Genuinely Giancarlo

Hey guys, it's been a while. Two days ago, I took my last exam and I officially finished my first semester of college. This semester turned out to be a lot different than I expected it to be for a lot of reasons, but I'm still pretty happy with the way things turned out. I learned about what college is like, about myself, and more than anything, I learned that things aren't always going to go the way you think they will, and that's okay. One of the things that I definitely did not see coming during this semester was the switch that my university would make from traditional, in-person classes to going fully online. Of course this wasn't really a choice the university made just because they wanted to, but the way things are going in the world required them to. I can't speak for anyone but myself, but in my experience, online classes aren't bad but for some reason they feel a lot less real than in-person classes. It would have been really hard for me to de...

If I had to describe life in one word right now, it would undoubtably be weird . I don't know how else to describe it. Life is just so strange. A lot of people are sick throughout the world and because of that, most major events are cancelled, my school is online, and I'm not supposed to leave my house unnecessarily. I was woken up a couple days ago by the fifth largest earthquake in Utah's recorded history. Life just feels dramatically different than how I would have guessed it would feel at this point. This isn't like any other time I can remember in my life, and I bet it's a time like no other for a lot of people throughout the world. COVID-19, or the coronavirus, has changed a lot of things about daily life for a lot of people. Some of those impacts are small and insignificant, like people not giving as many hugs or handshakes. Some are bigger, like making people dramatically alter their plans or putting jobs on hold or closing borders. A virus that we still ...

It's 9:00 PM on a Friday night. I'm a freshman in college, my homework is finished, and I'm totally down to go out and party with friends because, well, isn't that how you're supposed to spend a Friday night? But I'm not at a party. I don't even have plans to meet up with anyone. I am alone in my room, writing a blog post that I'll publish but not publicize because sometimes I want to talk but not be heard. Sometimes I just want to convert my thoughts into keystrokes at my computer and send them into the void with hopes that they won't be forgotten, regardless of the lack of readers. Because that's not what it's about. Why am I here instead of out with friends? I like blogging, but this is prime hangout time. The best time. I can blog whenever I want, so why now? In a few hours my school is going to have a fun event that I wanted to go to but I can't seem to find the willpower to actually get myself to go. What's the deal? Wel...

Seven hundred and thirty days ago I grabbed my suitcases, took a plane to Mexico City, and began my period of missionary service for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . During the time that I was serving, I was not able to update the blog, hence the lack of posts during the last two years. I have, however, returned from the mission and as I am now able to update the blog again, I would like to begin with a few things I learned during my time as a missionary, a few changes I made or am making, and my view for the future.   Let me begin by explaining what a mission is and why I served one. In the last chapter of the book of Matthew in the New Testament, Jesus Christ leaves his apostles with a simple but very important task. He says : "Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: "Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even u...

I have failed. I had the determination to write a blog post every day for a month, and I have not even come close to reaching that goal. I am sorry. I am so sorry. I wish I could say that I had a real excuse for not even living up to my own expectations, but I don't. In truth, I would use the claim that "life gets in the way" as my reason, which is true but also lame. I'm sorry for setting this up with so much excitement and failing so hard. I apologize sincerely. This may or may not be my last blog post for two years. I do not know if there will be any time for me to write anything after this. Really I don't have time to write this post but I am writing it anyway because it helps distract me from everything I am feeling right now. It's crazy. I move out of the country in four days and I have only begun to freak out. Like I knew this was coming for nearly half a year but suddenly all of the stress and worries are hitting me all at once today and I...

Hey guys, it's been a second. I wanted to apologize real quick that I missed the blog over the past couple days but that's just because life has gotten in the way. I am going to try harder to get posts out but I know that my "post-a-day" aspiration might be a little out of my reach at the moment. I hope that you will forgive me for my shortcoming in this regard. So I just want to share a quick story of something I was thinking of last night as my family and I were driving somewhere: SUNSETS. Last night my family and I were driving on the freeway for a while and eventually I looked out the window and saw one of the prettiest sunsets I've ever seen in my life. I tried to take a picture of it but my camera couldn't accurately capture the pinks and reds in the sky so the pictures are still pretty good but man they don't do the sunset justice. I also took these from a moving car so they might not be perfect. REGARDLESS, THE SUNSET WAS...

Let me begin by apologizing for not posting anything yesterday. I had some time set aside for blogging but it was taken up by a soccer game I didn't know I was playing in until an hour before and a spontaneous trip to see some friends. My bad. Anyway, this post is related to some thoughts I had today as I made my trip to the Mexican Consulate in Salt Lake City. Here we go. Reminder: I am scheduled to depart on an LDS mission on December 5th, 2017, for the Mexico Ciudad Juarez Mission. I've had to do a lot to prepare for this event, and today I had an appointment to finish up some of the legal stuff. In order to serve a mission in Mexico, you have to get a visa to live in the country for an extended period of time. So, scheduled by the church, I had an appointment today to appear at the Mexican Consulate downtown with the purpose of obtaining this visa which would allow me to travel to Mexico as planned. Let me say here that I haven't traveled very much in my life....