WASSUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUP wow oh wow oh wow, it has been an awful long time!  In case you haven’t guessed, I’m back with my very last blog post of my entire FACE class career.  The jury is still out on whether I will keep this blog going or not, but while you are all anxiously awaiting my decision on that topic, I would like to keep you busy by informing you about the very last thing I am required to write about: My Plan.

I have to confess, I really am not someone who has a clear-cut vision of what they are going to be when they grow up.  I, personally, feel like I still have a lot of growing up to do in the first place.  Basically, my primary focus now is on one thing, and one thing only: achieving exemplary grades this first semester at SMU.  Everything else, whether it be my social life, extra-curricular activities, free time, and even sleep (most definitely sleep…who does that anymore?) take a backseat.  I know that in order for me to be able to have the kind of life that I wish, I must excel in college to the best of my ability, and then some.

Giving my future a little thought, I have always thought about the possibility of either having a career in sports media, or attending law school and then being involved with either the sports industry, or the music industry.  That is why I am double-majoring in Vocal Performance and Journalism, as it gives me the freedom and necessary skill/qualifications to be able to explore the possibilities involved with either path.  My ultimate goal after having finished college, is to acquire a job that not only makes me very successful and allows me to support my future family, but also one that I enjoy doing tremendously.  I have been extremely fortunate to have the opportunities I have had in my life leading up to this point, and I believe it will all be for naught if I do not find something that I love to do, and then do it to the fullest, when it comes to my career.

Truly, I believe my future is clouded at this point.  I am really just starting to get the hang of college life, and I have not even begun to take any Journalism classes, as they start for me next semester.  However, I am confident that as long as I continue to put schoolwork, and learning, first, everything else will fall into place after.

Well that is just about all she (or he, in this case) wrote, y’all!  Let me just say that I have appreciated all of the interest you have taken in me and my blogs, and I thank you for all of your support from the bottom of my heart.  Until next time, y’all, I’M OUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUT!

AWWWWWWWWWWWWW YEAH! I know it has been quite a while y’all, but rest assured, I am back with a vengeance!  This time around, I am going to talk to you about the skills that I possess.  First, let me just start of by saying that I am the absolute most talented and amazing person you will ever meet…..and I’m super modest too!  Totally kidding, but all joking aside, please excuse me if I don’t do the best job “bragging” about myself, for I do try to remain as humble as possible in every aspect of my life.

First of all, I would say that I possess a great understanding and aptitude for all things music.  Not only am I able to sing and perform at a high level, I also have a great ear for music and am able to write it well as well.  I believe that it is invaluable for a musician to be able to understand all aspects of the music world, for that will be what truly makes them masters of their craft.  In addition, it also enhances the overall musical experience when an artist is able to analyze and dissect a song that they have performed, and perhaps even wrote, as well.

I am skilled at arguing.  This was said directly to me by the people that I probably do the most amount of arguing with: my parents.  I certainly wouldn’t consider myself an argumentative person, for I by no means seek out the opportunities to pick verbal fights with people.  However, when I do argue with people, in which case sports is usually the topic, I am able to win many arguments based on the clear, concise, and factual way that I lay out what points I want to make.  I am also not someone who exaggerates the facts, or gets myself into an argument in which I am overmatched, which comes in handy in its own right.  My skill in this area is the chief reason why I am considering law school after I graduate from SMU.

I am skilled at relating to people.  I really do pride myself on my ability to be able to sit down and really listen to and understand people when they talk to me about things such as what is going on in their lives or what they are upset about.  Somehow, I am able to offer advice that can actually help them out at least a little bit, and for that I am extremely thankful, because I truly enjoy making people feel better.  I also know that if I spend a little bit of my own time listening to and helping these people out, then perhaps they might do the same for me when I am need of the exact same thing from them.  Such is the reason why everyone should be kind and open to everyone they meet, simply because friendship is a two-way street, and it rocks.

When it comes to subjects, I am skilled at English, Writing, History, Music, Theology, and Languages.  I am most certainly not skilled at Math or Science.

I would have to say, from a completely objective point of view of course, that I am skilled at blogging.

I am skilled at staying faithful, no matter whether it be toward a person, an ideal, or God.

I hope to one day be skilled at being a father.

I am not skilled at saying “no” to people, but I’m working on it!

I am not skilled at ending blog posts……………….

………but unfortunately all great things must come to an end sometime!  As always, I greatly appreciate your “liking” of me on FaceBook and your reading of these blog posts.  Your support means the absolute world to me!  Stay tuned for next time, when hopefully the topic will be something along the lines of “Greatest musical influence” so I can write all about my favorite person in the world who’s name begins with a “D” and rhymes with “rake”!

Hey, hey, yo, yo, yo, HEY!  That’s right everybody I just cannot stay away from the blogging game, no matter how hard I try!  Ok, that’s actually a little bit of a white lie, because I am required to make these blogs for one of my classes.  However, I do enjoy this very much, and I would like to just take a moment to sincerely thank you for your desire to read this blog of mine, and for taking at least a shred of interest in who I am!  I appreciate greatly!

Now, the topic of this post is “My Motivations”.  Obviously, there are precious few people, if any, that go through life without anything driving them forward, and I am certainly no exception.  There are multiple factors within my life that push me to excel and give my all at everything that I attempt.  Interestingly enough, some of these are positive things, things that I embrace and hold near and dear to me, but others are my fears, things that I do not want to happen to me.  I believe that it is good to have a variety of motivations, for that makes your drive that much harder to break down.

Chief among everything that motivates me is my desire to be successful.  I would not consider myself someone who believes that a “good life” is composed solely of things such as large houses, fancy cars, and lots of money, but I will not deny that all of those things are appealing to me.  I confess that I watch (or rather watchED now that I am in college…) an inordinate amount of TV, and I am attracted to some of the luxurious and fortunate lifestyles certain people lead.  This drives me to work as hard as I possibly can in areas of my life such as academics, because I now know that all of the hard work and effort I invest into these next four (and possibly more should I attend grad school) years of my life will pay dividends in return.  I want to be able to own a nice home, live in a nice area, have nice cars, wear nice clothes, afford to send my children wherever they would like to go to school, and be able to explore and enjoy the many different passions that I have in life, such as music and sports.  Renowned R&B vocalist Trey Songz once sang it best: “I just wanna be successful”.

I am motivated by my parents.  They have given me so much over my 18 years on this Earth and to whom much is given, much will be expected.  I have a strong desire to make them proud of me, and even though I know they already are, I will stop at nothing until they see me develop into the successful, virtuous, mature, and complete adult that they want me to become.  I want everyone I meet to look at me and say, “Damn, that boy must have been raised right.”, because I believe that I was.  I cannot thank my parents enough for the start they gave me.  It is the least I can do in return for how much they have already done and sacrificed for me.

I am motivated by God.  In the same way that I believe I owe it to my parents, I also owe it to God to be the best overall person I can be and follow His commandments.  He put me on this Earth for a specific reason, and I intend to go through life, trying my best to find out what that reason is, but simultaneously not worrying about whether I will find it or not, if that makes any sense.  God is my inspiration to be an overall “good person”.  I am motivated by Him to love my neighbor as myself, love my enemies, turn the other cheek, have empathy for others, help those who are in need, and always be thankful for all of the good things that happen to me.

I am motivated by my fear of failure.  Now this may sound like basically the same thing as my desire for success, and yes, I recognize they are quite similar.  However, this is not a fear of trying and failing at just any random thing.  No, I am OK with failing at something, as long as I have given it an honest effort.  What I fear, is my life ending up a failure.  I fear that I will not be able to find a successful job, not be able to get married and start a family, and not be able to fulfill what I hope to be a promising future that I have ahead of me.  I am afraid of letting down the people that I want to show that I have made it, the people who have placed their beliefs in me.  I fear letting down Southern Methodist University for accepting me and its professors within the Meadows School of Music and the Office of the Provost for the scholarships they offered me.  This fear of not fulfilling peoples’ expectations for me further pushes me forward toward my goals and toward ultimate victory and achievement within my life.

Last and most certainly not least, I am going to bring it down to a more personal and individual level and say that I am motivated by my desire to be like my father.  I truly believe that my father is the most incredible person in my life, and it would be an understatement to say that he is my role model.  He is absolutely everything to me.  It really is impossible for me to put into words just how much he means to me, but I greatly admire the way that he carries himself and how he puts others in front of himself.  He is extremely smart, successful, hilarious, understanding, and he is an incredibly loving mentor and father to me.  So much so, that if I am fortunate enough to grow up to be even half of the father to my children that he was to me, I will be satisfied.  I am motivated to be like my father.

Well that just about sums it all up y’all!  If you’ve learned nothing else about me from this post, know that I am a supremely motivated individual, and I WILL achieve my goals, live up to the expectations set for me, and fulfill my dreams!  And since I have yet to put any little anecdotes of music into this blog entry, I will leave y’all with an inspiring verse that will hopefully motivate you into achieving a drive as tenacious as my own!

“All you can do is handle it, worst thing you can do is panic,
Use it to your advantage, avoid insanity manage,
To conquer, every obstacle, make impossible possible,
Even when winning’s illogical, losing is still far from optional.”

-T.I.

Uh oh, guess who’s back!  That’s right y’all, (as if you would have guessed anyone else), its me!  Now for this third go around at this blogging thing, I am going to stray away from the previously established norm for a little bit and get serious with you.  I am doing this because I am going to talk to y’all about things that are extremely important to me: my values.  I am someone who believes that if a person does not stick to the principles that they believe define them, then they simply are not being true to themselves and who they are.  One should craft themselves a set of values that they hold in high regard, and then stick to those established values, no matter what life throws at them.

Perhaps chief among my values is the practice of “being a good person”.  I believe that is is instrumental for everyone to treat others like they would like to be treated, to not judge others based on anything such as unfair stereotypes, and to generally be nice to everyone they meet.  I, personally, cannot even begin to wrap my mind around how people can be so inconsiderate of others sometimes, and the way people seem to always rush in making harsh judgments of people whom they barely even know.

I value empathy.  I try my best to understand what people are going through, and help them out if I am able.  This also deals with how people should refrain from unfair judgment, and rather do their best to put themselves into the shoes of other people and think, “How would I feel if I was this person?”

I value honesty.  If there is one thing that could be considered my biggest “pet peeve”, it would have to be hypocrites.  It absolutely infuriates me when people so adamantly preach something, then go and do the exact opposite of what they are supposedly so for or against.  It literally makes me sick.  It makes me think back to a Bible verse I once read.  I cannot remember exactly how it goes, but it says something along the lines of “Do not be so quick to point out the stick in your brother’s eye, without first dealing with the log in your own.”  Practice what you preach, and mean what you say.

I value my faith.  As I have mentioned in previous posts, I am a very active, practicing Catholic.  I cannot even begin to put into words how much I love God and how important my faith is to me.  God is the reason that I try to live my life to the fullest, treating others I meet like Christ, just as He said to do.  Through my faith, I have learned the important principles of loving my neighbor, loving my enemies, turning the other cheek, and persevering through the hard times.

I value giving it your all.  Whether it be in a sport, an art, an educational environment, or a relationship, I believe people should always strive to be the absolute best they can be, and not settle for anything less.  That being said, I do not mean that failure is not an option.  This will sound horribly cliche, but this phrase is absolutely true: “It is OK to make mistakes when we try, for it is a mistake not to try.”  Now I will not lie to you and say that I always give 100 percent effort 100 percent of the time, but I am telling the absolute truth when I say that it is one of my primary goals to always put all I have into whatever I am doing.  For me, this act of “leaving it all on the field”, so to speak, is most prevalent in athletics.  I find it one of the most beautiful things in the World when an athlete or a team walks off that field or court or rink, knowing that regardless of the outcome of the game, they just showed everyone who was watching that they fought and fought and fought, until they had absolutely nothing left to give.  Another quote from one of the greatest athletes of all time in any sport, Michael Jordan, sums this up perfectly: “I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed.”

I value friendships and family.  They are the people that will always be there for me when I need them.

I value quality music.  Literally all kinds, there is no discrimination coming from my ears.  I can just as easily enjoy myself at an Opera as I can at a rap concert.  A great part of my life has been spent studying the amazing art of music, specifically the vocal aspect of it.  I am beyond proud to be able to call myself a student of God’s greatest gift to this World.

I value optimism.  I am a huge believer in the power of positive thinking.  You cannot have complete success in anything that you undertake without believing in yourself and the fact that you can accomplish what needs to be done.  Half of the battle in life is mental.  If you think positively, positive things will happen to you, and vice-versa.

I value hope.

I value equality.

I value love.

Yo, yo, yo!  What’s up again, everybody!  Guess who’s back for round 2?  That’s right, me!  So now that you know a little bit of general information about me, I would like to give you all an insight into just how this hardworking student takes care of his business during these fun filled weeks of studying and schoolwork.

Sorry, sometimes I get a little carried away and do things like talk in the third person.  Just bare with me, fans.  Anyways, I think it is safe to say that I take my schoolwork extremely seriously.  Believe it or not, though, I did not always used to be that way at all.  Way back when in my freshman year of high school, I was quite the immature kid.  I loved to have fun, and cared a decent amount about my grades, but certainly not enough to give up time to study the extra amount which is usually needed for that top-notch grade.  When I think about it, I really was always that way in the years leading up to high school, too.  Thankfully, God has blessed me with an awesome intellect, which allowed me to excel in the early stages of school without really trying that hard.  Sooner or later, though, schoolwork tends to catch up with kids like that, and I was no exception.  All throughout freshman year, I struggled just to maintain a 3.3-3.4 GPA, significantly lower than the usual grades that I had achieved up to that point.  The proverbial nail in the coffin really came when I ended the year with a C+ in geometry, a class I had struggled just to keep a B- in all three trimesters, and in which I absolutely bombed the final exam, leading to the first C I had ever received in a class in my life.

It should have been clear from that moment on that I needed to elevate school to a more important part of my life, but summer was upon me, and I was quickly caught up in what I so naively thought was the important part of life: maintaining a good social life.  The most significant and defining change for me came when I received my grades for the first trimester of my sophomore year.  I got a 3.32, the lowest GPA i had earned to date.  Needless to say, my dad was absolutely furious.  I knew he had been frustrated with the continued downturn of my grades over the recent years, but at this point I could tell that he had had enough.  On the ride home from school, he yelled at me more than he ever had in my life, and he really let me have it.  I’ll leave out the specifics (you’re welcome) but he basically told me I needed to get my life together, or otherwise I would regret it later when it really counted, such as when I would be applying to colleges.  I cannot tell you how much this rant from him hit home with me.  Its actually almost scary to think about just how much I changed from that point on.  From then on, I approached school with a tenacity that was absolutely unparalleled, and I achieved the results I desired because of it.

This renewed commitment to school allowed me to achieve a 4.0 during my senior year, and I would have to say that the work habits that I developed during high school have definitely carried over to my collegiate career.  When I study, it is in an isolated place.  I have to have complete concentration, as well as zero distractions.  When it comes to assignments and homework, no longer do I procrastinate or give half effort.  I try my absolute hardest on all types of assignments, never taking any for granted and never taking any days off.  It is this “killer instinct” mentality that, I believe, will allow me to achieve  one of my ultimate goals in life: being successful.

So, as my main show Looney Toons would say, “Thats all, folks!”  I am about to peeeeeeeeeeace out of here and get some sleep, if you know what I mean.  Until next time y’all, and as always, THANK YOU FOR READING!

What’s up, everybody!  I would like to take the opportunity to introduce you all to the wonderful world of…ME!  My name is Edward Warner Paul (Confirmation name.  I’m sorry I had to.) Tooley, but I actually go by the nickname “Ted”.  On that particular topic, I am always questioned as to why I go by Ted, instead of Edward or Ed.  Well, the reason is because I was named after my grandfather, who also goes by Ted from Edward.  But honestly, the whole “Ted from Edward” phenomenon everyone always obsesses over really is not that uncommon!  I have met four other Teds that get their name from Edward, yet I have never met one person who gets his Ted from Theodore, which is what most people assume is my real name.  Think of it as a kind of “Dick from Richard” or “Billy from William” type of deal.

Anyways, if you couldn’t tell from that random tangent I just went off on, I like to talk.  About anything.  Really.  My favorite topics are sports, music, and food, but ladies, don’t be afraid to ask me about the latest fashion trends or soap operas.  I can hold my own (or at least, do a good job pretending to.)  In all honesty, I pride myself on what I believe is my ability to relate to many different types of people.  It is a blessing.

And on the topic of “blessings”, yes, I am religious!  I am a proud Catholic, and have been since the day I was born (or baptized, if you want to get all technical on me).  I absolutely love God with all my heart, body, soul, mind, and spirit, but I promise I do not go around evangelizing all the time.  I’m simply telling you because you asked!  (Disclaimer: You chose to click on this and read my blog, therefore I assume you have at least a shred of interest in who I am, and for that I deeply thank you.)

One last thing before I call it a blog (see what I did there?): I am a singer!  I have been taking private voice lessons for the last 4 years, and I am currently studying Vocal Music, as well as Journalism and Pre-Law, at Southern Methodist University!  Singing is most definitely a challenge, and commitment, but trust me, I have enjoyed every step of the journey, and I’m still going strong!  When it comes to the specifics, I am a Tenor (thats the high-voiced kind) and though I sing classical and musical theatre songs here in the Meadows School of Music, I have to confess that my true passion lies with popular music.  I enjoy singing along and listening to a variety of different artists, such as Chris Brown, Gavin DeGraw, The Killers, Eric Church, and of course, my absolute most favorite person that has ever existed in the history of time: Drake.  I’m sure I’ll get into this in depth over the next few blogs, but I am THE BIGGEST Drake fan you will ever meet (or read a Blog of) in your entire life.  Period.

Well that’s all folks!  I’m a hard-working college student, and I have a lot more work to do between now and my next post, but thank you very much for reading this little work of mine, and remember: Pony Up!

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