say good bye
To you and clock tower, the apple of my eye.
Just be sure to take care of my room and dorm floor
I can only hope for another year so great in it
As I return to you once again but, this time, a sophomore.
Have a great summer friends. I hope to see ya’ next year!
*Spanish coined term for my reference to the peeps who’ve been faithfully anticipating my intermittent submission of blog posts.
April 19, 2007
A-ite…so this past weekend was sorta’ like our Sadie Hawkins dance. The event itself was a blast with all kinds of great skits and videos and bands and – well, you get the picture. It was Rockin’ and themed too; my group dressed up like the crew from Miami Ink. But as sweet as all this was, what’s even groovier is what preceded it. As is tradition, ladies must, of course, ask the guys for Sadie Hawkins. But here at EU, they must find a way to do so creatively. It’s not entirely uncommon to come in late one night in March and find your dorm room ransacked with 250 Easter eggs or to arise for a trip to Wal-Mart early one morning and find your car completely covered in sticky notes, each one containing a clue as to who might desire your company at the annual Spring Fling event. Well, for me, the invitation came in the form of a singing letter awaiting my arrival to a morning class and, later that evening, a Sponge Bob piñata filled with candy and the final clue. And – needless to say based on the pic below, gents – I was far from displeased at the prospect of the said senorita. But, now comes the fun part. The rule is to respond with the same amount of creativity and spunk as was shown to you. So, from me, this came in the form of a singing telegram delivered to one of her morning classes. I stood adorned in a borrowed cowardly-lion outfit with bat and balloon in hand, and I serenaded her with my approval. It worked out exquisitely, and the teachers are usually pretty chill about the whole ordeal as long as you give them a bit of a “heads up”. I’m pretty lucky though; it doesn’t always go this smooth. One of my buddies got asked by two different girls, and we pondered whether or not he should say “no” to the one creatively. NEways…the time after was just planning what to go as and what to do before and after to make the most of such a momentous occasion. All in all…it turned out great.
March 20, 2007
I’ve always had a fondness for biology. I remember taking my magnifying glass outside at the young age of eight to observe nature’s little critters doing their thing. I took all the natural science and biology courses I could get my hands in and joined whatever geeky science club I found throughout middle and high school. Now, I’m here at Evangel taking one of my biggest passions to the next level. This past Friday, I finally took the exam that had shrouded every single neurological impulse in each of the three weeks prior. The taxonomy and phylogenetic classification exam has long been wrought as the most challenging test ever to be brewed in the warlock’s cauldron that is Dr Tenneson’s test-bank. I ate, drank and slept “Animalia”, drawing up chart after chart and creating mnemonics for how to remember such obscure details as why the sea daisy (being the only order of its kind and entirely separate from the sea lily) falls in the class, Concentracycloidea, or that the rare and dangerous tuatara of the Reptalia class falls under the subclass Rhinococephilia though it actually seems more like it should belong to Lacertilia, the lizard order. Needless to say, it was awesome to get that under my subcutaneous epithelium – pun courtesy of the zoology lab exam just two weeks prior. It is daunting but, actually, quite gratifying as I know that each successive night of what seems to be an almost insanely cryptic cram session brings me one step closer to the next step.
Evangel equips their pre-med students exquisitely for the adventure ahead and, actually, has higher than a 90% success rate for acceptance not just to med-school, but the med-school of the student’s choosing. And, by the way, for those of you who were overwhelmed by the [above] overzealous nuances of verbal jargon, please feel comforted by the fact that those who are not confused by the prospect are probably laughing hysterically how ignorantly I played on the assumption that no one would even try to follow such a mess. See…I actually don’t have it all straight, even now. I hope it doesn’t reflect too prominently on my test score! Haha…But, seriously, it’s not quite that grueling if you were thinking about coming here for pre-med. And we actually have a lot of fun in the midst of the mayhem!
February 2007
Hey, my name is Brandon, and I am currently a freshman biology major at Evangel University. I gotta’ tell ya’, college has been an amazing experience for me…everything I had hoped for and more. I live on a floor with the greatest group of guys I have ever met. And, that really says a lot. It was very difficult for me to leave my kid brother back home. We had – and still have – an awesome relationship, but I feel the transition has been an easy one because of the quality of life experienced with the boys from the ‘Digs’. We have, seriously, become just like brothers. With all the floor traditions to hold up, events to plan, and a sister floor’s hearts to steal, we have made my freshman year, thus far, one to remember. And as for the biology program…EXCELLENT! So much so, it’s kinda’ kickin’ my butt right now. It’s been a very humbling experience and, yet, one I know I can hold on to. It’s been one of my life dreams to become a surgeon, and I know that the challenge and prestige associated with Evangel’s pre-med program are helping me to get there. Plus, when times get tough, and I feel overwhelmed, I’ve always got the brothers here who seem to know just the right activity to get my mind straight again and the brother back home who still closes every myspace message, “to my BroHERO,” to keep me motivated.