Wednesday, July 8, 2015

SORRY the last post was so weird I copied and pasted it from google docs!
So there has been this guy who works at Stadium 10 movie theatres and comes in every now and
then to order food from where I work, Costa Vida. Every time he comes in I am hesitant to talk
to him because he is not exactly “normal”. This guy is probably in his late 30’s, stinks, socially
awkward, might have a little mental disorder but nothing major, likes to talk way too much,
and he always ask for whoever is helping him to go to the movies with him. I often see this guy
walking to and from places and came to the conclusion he has no car. While at walmart the
other day doing normal shopping with Ellen I see him and quickly hide my face and duck
trying to avoid conversation. Ellen asked me earlier in the day to take her swimming at a certain
time so she could tan. We had maybe 30 minutes until that time so I did not think much of it. As
we are walking out I see him again buying subway just standing there all by himself then I
thought he must have walked here and has to walk all the way home. It was at that moment I
decided to make this part of my test. I walked up to him shook his hand and he recognized me
from costa vida so I introduced myself. After the introduction he has to pay and he ends up being
about $10 dollars short so I just decided to take the money he was going to pay and help him
out so I ended up paying the rest for his meal. We continue talking and turns out he did need a
ride home but that he also wanted to stop at Albertsons because on his walk to Walmart he
stopped there to buy some groceries and ended up leaving it there to pick up on his walk back.
So I agreed to take him to Albertsons to get his stuff, all the while Ellen is giving me this look like
the world is going to end because we do not have very much money at all let alone to buy others
food as well as she was going to miss the “perfect” tanning time, but as this went on she loosened
up. We get to Albertsons and he carries in 2 of the sandwiches I just bought him. Upon entering
the lady up front greets him by name and says his stuff are in the back still. Turned out he had
asked the employees to hold his stuff for him in the back so he did not have to carry it all the way
to Walmart and back. We get to the back and he gives away the sandwiches to 2 workers he asked
for by name and I think to myself I just paid for these guys’s lunch what a joke. Turns out these
guys put his stuff in their personal lockers and he wanted to do something nice in return.
We finally got all his stuff packed into my car and drive him home and like always in costa vida
he asked us to go hang out with him, keep in mind we are already 20 minutes late for tanning. I
talked to him for a minute and said that I couldn’t today but we will find a time to go see a movie
or something and that is when it hits me. He looked at me and goes okay thanks friend and says
have a great day and walks into his house all alone. To me I wasted probably 35-40 minutes, $10
a little bit of gas money and some “perfect tanning time” but what I realized is that this guy just
needed a friend. To him it probably made his day to realize he now has someone near his job who
with he can come in and say hi too and chat with for a while. Also he was probably super relieved
with car ride and air conditioning instead of walking in 110 degree weather for 45 minutes

carrying all the groceries.

Thursday, June 18, 2015

Rob and Big

6'9" tall, 286 lbs, size 23 shoe...this is how I saw Big Will for the first time when stepping on the basketball court on the other side of him. 

He was a huge thug looking guy and I was supposed to guard him. So throughout the night we went to war. I did all I could do to stop this huge thug, and we were almost to the point of fighting. I would foul him so hard and he would foul me right back.
Then the next school year comes around and I see him walking around my school going to classes and I think to myself great... another big thug who will try and make our basketball team. If he makes it he will be a ball hog, be selfish, never talk to anyone, and just cause problems.
Wow. I was so wrong.
I saw him walking home, because he's not hard to miss, and told him to get in my truck I would give him a ride home. At first he told me no because of our past, but then he finally got in and we talked for a minute. why was he at the school? did he want to play basketball? where does he live? just a long list of stuff till we finally got to his house and dropped him off...he didn't say thanks or bye just got out.
The next day at school I see him again, but now he is walking up to me through the crowd. When he reached me he shook my hand, because I was the only one at the school who talked to him. I, along with the whole school, stereotyped him, leaving him isolated in a huge school. He asked if he could hang with me and my friends.
Long story short he became one of my best friends, and he still is even to this day. And now, when anyone sees us together or playing ball, they call us "Rob and Big" from the Rob Dydreck show.
I am one of the many who stereotyped Big Will before I even met the guy and got to know him and as it turned out he is one of my lifelong best friends.
And just for the record in that game we played against eachother....I hit the game winning free throw and scored 14 on him ;).



Tuesday, June 16, 2015

The Authentic Self

I know this is a late post but I did not know exactly what the assignment wanted and did not have access to my laptop till today but now that both problems are fixed I would love to talk about an "A-HA" moment I had.
Tuesday I brought my girlfriend to class because I feel it would be good for her to come to as many as possible to understand what I am saying, changing, and trying to do. It was in that class we had the amazing note-card lesson where everyone wrote down a secret. I was intrigued during it to know who's secret each one was.
When my girlfriends came up I knew exactly which one it was because we previously have taken it out of the hidden window and put it into the open window to try and overcome it. The problem here was she did not know which note card was mine and wanted to know what I wrote, at first I struggled with even considering telling her for all the reasons we mentioned in class. I thought of those without even realizing that I was nervous of telling her because of the vulnerability in confessing a secret. Then I thought back to Eric Young's story he shared with the class and I thought if he can share something like that who am I not to be able to share something so little compared to what he did.
So I opened up to my girlfriend and told her not only one secret but a few that I have had and just have not told anyone due to those reasons we listed in class. Wow this was an "A-HA" moment our relationship grew so much we actually sat there for at least 3 hours just going topic to topic secret to secret from everything like most embarrassing moments we never told anyone to biggest fears and regrets and we were able to really understand each other better, understand why we do some of the little things we do or act the way we act.
I am grateful for that chance that I had and I hope to continue talking to each other so neither of us have a hidden box anymore or a very very small one and everything is in the open section.

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

Hey so I am a little late at posting about myself but I thought I would say a little so any one who cares can know who I am. My name is Robert Tyler Whitaker but I go by Robby. I was born and raised in Las Vegas with a family of 5. There is my sister Victoria (17) brother Justin (5) mother Esperanza (old) and my father Robert "Bob" (older).

So a little bit about me, I love sports, outdoors, and just about anything else. I grew up playing basketball and volleyball in high school, I played point or shooting guard for basketball and middle for volleyball. Other hobbies of mine include skiing, snowboarding, longboarding,water skii and wakeboard, and just about anything else like those. I am a huge Chicago Bulls fan and it has always been my dream to fly to Chicago and see a game. I am an even bigger Dallas Cowboys fan and fly out to at least one game with my father and a bunch of our friends. My mother loves to travel so I have done a lot of that in my life. I have been blessed enough to be able to go on 10 cruises to just about everywhere in the Caribbean as well as Mexico and Canada. I currently work at Costa Vida as a night manager so feel free to come in any night to say hi and possibly a little discount :). I came to Dixie to study Business Administration in hopes it takes me somewhere I will enjoy. I wanted to try and walk on the basketball team here but when I heard they do not do open try outs that went out the window. I do love living here but Vegas will always be my home. I am a huge music fan, I like just about everything from screemo to a little country but my favorite is EDM/dubstep and Rap. As many of you may know after class on Tuesday I am dating the wonderful Ellen Baird. We have been dating about 2.5 years now and loving every second, well just about every second of it. I served a mission in Paraguay for about a year and sure I got sent home early but I learned more in that year then I have in most of my life. I made some great life long friends as well was extremely humbled by their living conditions and how I had to live for a year. Did I love my mission yes but would I go back out or regret coming home early, not at all. If you ever want to hear a funny story about something gross I ate or a humbling story about someone that lives from there or see cool pictures, I would love to show you. I took this class originally to just get an easy credit towards my Associates, but after going now for about 2 weeks this is my favorite class I have taken. I already learned so much about myself as well as others and can't wait to see what else is in store. Well that is a little summary if you want to know more I sit in the back corner come and join me I would love to talk!