Mason Branstrator’s work

Forgot to take good pics with Zak and left before we could meet the band  so this homemade pic is the best I could do. Liss on the left and Coop on the right. Niel from Peach Pit in middle.    As we drove home from the Peach Pit concert last Wednesday my friend Zak said to me “you are wayy too good at making friends.” I was flattered to say the least and actually surprised as I looked back on the night and realized the truth in his words.  Our journey started with a 3-hour drive to Minneapolis full of deep conversations, laughing, and jamming out to music. We decided on a Korean BBQ place for dinner and it was possibly the best food either of us had ever had. The place was authentic and called K Bop. After thanking the restaurant profusely we made our way over to the venue.   After getting checked into the line by a bouncer we found ourselves positioned behind a younger hip looking couple. I remember being envious of their style. The gal in front of them left the line momentarily and a

this is actually not a picture of the dance,  but a picture of a Peach Pit concert I went to with my friend. Which I talk about in the next blog.   Last Friday, I went to a school dance. It was my last senior dance before prom. As I weaved in and out of the crowd to get to the stage I found myself stopping and chatting with anyone who smiled at me. I even talked to an old friend from elementary school for the first time in almost 7 years. He was sitting alone secluded from the crowd, he asked how I was doing and told me he was at spirit mountain the day of my accident. I just kinda shrugged and said I was doing great. He seemed puzzled by my attitude and how well I had taken everything.  After alternating between dancing and socializing with people I started to lose track of time. Before I knew it my friend was playing the last song leading up to our “senior song”. I realized that what had just happened at that moment had played out on a much larger scale within the past 4 years of my

  ​​ When I first broke my back I thought I was dreaming. Only about 3 days later did I realize that what had happened was real. At that point, I started to question why this had happened to me. I began to blame the people around me, I was angry. I didn’t know someone’s life could change forever just by going off a simple ski jump. I felt people should have warned me against it. As I began to sort out the accident and its meaning I came to a very powerful conclusion.  To articulate the transformation of my beliefs I will use the Buddhist parable of the two arrows. The teaching is that there are two arrows that hit us in any negative situation. The first is part of life but the second is optional. The first arrow in my case was the accident. The second arrow was anger, blame, and the story I told myself. Unknowingly I was making my situation worse by trying to blame others and decide why this had happened to me. Now I understand that we do not have to tell ourselves negative stories, an