Fred - The college years

Do you remember a week or two ago when I told you that Brandon and I had a bet to see who could lose the most weight before Ben's wedding? Well I didn't like eating less so I've been running two miles, three days a week. All that has done is made me eat more. I'm going to try a new tactic. I figure if I publicly tell everyone what my weight is that morning then I will have more pressure on me to cut out the garbage food. So here we go, this morning I weighed in at 211.3 pounds. To beat Brandon I have to get under 200 pounds so you need to help me get there. I will weigh myself at the same time every morning before I eat breakfast. Now the pressure is on. Last time I did this I lost almost a pound a day.

OK, here we go for Fred Leavitt part II - The college years. I left off in part one with me heading to BYU majoring in Civil Engineering. What a shock that was for my system. I was a straight "A" student all through grade school and except for Mr Brady's grade eleven English class I doubt that I did more than three hours of homework the whole time. Mr Brady was a pain in the but. He was from England and figured everyone should do homework just as a matter of principle. I have a real problem with homework, I think the school system here goes way overboard and I believe it does more harm than good. One thing is for sure, I definitely didn't do too much homework, that is until I hit BYU. In my first week there I did more homework than I had in my entire life before. Once the shock wore off however I settled into a routine and enjoyed college life. Boy do I have stories to tell but that will have to be for another time. I did my first two levels of calculus but I barely got through those classes. And then it was off to Belgium on my mission. After two years off from my studies I was really not thinking at all about school and I arrived home late in August 1979. Mom really didn't want me going so far away from home and the Canadian dollar was low so she had applied already for me to go to the University of Alberta. So here I was late in the summer, already accepted at the U of A and I hadn't even applied at BYU. I give my Mom full credit for the career I have today. She was an inspired woman. I'm sure we all knew that already. I get my student loans and head off to live with Greg and Gaylia. Little did I know that Greg home taught this cute little sixteen year old girl named Lisa. She was one of the first people I met when I moved up there but that too is another story for another day. In my first year of school I had a wonderful experience and a very stressful experience. After two years of no academics I headed straight into my third level calculus class. Simultaneously I had differential equations and I flunked them both. I also had a materials science class. As much as I hated calculus I loved material sciences. I was taking statics and dynamics and the whole time I could picture what was happening on the molecular levels to these materials. It was a whole new world that I hadn't even thought about. BYU didn't even offer a materials science program. I immediately switched majors to materials science and I've never looked back. I love my career.