BKURTs Year in Review 2024

BKURTs Year in Review 2024

This is my year in review. It answers three main questions, what went well, what didn't, and what I learned. Then I cap it off with some goals for 2025 and my favorite pictures of 2024. I hope you enjoy it and maybe take something from it as well. 

What went well this year?

Sports

🏃 My season best for high jump was 6’4”and I got first in my district which qualified me for state. I also decided to run this year. We made it to the Drake Relays for the 4x1 and qualified for state in the 4x2. 

🏈 It makes me sad to think about but I played my last ever game of Mustang football this fall. We had a great run and we ended up losing to the state champs in the game to get to the Dome (quarterfinals). I poured my heart and soul into the Mustang football program. I really wanted to do everything I possibly could to finally make it to the Dome and bring home a state championship for Independence. Even though we fell short I wouldn't change a thing. It was an amazing journey and a great opportunity. I am so thankful for all of my coaches, teammates, and everyone who made it so special for us. Some cool accolades that I received were becoming 12th all time in IHSAA history for career receptions and 17th for all time career receiving yards. I was selected for the All-State team as well and received the Iowa Bankers Student Athlete Achievement Award for class 3A. I'm excited to watch the future generation of Mustang football.

🏀 I'm back. This year I came out of retirement and played basketball. Currently we are 4-3. I am enjoying it. Still learning how to dribble and shoot free throws 😂 - good news there is still a lot of the season left to be played. 

Family

This year I prioritized my family more than I ever have. Even putting them above athletics. Which is something I should have been doing more often.

I have the best parents in the entire world and nothing you can say would change my mind. They are so supportive and are the main reason for every accomplishment I have and who I have become today. Their love is unconditional. I love them so much. I couldn't imagine life without them. Some of the fun things that I did with them were support my siblings at their athletic events, go on football visits and play games or talk at home. I read a couple books with my dad this year and I am looking forward to doing that some more in 2025. My mom and I recently created some progress boards for our resolutions in 2025 and I am so excited to see us become better together. My favorite thing to do on the planet might be talking to my family.

I have gotten so much closer with all of my siblings this year. Jacob and I have been cooking together and he has been on the grind recently which is exciting. He is literally Batman. He is an EMT firefighter and in a couple months is doing something with weapons of mass destruction training. Unreal.

Over Christmas break I played a lot of Fortnite with my brothers which was really nostalgic and made me think about back when we were all in high school and times were much simpler.

Dylan and I have spent a lot of time together this year. He always makes the trip back on weekends to hang out with me, which I don't know what I would do without him coming back (probably drive there). I went down to Dubuque during the week once and have been down on a couple of weekends and I enjoy hanging out with him and talking to him about our goals and aspirations. We are both like-minded and I look up to him so much.

Alaina is just built differently. I'm so excited to see her play some high school sports in the near future. I got to watch a lot of her Junior High Sports this year and that was a ton of fun. We like being brain rot together and I just love my siblings so much and I am so grateful for them even though they piss me off 90% of the time 😂.

I'm going to miss them a lot when I'm in South Dakota. I hope they visit often.

Recruiting 

Even though it wasn't perfect it is still something that went well in the end. This whole situation had a lot of ups and downs. It was fun going on visits with my family. Some of my favorites were SDSU, Iowa, NDSU, Platteville and St. Thomas. I ultimately committed to SDSU.

That being said, that might have been the worst week of my life. When I got the offer the coaches told me I had 10 days to make a decision or they would be sending out more offers to other athletes and couldn't guarantee me a spot. I really loved everything about SDSU but, felt that it was moving way too fast. On top of all of this my parents were across the globe on a cruise ship somewhere off the coast of Italy. It was just such a stressful situation but I'm glad with the decision I made. It was the hardest decision I ever had to make for my life and it's not even close. Even with the recent coaching staff changes I am still committed to the Jackrabbits and being a part of something great in Brookings! 

Community

Over this past year I have mentored 15 students in the Independence Community School District ranging from 3rd grade to 8th grade students. A couple things we did were host a birthday party for a student who doesn't normally get one, help students with math and reading, plenty of Uno and plenty of lunches at the elementary school. (They even convinced me to play football in the middle of winter when it was snowy out and I had no gloves). 

I am also the student council president and we have had a lot of success this year trying to create a good culture and climate at our school. Not only did we work on building relationships at our school but we also made it look better and more comfortable for students. We got lots of high tables this year and are hopefully getting some couches soon!

We also hosted two pretty big events such as the Gallop for Good Charity 5k and Harnessing Happiness leadership conference (click those blog posts if you want to read more). Some other small fun things we did were a Mustang Thanksgiving, Halloween movie night, and a pickleball tournament. We also fundraised over $2,000 for a family going through a crisis from a neighboring school and gave baked goods to the school district as well. 

I also rang the bell (a few times) for the Salvation Army, and as the president of FCCLA we were able to host a fun food drive where we accumulated over 300 lb of food and handed out over 12 breakfast Casey's pizza to students in classes who donated the most food. 

I have spent a lot of time this year at West Elementary (3rd-6th grade building). I started the year by going over every Friday morning and giving all the students in each grade a fist bump and saying things like “Go Mustangs” and their favorite “Happy Friday!” Now when I see them around in the community they will come up to me, give me a fist bump and say Happy Friday. I have continually tried to go over at least once a week to spread some Mustang spirit. It's crazy to think about the positive impact that I can have on these kids' lives by doing such small things, like saying hi and giving them a fist bump. That's why I need to keep it up. I'm honored to have such an impact!

BKURTDEVELOPMENT

This year I started something called BKURTDEVELOPMENT. It consisted of a lot of different things like social media videos, blog posts, an expository speech and a whole journey of development.

I posted 10 social media videos on my Instagram. The handle for that is @bkurtdevelopment if you want to go check that out. Just like this post I created a few other blog posts with the first one being my year in review from last year.

I also gave a 6 minute long speech based on the three pillars of development: the mind, the body, and the heart. I also went through a journey of development in my own life through daily journaling, meditation, and reading. I also created a daily planner and it is a game changer.

Not only did I help myself but others too. I have helped people work through personal problems in their life by helping them to create healthy routines. For example, someone on their own journey of development. They randomly called me out of the blue and asked for a book recommendation so I talked to them to figure out what their purpose was and what they wanted to gain from it. So we went from there, and set a schedule in place for how often they are going to read and also when we are going to meet and discuss what they have learned or found interesting from the book. I'm really looking forward to this and helping others going into next year. 

Well-Being

I had another great year as far as training goes. 

Maxes:

Bench: 225 lbs for 19 reps and 315 lbs for 2 reps

Back Squat: 495 lbs for 1 rep

I can also consistently dunk. I am going to get one in a game here soon.

I had no social media for half of the year so during those periods I was the most present and time was abundant. I need to go ghost again soon. 

I also didn’t eat any desserts for a couple different time periods. I went for the first couple months of 2024, April 1st until our first home game on August 30th, and finally the rest of the football season I could only after games. 

I tried to drink a lot more water. Shooting for a gallon a day and wowza was that a great idea. I swear there is a direct correlation of the quality of my life and how much water I drink. 

I haven’t had too many pressures to drink or do drugs but when I do I politely turn them down. Another year alcohol and drug free for me.

I also did knees over toes workouts to strengthen my knees and I haven’t had any knee problems! 

What didn’t go so well this year?

Academics

School has just been such a drag. I constantly find myself contemplating the purpose and reason for the many hours I spend in that building. There are so many different things that I could be doing that are arguably much more beneficial for me. However, I need to keep in mind that to accomplish the things I want to do in life. I need to graduate high school. So no matter how useless it seems it's something that I have to do. So this year I'm going to try to have a better attitude towards school and finish High School strong. I just feel that it's a waste of time. I am getting my butt kicked in one of my classes right now. I have a C+ I never thought I would have a grade as low as a C but it's okay because it is a tough class and a good challenge for me.

Self Image

Most of you that know me may find this hard to believe because of how energetic and confident I can seem. Unfortunately this has been a problem that I have had in my life. A negative self image but also admitting that I have this problem. Even last year when I wrote my year in review I beat around the bush and talked about something similar to this but I couldn't truly admit it. Now I am stronger and I can admit that sometimes I'm not okay. There's nothing wrong with this, it's only wrong not to seek help. I haven't always had a great self image of myself. I sometimes don't like the way that I look, or how smart I am. I sometimes feel that I am worthless and haven't accomplished anything. This year was no different. I struggled to accept the fact that I feel this way and I rarely ever reached out about it. This year I'm going to do a better job getting help when I need it. Because, truthfully, that’s the “strong” thing to do.

Conclusion of HS football 

I was completely lost after High School football ended. All the days ran together as one, I couldn't get a good night's sleep. I stopped reading, journaling, and meditating. My screen time was at an all-time high and I was scrolling my days away. I cried everyday for at least a week after the season was over. (This wasn’t long term though - I woke the hell up and got back on the grind).

I felt hopeless at times - what was all my hard work for? Why even bother putting in all the time I did just to come short of all my dreams and goals? Because it's all about the journey, not the result, not the outcome. It's about all those long practices and brutal weight sessions. It's about being a part of a team something bigger than yourself. Building relationships with your teammates and coaches. It's about giving it your all. There is no pleasure without pain and there is no strength without vulnerability. I was able to put myself in a place where I was vulnerable to fail and by doing that I succeeded. I succeeded in having the time of my life and accomplishing things that even I never thought could happen. 

The Ladies Situation

I was single the whole year. I wasn't really ready to get into a relationship with having to decide where I was going to go to college. Also the likelihood of not going to the same college as a partner if I were to get one. So I was stuck in between this shitty area of getting to know people and hanging out once or twice and then feeling like I needed to cut things off because it would be better for the both of us. I never felt that I wanted a relationship anyways. This could be because it wasn’t meant to be or because I never really gave it a chance.

Sometimes I would question to myself what was the point of it at all. It felt meaningless for most of the year. I decided to really take a break and stop talking to girls as a whole. I just tried to enjoy my time alone. Spending my time with friends and family instead of a romantic partner. Eventually I do want a steady relationship but it's going to have to wait at least until I get to college. If I prioritize school, football and my work now it will allow me to be a better husband and father in the future. 

What did I learn?

What you are not changing you are choosing. It's exactly what it sounds like. If you don't decide to make a change in your life, you are actively choosing that lifestyle. 

Free will… You literally can do whatever you want whenever you want. At the end of the day you are in complete control of your life. Yes, you have to deal with the consequences to your actions but outweigh the consequences before you make that decision and if they are in your favor what's stopping you? Jump. You’ll grow wings as you are falling. 

One simple letter cannot define who you are as a person. Talking about the outdated system we use to tell kids if they are smart. We are all a part of one family, the human family. I learned in most situations that people aren't inherently evil or bad. Most people that you run into aren't trying to initially ruin your life or do you harm. At the end of the day we're all just humans trying to figure out our path and purpose on this giant floating rock.

Do nice things for your family and friends for no reason. They deserve it. Don't do it because you owe them or because you want attention. However much you are doing for your family or  friends I can promise, you can do more in 2025. 

Do cool shit. It doesn't matter what it is, go out there find something you're passionate about and do it to the best of your ability. Who cares if it's not exactly what you wanted it to be, try again. Find a problem that you have in your life or any problem for that matter - then figure out the solution. Do cool shit. 

Read books… one could change the whole trajectory of your life. (if you need recommendations let me know)

Don't pay any attention to what people tell you is important to them - Pay attention to how they act.

Use Chat GPT… for pretty much everything. It has been the number one enhancer of my life this year.

If you are living to your values there is no way you should be ashamed or disappointed in yourself. 

Don't expect anything and you will never be disappointed.

Happiness has nothing to do with your achievements or materialistic items you own.

Don’t reach out to people and talk to them, just wait for them to wither out of your life… or just reach out to them first.

Learn to love learning. 

Put the f***ing phone down - be present in the moment - especially when you're with others.

Your time is valuable. do not waste it (Doing something you love is not a waste of time even if it is not productive - don't get those mixed up)

When you are confused, ask questions. 

Nobody owes you anything and nothing is guaranteed. 

Goals for next year.

Journal every single day of 2025

Enhance the quality of life for those around me

Feel more content with who I am and what I have accomplished in my life

Favorite photos.

Looking back and picking out all these photos reminded me about all the great people and opportunities I have in my life. So thank you to everyone who makes my life so great! 

Check out the photos here!

Thanks for reading and have a great 2025! 

Gallop for Good: Charity 5K supporting Habitat for Humanity

Gallop for good was great. What an amazing opportunity we have been blessed with. Huge thank you to everyone who was involved. With over 135 community members lacing up their shoes we were able to fundraise $1,791. I was thrilled about all the support we received from the community, students, and sponsors. 

Independence Student Council proudly hosted its first ever charity 5K. This year, all proceeds were donated to Habitat for Humanity, a global nonprofit that works tirelessly to provide affordable housing for families in need. By joining the race, you didn’t just break a sweat—you helped break the cycle of poverty by supporting safe and decent housing. Habitat for Humanity believes that everyone deserves a place to call home. With the help of volunteers, donors, and partnerships, Habitat builds and repairs homes for families who otherwise might not be able to afford a stable place to live. Since its founding in 1976, Habitat for Humanity has expanded its reach across the globe, building homes in local communities and in over 70 countries worldwide. The impact is life-changing. A safe, affordable home provides the foundation for families to thrive, offering stability, security, and a better future for children. 

Through events like Gallop for Good, we can all make a difference in helping Habitat for Humanity continue their mission. By supporting affordable housing, you’re helping build stronger communities, one home at a time. We’re proud that our community came together to run for this cause, and we look forward to continuing our partnership with Habitat to help more families achieve the dream of homeownership.

What went well!

Preparation was great, I did a much better job of delegating tasks leading up to the event and day of the event. I made sure to decide everyone’s role for the day so I didn't need to be handling certain tasks once we got started. This was nice so I could just go around and check on things to make sure everything was running smoothly. Which also gave me an opportunity to talk to the people in the community who were interested in speaking with me. Overall the day went smoothly. There were no big problems where I had to step in and solve them. Thanks to the preparation we put into it to make sure that everything was ready. Some feedback that we got was that our headquarters was set up very nicely and it was extremely welcoming. Participants also enjoyed after race refreshments of water, bananas, homemade scones and muffins from Gedney. It was a great opportunity for them to socialize with people in the community and our workers while recovering from the 5K. Someone even said this was their favorite 5K they've been to… don't worry I made sure that this wasn't their first one. 🤣

What didn't…

I was extremely happy with how everything went, however that doesn't mean we were perfect. The course was slightly short which will be something that we make sure we fix for next year if the Student Council decides to make this an annual thing. We could have set up the route a little bit sooner as well. We were pretty much finishing setup as they got started on the route. I also wish we would have made a cooler finish line. Overall not crazy bad things but you can always be better. 

What I learned.

I could go on for days on what all I learned but to save myself the writing and you the reading I am going to utilize one of my favorite inventions… bullet points!

Key responsibilities and tasks

• Putting together a team (Being in charge of giving them roles)

• Learning patience and how to work with a team

• Working with a real world group (Habitat for Humanity)

• Making flyers and all the marketing we did as well

• Running my own meeting with student council 

• Being a part of a Habitat for Humanity meeting

• Choosing a charity to donate to

• Learning how to fly a drone to record and take pictures 

• Setting up online  and in person registration

• Put up speakers and connect a microphone to it (This time I learned how to do it I didn’t just have someone else set it up for me)

• Hosting a 5K 🤣 (I’ve never been to a 5K before so this was kinda crazy what we did as a team)

• Post race prizes, refreshments, and race times  

• Creating and marking out a route

• Getting permission to close off roads and use the grounds 

And much more I could multiply this list by 3 and still have jobs left over.

Most importantly you can do cool stuff all you have to do is put your mind to it. This 5K was completely run by students. If a handful of high school students can make an impact like this, so can all of you reading. Runners and walkers alike were excited to know that every step they took was making a difference in someone’s life, bringing hope to families in need of a safe place to call home. Doing this we impacted not only the people getting helped by habitat for humanity but the participants too.

BKURTDEVELOPMENT “the last word” 

I hope you enjoyed reading and if you have any questions feel free to reach out. We are working on figuring out our next big project so if anyone has any ideas please let me know. It has been awhile since I have written a blog but I think I might start back up on them. Anyways a lot has happened since then…

• I committed to South Dakota State University to continue my football career. GO JACKS!

• My brothers are both graduating college this year and I will be graduating highschool.

• I won the student council election last year so I am the president this year.

• My sister played volleyball this year and I am excited to watch her grow and become a dawg at it.

If you enjoyed this blog make sure to check out the one I wrote about Harnessing Happiness!

Harnessing Happiness: The Ultimate Leadership Experience

What a day… This idea was sparked ;) by Cascade High School. They put together an amazing leadership conference called “Lead with love”. The Independence student council attended and I was one of those lucky few who got to go. After the day concluded I thought to myself this was such a great opportunity I wish more people could have experienced it. This ignited ;) purpose into my life. The idea of a leadership conference in Independence, Iowa. 

Harnessing happiness: A leadership experience focused towards positive psychology and developing emotional intelligence. Empowering all students who attend by fostering well-being and happiness within themselves. Ultimately having happiness spread like a virus to everyone they know. Throughout the day hands-on workshops, team building activities, keynote speakers and everything from a stretcher carry to a spaghetti tower. Participants learned practical and actionable techniques to apply in their leadership positions. For when they return to their schools, with a sense of enlightenment and new perspectives. 

What went well!

Overall the whole day was amazing. I think that all the students learned something and even if they didn't, I know they had an enjoyable experience. I personally had a ton of fun. Somebody gave me a microphone, bad idea. (JK I asked for it) All of our speakers did amazing. It ran very smoothly. There were not a lot of breaks in the action and we still ended everything on time. 

What didn't…

No matter what you do, there will be people who try to downplay or ruin what you say or do. Unfortunately even though I thought this was an event everyone would be able to back up. Some people still decided to make fun of the event. On top of that, a few students who were a part of it didn't take it seriously and tried to make a mockery of it. which at the end of the day it's okay we can't control what they say or do we can only control ourselves. I think the rest of the students did an amazing job not buying into their catabolic energy and did a great job harnessing happiness. Also while I was busy making sure everything moved along accordingly. I didn't have as much time as I wanted to connect with the students and really be present with everyone else. I was always worried about the next activity. I wish I could have connected with more students and listened to the speakers a little bit more than I did at our first harnessing happiness event. This will be a good goal for the next one we host. I was rushed from one activity to the next and bombarded with questions constantly.  This made it very difficult to get to everybody. For our next event I think it'll be beneficial to hand some responsibility off to someone else, almost having someone be the manager of the day and I am just the Emcee. 

What I learned.

WOW… this could be a very very long list. So I will do my best to keep it short.

Jobs I had to do.

• Calling businesses for sponsorships 

• Reaching out to volunteers to lead breakout sessions or give speeches 

•  Plan out the entire itinerary 

• The permission from the school 

• Acquire access to the Gym and Auditorium (got to work with people to get projectors and microphones)

• Amazon order and Walmart run for supplies 

• Budgeting all of our funds

• Ordering A LOT of pizza 

• Reaching out to schools by calling secretary's principals and sending emails 

• Bring together the Smile Squad (Leaders within Independence who helped run the conference)

This list is probably starting to get boring so I won't bore you with the rest but there was a lot more. 😂

There were so many soft skills that I learned throughout completing all of those jobs and the holistic view of the entire conference. 

The most important thing that I learned though. We can all be friends. It doesn't matter your background, what activities you're in or any of that stuff. I saw so many students from so many different walks of life interacting and becoming friends with each other. So many students are afraid or anticipate that they won't like someone else without ever giving them a chance. with the environment that the Smile Squad was able to create. Students were able to build bonds with others who they might have not had anything in common with other than they were both at this leadership conference. It was so great to see the relationships being formed and how at the end of the day we are all just humans trying to do our best and a lot of the time without a lot of help from others. The more you can interact and find people who can help people who are like you people who make each day a little bit better the better off you'll be. 

BKURTDEVELOPMENT “the last word” 

I hope you enjoyed this read. If you have any questions about harnessing happiness, the ultimate leadership experience feel free to reach out. I would love to answer all of them. I'm also looking to host this amazing event at other schools so… you know where to find me, let's make it happen! 

Some cool things going on in my life!

• My brother might play college basketball next winter! I love watching him play so I am really excited about that.

• My sister started high jump and it has been really cool to practice high jump with her 

• I recently went on a football visit to the University of Iowa and it has always been a dream to take my dad on a visit there so I am so grateful for everyone who has helped me get there. 

• My college classes are almost done so that means I will be able to create more social media content about self-development!!!  I hope you guys are excited about this one as well.

You are going to die. Start living like it.

Recently my grandpa passed away. This was the first interaction that I had with death. It was sad, but at the same time it was beautiful to talk about how great he was. This influenced this post.

Everyone knows that eventually they're going to die, but most people don't understand it. 

The concept of death is known to everyone. However, people don't know what it really means. That means no more smiling, no more embarrassing moments, no more watching family movies, no more wearing your pink shoes or black pants, no more talking and laughing with your friends and loved ones, no more bad days or good days, no more of the things that you love or hate. I'm not trying to scare you for your inevitable death, I'm trying to help you understand how to live like you're going to die. 

You only get a finite amount of time; it doesn't last forever. To better understand this concept check out the book Four Thousand Weeks. You must decide how to spend that time just the same as you must decide how to spend your money. Do you want to spend money on a sweatshirt that you might wear once or do you want to use that money to go somewhere you've always wanted to visit. The same applies to time: do you want to sit on TikTok all day or do you want to go explore the outdoors, deepen connections with loved ones, or ignite your purpose. Whatever it may be, the decision is yours. How will you spend your time? 

Life is like a vacation 

After you have gotten to your destination. You are tired from the trip. So you want to rest up. Since it doesn't matter, you just started your vacation and have the whole week. This is like your teens and early twenties. So much to see and to do but no real action towards it. A few days of your vacation go by and you have done a few things but not as much as you originally wished you would have. Half of the vacation is over, there is still plenty of time to enjoy it. But you start to realize that it's getting close to the end, so you start to enjoy it even more and really take things in staying more present. This is like your 30s and 50s. You understand that your time is dwindling down but you aren't “old” just yet. After this you go into panic mode trying to see all the sites and thinking about how it's almost over. Then you have a moment of realization that you might never come back to this place again. You start to regret those first days where you stayed back at the hotel instead of doing something that mattered. Well the good news is you have more than only a few days in life unlike a vacation. If you have read up until this point you also should have been hit by a certain sort of realization that your time is finite and you don't get to live forever. You are going to die. Start living like it. 

Live like you are going to die 

Stop doing things that aren't important to you. It is as simple as that if your values don't reflect on what you are doing then why are you doing it? If you are a part of a sports team that you hate and there is no benefit to it, why are you still on the team? So many people scroll their life away on social media, do you think that is one of their core values or do you think that they don't realize that their time is finite. They're thinking to themselves I'm tired today, I can't do this or that. They also tell themselves I don't have enough time to do this or enough money to do that but if it truly was important to you you would find a way to make it happen. You don't get to make these excuses forever. At some point and sometime you are going to get slapped in the face by reality and realize how much time you've wasted on things that don't matter to you. You are going to die. Start living like it. 

BKURTDEVELOPMENT “the last word” 

WOW guys… the first blog post had 309 people view it! That is amazing. Hopefully I can reach a large audience with this post as well since I am not just yapping about myself (lol) and have a great way to think of death and life on this post. Share this with anyone who needs to start living like they are going to die. 

Some cool things going on in my life!

• I have my first 7on7 football tournament this weekend 

• My sister just finished her first year of wrestling with a 9-3 record (way better than me)

• I have some College visits this spring that I will be able to go on with my family

• Our student council is hosting a leadership conference to our students and surrounding schools  

(be sure to contact me if you think your school should attend)