Talk about burnout!

This is just an expansion of my facebook status about burnout. I read about this tennis player and think that we can all learn a little from her.

At age 14 Jennifer Capriati reached the semifinals of the

1990 French Open. The next year she became the youngest-ever women's semifinalist at Wimbledon, and in 1992 won the Olympic gold medal

by beating Steffi Graf in Barcelona, Spain. Then the pressures of being a teen sensation seemed to unnerve her, and her career fell apart. She was stopped for shoplifting in a Florida mall in 1993, and the next year arrested for possession of marijuana after a party in a Florida motel. Her police mug shot was widely published and became an

enduring image of a teen idol turned tortfeasor. Later in the 1990s Capriati began a slow career comeback. In 2001 she unexpectedly won her first Grand Slam singles title at the Australian Open, and followed that with a second Grand Slam victory at the 2001 French Open. In January 2002 she again won the Australian Open, defeating Martina Hingis to defend her title. She was ousted in the first round of the 2003 Australian Open, and has since been hampered by back and shoulder injuries.

Moral of the story: TAKE IT EASY

สวัสดี S̄wạs̄dī (Hello in Thai)

I've neglected this blog like a Turkish neglects to obey street signs. I just wanted to post some exciting things going on in my spectrum of the world. School is going great, its been busy but in two semesters I look forward to going to THAILAND!

It is going to be quite the experience. I'm going there for a two week service trip. My team of 30 will be going to the southern part of Thailand, around Phuket. I will be on the medical team, I will assist the doctors that are going with us. We will do simple things such as check ups/physicals, lessons on hygiene, and we will stock their clinic with medical supplies that should last them for a while. Other things that we will be doing there is building them a bigger fish pond. These village children eat at school and eat the fish that they raise right from their own pond. Complaints have been made that the fish pond is too small. This will significantly help. We will also help their harvest their garden, and help expand that. While we are there we will get the opportunity to teach english lessons and supply their school with supplies.

This is truly why I want to go into the Health Sciences. I have always wanted to go on a trip like this, and this one is perfect because we get to touch on so many aspects of service it will truly be an enlightening experience.

I truly believe that goodness is giving service, and unselfishness. We are to live for others, and others live for you. This is goodness.

P.S. if you would like to donate to this trip, for supplies and such just send me an email and I will give you details!

Jordan Nielson

nielsonjordan01@gmail.com

The Story of the Broken Sheep

I heard this story today from my friend Masha and I thought it was ideal and everyone would benefit from hearing it, so here it goes. There's obviously a shepherd watching over a field of sheep. However there's one particular sheep that keeps wandering off and keeps getting lost. No matter what the shepherd does he can't figure out how to teach the sheep to stop from wandering off. Well the shepherd then breaks the sheep's legs (graphic I know, but bear with me there is a point to all of this). So this sheep has broken legs and it can't wander anymore because of the pain that it is in. The shepherd picks up the sheep and carries the sheep around everywhere. It takes a healthy amount of time for the sheep's legs to heal and by the time they are better the sheep has developed a personal relationship with the shepherd and no longer has the desire to wander.

I hope you know how I'm going to link this to life and to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Sometimes when we are wandering and getting ourselves lost, Heavenly Father wants nothing more than to bring us back to the Him and to His commandments. When we are in the mist of trials (like the broken legs for the sheep) and we allow the Savior to carry us through those trials we build a deeper relationship with Him and gain a greater appreciation for the Atonement He performed for all of us.

I really like this story and I hope it made you realize that the trials we go through can make us or break us. I hope that as we all face different struggles and stresses in life we can look toward the Savior as our Physician and He will heal us according to our faith.

Why wait to change the world?

Have you ever looked at someone and thought I want to be like that someday? Or have you thought about something you would like to do, but realize its just not possible?

Well today is your lucky day because I've got news for you... you CAN change the world.

Now you wonder how can someone as insignificant as me change the world. It's simple! Ordinary people like you and I change the world everyday.

Many of you have read this story, but it's such a perfect example:

A young girl was walking along a beach upon which thousands of starfish had been washed up during a terrible storm. When she came to each starfish, she would pick it up, and throw it back into the ocean. People watched her with amusement.

She had been doing this for some time when a man approached her and said, “Little girl, why are you doing this? Look at this beach! You can’t save all these starfish. You can’t begin to make a difference!”

The girl seemed crushed, suddenly deflated. But after a few moments, she bent down, picked up another starfish, and hurled it as far as she could into the ocean. Then she looked up at the man and replied, “Well, I made a difference to that one!”

The old man looked at the girl inquisitively and thought about what she had done and said. Inspired, he joined the little girl in throwing starfish back into the sea. Soon others joined, and all the starfish were saved.

The understanding that we hold in our hands the power to change a life, a mind, or a circumstance today, right now, is a powerful insight and motivator. We have the power to inspire others to act, and sometimes in numbers significant enough to make a major or even complete impact on the problem at hand.We can be a powerful force for leading change in the world. Often it is the ordinary people who put into action values that have been instilled in them. The world, therefore, depends on us to lead the way TODAY!

Wastes of Space

First, a disclaimer: Selling your organs is illegal in the United States. It’s also very dangerous. Handing off an organ is risky enough when done in a top hospital, even more so if you’re doing it for cash in a back alley. No, really: Don’t do this. OK? OK.

There are many organs one can theoretically do without, or for which there’s a backup. Most folks can spare a kidney, a portion of their liver, a lung, some intestines, and an eyeball, and still live a long life.

Here are some prices based on rumored deals and reports from the World Heath Organization. In India, a kidney fetches around $20,000. In China, buyers will pay $40,000 or more. A good, healthy kidney from Israel goes for $160,000.

Don’t expect to pocket all that dough, though. The person giving up the organ only gets a fraction of the fee. Most people get $1,000 to $10,000 for their kidney (probably much less than you were hoping for).

Now why do I share this information with you? Well we all have waste that we think is necessary to live with. We can get rid of this waste and end up with something more valuable. Now what waste am I talking about? Well to be honest I have a few ideas in mind, but nothing to concrete. What I'm talking about are those things in our lives that seem to drain us, rather than motivate us. We truly need things that motivate us, these are the things that make us happy, and feel self fulfilled.

If the things that motivate us promote these good good attributes, what attributes do those things that drain us bring? Well they bring us feelings of sadness, anger, despair, basically attributes that are negative. So what do we need to do about it? Recognize! We need to recognize those things (or even people) that bring those negative feelings and surgically remove them (like unnecessary organs).

Now I'm not saying anything that causes stress is negative, stress can be positive, it can be motivating so don't go surgically removing every stressful situation you're in because then you are removing too many organs and you will DIE. That's all I have to say.

Since I threw that stuff in about Organ removal I thought I would throw some interesting facts about it after I proved my point.

Interesting facts:

1. Compensation for organs was almost legalized in the U.S.—the Organ Trafficking Prohibition Act of 2009 would allow payment to donors, but it stalled in Congress.

2. Man offering one of his for $100,000 (plus medical expenses) on Craigslist received several offers until the Web site removed his post.

3. In 1999, before eBay delisted a kidney put up for auction, bidders drove the price up to $5.75 million.

First Post!

Yes, I finally decided to start a blog. I'm not exactly sure where it will go, or how "awesome" it will be, but I do know that there will be several things I will keep you posted on in this upcoming school year.In my attempts to achieve a balanced life, I have involved myself with LDSSA, or

Latter-day Saint Student Association, and can't wait to begin the adventures at institute. I just love the friendships I formed this past year, and can't wait to build many more.These pictures show all my Spirit of Place peeps and all the fun that we had!

Also I will be participating in Operation smile as Secretary in the Presidency and hope that I can do some wonderful things as a part of that group.

I just love everything that Operation Smile does and I urge you to research the organization yourself and find a way to contribute to it.

http://www.operationsmile.org/about_us/who-we-are/

this link will give you a small overview of what operation smile is all about.

This link shows video's of those affected by operation smile and how it changed their lives. If you have 5 minutes, I encourage you watch a video, and explore the website. http://www.operationsmile.org/living_proof/video-stories/

While being apart of these two student associations, I will also being working at Hunstman Cancer Hospital and working on research and publish it at the University of Utah.

I am so excited for this upcoming school year and see great things happening all around.