Howdy partners. Long time no see. I guess life loves to throw curve balls at you every chance it can. I've had a very interesting past few months to say the least. So let us start right now, it's Tuesday morning, almost 9:00am on September 1, and the overwhelming urge to sit down and write has overtake me. I've always hated September, always, because it's the first month that starts to kill summer. It's the month that brings school back into full swing. It's the month that forces you to start a new chapter in life even though you don't want to just yet.

School has started for me, and it has only been one week since the semester began. This is my first semester at Utah Valley University, since I've transferred down from BYU-Idaho. The transition wasn't that smooth, or let me reword that . . . the transition was like riding an airplane through a tornado. Records, finances, and just about everything else caught a snag trying to transfer over. I had to register late because it took so long to get everything squared away. When you transfer late, all the good classes are taken. So this semester I was left to enroll in Philosophy, Health, and Film. Sure they are decent classes, and I'll need them for my generals. However, I'm sweating bullets to get into one more very important class, College Biology I. You see, I'm a Bio major, and have been since I've started my college adventure. So while I was attending BYU-Idaho, I have completed past College Biology II, and other upper level bio courses to get me well on my way to graduating. The catch, my A.P. Biology credits from high school counted at BYU-I as a complete College Bio I credit, however it doesn't work that way at UVU. So here I am, almost a junior in college, having to go back and retake a freshman bio major course. To add the icing on the cake, every other student at UVU seems to want to take this class as well. I've talked to the professor about five times to get into the class, and luckily for me, English is her second language, so she knows exactly what I'm trying desperately explain to her. I've spoken to the head of the bio department, I've done it all. The only thing they can offer me is a weak handshake, and even weaker apology, and a flimsy promise that I can add the class if more people drop. So in a nutshell, I'm screwed.

Aside from the shenanigans of trying to get my classes squared away at school, I love the new university. It's a different world compared to BYU-I. The campus is so better and more organized. I love the blunt and real aspect the professors bring to each class, whereas the professors at BYU-I wouldn't even think about talking sternly to a person for fear of hurting their testimony. Transferring was a welcome change of pace and scenery.

Usually the end of summer, everyone is out and about, trying to squeeze every moment they can out of the fading summer. I on the other hand was in bed, sick, for the last two weeks of summer. Stomach problems led me to discover that I had giardia. A stomach bug that makes life very, very unpleasant. So the doctor gave me a super antibiotic to kill it, and I think in the process it almost killed me too. Or at least I thought it was, because I was steadily getting more ill. A second trip to the doctor brought about the wonderful news that I had mono. Yippee, I know. If you have ever been diagnosed with mono, you know that all the doctor can say is, "Well it sucks to be you, there is no cure, there is no treatment, just go rest and hope it leaves you in 2-8 weeks." I'll spare you on the adverse effects mono gives to a person, but lets just say my life was not very enjoyable for two weeks. Luckily I made a speedy recovery in time to start school.

Now that you are well educated in the unfortunate circumstances of my life recently, I want you all to know, life is amazing! I know that you probably thought I was very doom and gloom while composing this entry, however, life's greatest lessons are learned while living with less than ideal conditions. Some people say "Everything happens for a reason", and I couldn't agree more. I firmly believe that there is no such thing as coincidence. I know that people and things come into our lives for a very good reason. Sure we may not see it sometimes, or even comprehend it, but take a step back, think of all the recent changes in your life or unexpected things that have found their way to you, and embrace them for what they are. Learn from them and improve yourself from them. Smooth pebbles in a steady stream weren't always smooth and pretty. Many years of rolling around and being refined by it's surroundings as it rolled through its stream of life, made it to be a polished and beautiful spectacle. Take every moment and obstacles as a learning experience. Life really is beautiful my friends. Have you realized that yet today? If you haven't, then today is a good day to start realizing that, because today is the first day to the rest of your life. Make it a good start.

For those of you who have followed by blog, already know my opinion on our current President. I have already posted a long rant and rave about why America needed to wake up and do a little thinking before they elected a new "face of change". I still strongly believe that most Americans only voted for Obama because of the negative press coverage on Bush and his administration, so everyone jumped on that bandwagon and voted for the first thing that was completely opposite to Bush. Barrack Obama sure did fit that bill, he's black, democrat, and claims change, that was enough for most Americans. What a great thought process for the future of our great country. I urged people to read up, study and actually wake up to a sense of who represented what, but I guess my small blog voice wasn't loud enough. So here I am, part 2, my second warning. Read up, do a little thinking, and spread the word, it's time to think what we can do for our country.

The hot topic of debate right now is Universal Heath care, or as some dub it, Obamacare. In a nutshell, the proposition is to provide a universal government free health care to the United States. At first glance, the average person could be thinking, "That's great, free health care! One step closer to world peace!" Sure, the thought of giving free health care to all is a noble thought, but lets delve a little deeper shall we?

Our wonderful neighbor to the north, Canada, is a great example of an instilled government health care system. Up there, everyone has free health care, and a monthly health care tax, depending on which province you live in, and your salary. My grandfather was a heart surgeon in Calgary, Canada for a number of years. He was a great doctor and loved helping and healing people. I wish he was alive today so I could get him to blog about this stuff. Unfortunately he isn't, but I could tell you one thing he hated about the health care up in Canada, and that was watching people die. Lets put this reality into an example. Imagine walking into a DMV on a busy afternoon, what is the first thing you are going to see when you walk in that door? It's the huge line of people all waiting impatiently to get to the front of the line. Now imagine the US was given free health care tomorrow, you'd see the same thing. My grandfather worked his great big loving heart out to save as many lives as he could, but sometimes the lines were to vast, and the demand for doctors was to big. What doctor wants to go through years of grueling med school, to then turn around and work for the government for a decent pay. I'll be the first to raise my hand and say "Not I!" My goal in life is to become a doctor, because of my grandfather's example and because my mother always told me growing up, "The more you learn, the more you earn." So if this Health care proposition passes in the USA, I'll be looking for a new profession, and I won't be the only student to do so.

Ok, so here we are with the possibility of universal health care. The demand for doctors will rise due to the amount of patients rising and the number of doctors decreasing. Then I'd image a downward spiral effect would follow. Medical schools would in turn lower their costs, and increase their acceptance rate. The med school courses would probably become easier to pass to allow more doctors to become certified. Then the quality of doctors decreases and the demand for more health care increases. This is all my thought process right now, I have no solid facts to back this hypothesis up. However, look at the example of American medical school rankings vs. Canadian schools. I believe there is only one outstanding Canadian medical school in the top 50 world's best medical schools.

Last area I'd like to cover is the idea of keeping your own private insurance if the universal health care program was instated. Here is where things get a little out of hand for me. President Obama held a phone conference with many "leftist bloggers" to tell them that they should help write and persuade people and congress to push this bill on health care. The whole story can be found by clicking HERE. One of the people there questioned the president if people will be able to keep their own private insurance plans. To which our wise president responded, "You know, I have to say that I am not familiar with the provision you are talking about." Here is our president, trying to push a monumental, nation changing bill, that he hasn't even read. The good news is, the bill does not flatly outlaw private insurance policies, but as the article puts it, "but it does effectively regulate it out of existence." I will quote this article here to accurately describe what this means.

The House bill does allow private insurance to be sold, but only “Exchange-participating health benefits plans.” In order to qualify as an “Exchange-participating health benefits plan,” all health insurance plans must conform to a slew of new regulations, including community rating and guaranteed issue. These will all send the cost of private individual health insurance skyrocketing. Furthermore, all these new regulations would not apply just to individual insurance plans, but to all insurance plans. So the House bill will also drive up the cost of your existing employer coverage as well. Until, of course, it becomes so expensive that your company makes the perfectly economical decision to dump you into the government plan.

“Although there are some positive provisions in the current House Tri-Committee bill … the proposed legislation misses the opportunity to help create higher-quality, more affordable health care for patients. In fact, it will do the opposite. … The real losers will be the citizens of the United States.”