In closing

Hello friends and family,

It has been a week since I have arrived. My life is so incredibly busy and school has yet to start! I am finding it hard to recount my ride for some unforeseen reason. I think it is because it was such an experience filled with so many emotional highs and lows my mind can't organize it all. There is one lesson however that I will always have. No matter how much work I have or how big the challenge, I know I can work through it and be successful. That lesson is so critical to have for the coming months because I hear university is kinda hard haha. As I go out and meet countless people at partys( I call them 2 minute friends) most know my story and who I am. It has been a bit of a challenge not to come across as being full of myself even though I am quite modest. I am just  a confident guy I guess. I have made so many great friends in my faculty and floor. My floor is hilarious and we are all really great people for the most part. If you come home at 1 you know your not going to bed for at least an hour because you will start a conversation with a floor mate or my Don. I am so fortunate to have a great rez, it could have been soooooo much worse haha. My faculty is probably the best thing at Queens. My year has 128 students (30 guys and 98 girls) each of those individuals are so diverse and I find myself at home. Our coaches (2nd years) are pretty much the coolest kids on campus. Frosh will be over on Monday and than the real fun will begin. I was awarded ultimate frosh for my faculty. Apparently its an award that is given out the the female and male students that best amplify Phe/kin spirit.  I  slept through the closing ceremonies and missed the speech! haha I woke up and sprinted like a gazelle the building and ran in just as we were all doing our year dance. I am really excited for class to begin because the material I will be learning is very interesting. How lucky is that! Part of me wants to maintain this blog so everyone can hear how my first year at Queens is going. The other part knows that I will be tremendously busy with athletics, academics and volunteer that it will be impossible. Only time will tell but I think I will be too busy   : (

The ride feels like a chapter in my life that never really existed. Almost like a prolonged dream I had over the course of August. I know I will be reading through each day and recounting each experience. I will miss the adventure and having monster quads. I will never forget the pain I went through however. It is almost like a scaring incident in my life. To be honest I went to a place during north Ontario that I thought I would never be able to come back from. It was horrible and it was more than just a ride. I felt like I was killing myself and ruining my life. I don't like to talk about that part and I still think about it often but so far I am back to my normal happy self. No one will understand exactly how much I gave to be successful for this ride which I totally can understand why. I just wish I could talk to someone who has done it the way I did so we could share our experiences. I think my mom has some idea because she was driving through North Bay and called me while crying because of what I went through. I made it to Queens and was successful. I almost died so many times because of cars not seeing me or almost crashing on mountain descents. I have a new appreciation for life and I am so thankful to have to life that I do. I think a key for living life to the fullest is try your best everyday to be the best person you can be. Whether that's putting in the extra effort in school or going that extra km on the run." Just do it" is Nike's slogan and it makes so much sense. The difference between me and the kid that wishes he could do all the things that I have done is just doing it and believing in yourself. Don't hold back on those huge life changes and fully buy into the experience. You will gain so much more "mana points" if you do. I am so stoked for this year and the coming years and the years after that. I refuse to accept that this is the pinnacle of my existence and I hope to still do amazing things year after year. (don't worry mom and dad I am on my own now.)

I may go back to this blog once I can properly recount the ride and go over the key moments and the amazing things that happen. Until than stay tuned every week or so and enjoy your life. We all have so much to be happy and thankful for and I am sooooo incredibly happy I realize that. My life has changed and although before it was pretty great, its just unreal now. Queens was the right school to go to and school  starts in less than 24 hours. Back to the grind is what I would usually say but this time its different.

Goodbye and Thank you

Adam Beaudoin