My new experiment - no electronic devices

 No Apple Watch, no laptop, no television, no iPhone... what is this 1824? No, it's 2020 and my new experiment.

This past week without social media has shown me that I don't need social media. I've become less focused on it and focused on other things. When I get bored, I've found other things to occupy my mind than social media. Well, it's mainly been watching Disney+. This week has been a great week and really helped me grow a lot. So, it got me thinking, what can I do next? What can I do to improve myself and grow? What else can I do to possibly inspire others? Or to make others do the complete opposite thing? And it came to me...

No electronic devices. I've decided to go without a phone, laptop, Apple Watch, and television for ONE WEEK. I've purchased an alarm clock and battery powered watch to keep track of time. 

This experiment is a hard one. I've gone without social media before, for two years. However, there has never gone a day where I haven't gone without electronic devices. You can possibly count the time I went to Peru, but I wouldn't count that. That wasn't necessarily a voluntary action. I guess going on the trip was voluntary, but I had to give up my electronic devices. This will be the first time I am living my full life, but giving up electronics. 

Before I move onto what I hope to accomplish from this, I will put a disclaimer that I won't be 100% away from electronic devices. The exception is using the computer at Taco Bell, but that is basically for taking orders, so it doesn't really count.

What do I hope to accomplish from this?

I hope to have a better appreciation for technology when I am finished. I want to be able to recognize the power behind technology and how much it is needed in my life. 

In addition to having a better appreciation, I also hope to recognize how much control technology has over my life. We rely so much on technology, we don't ever take time away from it and to appreciate other parts of life. So, although I hope to learn how I need it so much, I also hope to learn how I don't need it. 

Another goal of my mine is to focus more time on reading, including my scripture study. I haven't been very good with my scripture study and I want to focus more on it. I hope that I'll have more time to focus my mind on important things instead of just watching tv and playing games. 

I understand this may be a struggle to comprehend because I'll be away from text messages and emails, things that are necessary, but I think it'll help me. There is nothing super important that I'll need from my emails or text messages. In fact, maybe I'll appreciate that even more.

In the end, this may end up being a giant struggle and I may not even survive it, but it never hurts to try. It never hurts to challenge myself and push myself to my limits. 

I plan on getting off tonight and staying off until next Monday. I will update you guys on what I learned next week. And depending on how I feel, I may even get back onto social media for a quick day too. It all depends on how I feel. 

Until then, I am signing off and I'll talk to all of you next week.

-Michael Skaggs

Unexpected Blessings: My "failed" birthday trip to Rexburg

Turning 22 seemed like a perfect time. I expected it to go as planned and I had everything set and ready to go. My weekend was supposed to be the best birthday ever and be the best weekend ever. I had everything planned minute by minute. I looked forward to everything. I was going to see old friends and visit old places. It would be a weekend to remember. A weekend that I would never forget. But... that's not how the weekend went.

My trip started off with my flight taking off at 6:45 in the morning. I was extremely tired, but I woke up anyway. Arrived and immediately took a Lyft ride to the car rental place. I had the nicest driver ever and we enjoyed a little trip to the place. They gave me a great car, although, I didn't like the gas mileage. 

The plan originally called for me going and spending the whole entire afternoon in Provo and seeing a couple people, but days leading up to the day, it got changed. I visited with an old mission companion and then my friend Bri. I hadn't seen her in 2 and a half years and it was a joy to see her. 

Instead of spending the day in Provo, I decided to go up and visit a family friend in Heber. Sister Eisenhut is like a second mother to me. I got to visit with her and then visit the farm they have and see her horses. It was a beautiful afternoon visiting with her. It was an unexpected blessing to see her again and talk to her.

From there, I took the dreaded drive up to Rexburg. I know the Lord was looking out for me because I almost fell asleep multiple times, but I made sure to pull over and take breaks about 4 times. I did not want to put my life or the life of others at risk.

Arriving into Rexburg felt amazing. I couldn't believe I was finally home. Rexburg has become one of my favorite places ever. I crashed with one of my mission buddies and together we decided to go visit another mission buddy. That was an unexpected blessing because this former elder has one of the kindest souls, brightest smiles, happiest personalities, and strongest testimonies of anyone I've ever known. 

Friday morning, I visited a former assistant and then went to Bear World. Now this may sound like a silly unexpected blessing, but I had the opportunity to feed the baby cubs. The reservation was supposed to be full, but they always allow walk ups and I had the opportunity to feed a baby cub for my birthday. I also saw an old friend who was visiting with her daughter and parents. 

Everything that happened on Friday was unexpected. My original plan, once again, called for me to go down to Pocatello with a friend and eat at Red Lobster. However, I got a text the day before explaining that she had a last minute request from work to go to Montana. I can't hold it against her. My Friday may not have gone as planned, but it was still a blessing. 

The rest of my Friday consisted of Red Robin, WinCo, visiting old roommates, visiting a friend I hadn't seen in 3 1/2 years, and seeing a movie.

Saturday became the biggest unexpected blessing of the whole weekend. I originally planned to go hiking in the Tetons with a couple friends, but we planned together that we should do something else. Instead, I decided to go to her roommates house and help her family prepare for a wedding luncheon they were hosting. I ended up spending 5 hours at their house, getting to know them. They were the kindest people and I enjoyed my time with them. Towards the end, I learned that they knew my dad and grew up with him. It was the start of a bright new friendship. I was happy to spend time with them and get to know them. Making new friends turned out to be a blessing.

I spent the evening visiting another friend I hadn't seen in four years. Went to dinner with my sister, saw some old mission friends, went to the straw maze, and then saw my mission father. In the end, it was a blessed day.

My birthday turned out to be phenomenal. It didn't go as planned, but I loved it. I went to visit with a good friend of mine who I hadn't seen in a couple years. We also went to sacrament together. After sacrament, I raced back home to get ready to see a friend I hadn't seen in two years. 

This friend has always been a great influence on me. A friend that I can always go to and talk to. Although, we didn't start off on the right foot, we have turned into amazing friends. We went hiking down to Cress Creek together and then went to Mesa Falls. At this time, I was enjoying my birthday. Well, of course I was. I was hanging out with one of my greatest friends, I was spending time in nature and I was 22. However, things sort of changed.

I had planned on spending a few hours with some other friends later on that evening. On my way back, they called me and asked to go hiking. I had to decline because I still had plans to hang out with the family I met and I didn't want to just ditch my other friend. I will be honest, I know this wasn't their intention, but I felt betrayed. I know they invited me, but I didn't know how long they would be gone. I didn't know if I would still be able to hang out with them. I didn't know if they would have any time for me. I didn't expect them to cater to me, but I had been looking forward to hanging out with them for such a long time. I was ecstatic to see them and it was somewhat disappointing to miss out on hanging out with them.

I persevered though. I continued on. I picked up my sister and we went to the house of the family I met the day before. It was funny. When my friends called, I told them I was going to their roommates house. Their reply, "well, so and so won't be there." 

Me: I know, but their parents want me to come over. 

I found it hilarious though because I wasn't going over for their roommates, I was going over for the family. I had a great evening with the family. It was another unexpected blessing because I went from having a rough evening to enjoying the time spent with people who I now considered family. I also forgot to mention that I was driving down the road when I saw an old mission zone leader from Vegas. I quickly stopped and turned around to quickly talk to him. Once again, an unexpected blessing.

Later that evening, I still got to visit with those friends. And it turns out, it wasn't for nothing. They ended up throwing a small birthday party for me. It really wasn't a birthday party, but more like just a few of their friends and then them. Their friends were over so they decided to sing happy birthday to me since they were there. The unexpected blessing of friends who truly care.

Monday morning, I got to spend a little bit of time saying goodbye to my friend and catch up a little bit. We did a little bit of scripture study together and I met her sister. 

The rest of Monday was amazing. I met up with another old mission companion. Then I got to visit my mission. Visiting my old mission was an expected blessing because I knew that was going to happen and it truly was a blessing to see it. Things had changed a lot, but I enjoyed seeing the place where I spent 2 years serving God. I was with an old mission buddy that whole entire time and we were able to catch up. We finished our evening by having dinner with our mission president. It truly was a blessing to see him and visit with him. My mission president was the greatest blessing of my mission.

The trip came to a quick end and I wasn't ready to leave Utah and Idaho. However, I had to go home and return to life. I had to return to work and everything else. But, as you can see my birthday weekend didn't go as planned. In fact, I don't think anything went as planned except for like two or three things. Most of it was changed last minute and didn't go the way I wanted it to go. But, as you can see, every plan that was changed, led to an unexpected blessing. These unexpected blessings were filled with hope and love and joy. It created memories I will never forget and I will always be appreciative of them. 

This "failed" birthday trip taught me to always look for the blessings in the smallest of things. I was reminded that Heavenly Father is always looking out for us and putting people in our lives that we are meant to know. God loves us and wants us to succeed. So, I guess you can say it wasn't a failed birthday trip. It was a successful birthday trip with just a ton of obstacles. I wouldn't change the weekend for anything. I will always cherish my 22nd birthday.

The new family I met (The Waldron's)

Drew Whiffen, a former assistant.

Sister Eisenhut, a second mother to me.

Feeding the bear cubs 

My decision to take a break

 You know when life just throws a bunch of curve balls at you and you have no idea what to do, well, that’s where I am at right now. Not exactly a huge curve ball. I fully predicted all the curveballs that were thrown at me, but it still caught me off guard. But, these curveballs made me start thinking and contemplating a lot of things. So, here I am: day 2 without social media and relying fully on my blog for all things. 

Now, I know some people may question how this can possibly be considered a break from social media. For me, this is a huge step in the right direction. It’s a way for me to help you guys stay connected to me, but to isolate myself from the world. Ok. Fine. I guess I’m not isolating myself from the world considering I work two jobs so I’m still with the world, but you get what I mean. I can’t completely just take time off of life. Anyway, my blog is a way to express myself and write my thoughts. Although, I’ve never considered myself a writer, writing has always cleared my mind. Oftentimes, when I am in fights with friends or arguments, letters are what I resort to. I can’t tell you how often I wrote letters to various friends in high school. And they would sometimes be like 4 or 5 pages long. 

Writing gets me through difficult times. Writing comforts me. Writing saves my friendships. Writing calms me. Writing does way more than anything else can. It’s a side hobby that I don’t actually use very often. But, when I do, I take advantage of it. I understand the power in it and I soar through the sky with my writing.

With all this cleared up, I want to share what you guys can expect from these blog posts. There’s a lot that I will include and I want everyone to know that you can always share them. I don’t care who sees these. It’s for the world to see. And I want everyone to know my story. So, now getting to the point, here is a variety of things you may be able to find from my future blog posts:

Updates on my break from social media, updates on how life is going, funny stories from work including all the Karen's I deal with, my thoughts on certain gospel and spiritual topics including general conference this weekend, stories from my mission, and so much more. I plan on just expressing myself in all that I share. I hope that many of followers and people who read this will enjoy it. I will probably make myself vulnerable and expose parts of my life I had never planned to expose. My hopes in doing that is so you will understand that everyone has a story. Everyone has their struggles in life and there is so much more that happens in someone's life than the stuff you read or see on social media. My life is usually shown to be fun and loving in my posts, but that is why I decided to take a break from it. You guys will now hear about the ups and downs of life. The struggles and the accomplishments. 

I hope you guys will learn how to take life and run with it. Learn from your mistakes and understand that nobody is perfect. We all face challenges in life. We must all persevere and press forward. 

I'm excited to take this journey with all of you. I can't wait for you guys to see more into my life and take a look into what I do. When I come out of this, I hope that I am more comfortable with being honest with others and opening up to others. 

So, I introduce you guys to my next line of blogs which will be filled with fun and entertainment. Thank you for joining me in this. You are all wonderful and I'm delighted to have all of you here. 

And the fun begins!