Old Friend Encounters

It is so great to be able to see friends that you have not seen in literally over a year. And not only is it good to see them, but it is even better to get to catch up with them, and see how they are doing.

I experienced one of these encounters today as one of my friends from high school, Matt James, was back in town for the weekend. He has been down south working for "The Academy of Arts," (sorry I would provide a link but I do not have one). He is also going to school at a technical institute, majoring in Web & Graphic Design.

It is great to see how both of us have matured, and we have common interests so it was great to see what he has learned in those areas.

It is also crazy to hear that he is dating a girl that he is planning on marrying in the very near future. But then again, it is crazy to see many of my friends get engaged and married. And yet its kinda ironic because I'm sitting here, single and happy. LOL. O well, thats life, right? We all grow up, mature, get old, married, or stay single, and work. I'm quickly learning that is the way life goes. I'm learning this as people are asking me about school and such, but alas, another post for another day.

Are you running into old friends, or people you haven't seen in a while? Do you enjoy these encounters or loathe them?


A picture of me and my friends as seniors on our high school soccer team. I am second from the right "26" and Matt is fourth from the right "28"

Growing Close

Well I am officially done with my Junior year of College, and only 1 more year to go. This post will not be a reflection on what I've learned this year, but rather a reflection on someone who I have grown really close to over the year.

This person has been one of my roommates this year, his name is Nate Nearpass or @natenearpass on twitter. I do have another roommate, his name is Kyle Isabelli, and I love him dearly, but I'd like to talk about Nate right now.

I did not realize it until the day that I was leaving, but I have grown really close to Nate over the past year. And most of this is due to the fact that we roomed together. We have spent measurably much more time together than we have in years past. It is also due in part to both of our break-ups this year, and we have each helped each other majorly through those. But I think the mere fact that we have spent so much time together has made a huge difference.

The day I was packing up and getting ready to leave, I was telling him goodbye, and I realized that I am going to be talking to him alot more this summer than I have in past summers. I have talked to him practically everyday for the past 2 semesters. We have talked about lives, school, everything. Not to mention our videoblog/internet TV show has taken off, and we have had a blast with that.

So even though he is going to be in Africa and California the whole summer, and I will be traveling coaching and running soccer camps, we will definitely still stay in contact with each other and keep each other update on what is happening in our lives.

I just want to encourage you to cherish those people who are close to you, and who understand you, and will listen to you, and will talk to you. Because they are very few and far between.

To all my other friends out there, I love you all greatly, and I could write a whole blog post about each one of you, but this has risen in my mind recently with leaving school, so I thought I'd write about it.

Love you all

Do you have someone in your life that you are close to, or that you will be leaving soon that you are going to miss extremely?

Also below you will find the latest episode The Wheel Seat, if your interested.

Who is Your Mentor?

This weekend has been a great one for me. It has allowed me to clear my head, forget about school, and just focus on relationships with the guys around me.

I went on a camping trip this weekend with my dorm floor for the first time in my 3 years of living on the floor. I've never really been that interested in going previously, just because I wasn't really close with any guys on the floor, and the guys that I was close with usually didn't go either, so had just decided against it. But this year I did have some close friends going, so I decided to go as well. And I am really glad that I did.

The trip gave me an opportunity to just relax, but to also come closer with some guys that I was already close with, as well as get to know some guys that I didn't know prior to the trip. God has really been showing me how important it is to have strong male relationships in my life. I have realized this through losing some relationships that I've had previously, as well as gaining some new ones.

Without other guys in my life to keep me accountable, and frankly keep my sane, I would be living a life probably far from God.

I look at my current living situation, in a college dorm, surrounded by Godly men, and I am so thankful for the community I live in. Because I think of friends back home that don't live in a community like I do, and I wonder what kind of accountability they have in their life, if any at all. And if they have none at all, do they even realize that, or are they just living life going throughout everyday, making decisions on their own, without help or advice.

I realize that there are daily decisions that should be made independently, but there are also very crucial and important decisions that need to be made. Decisions that should not be taken lightly, and yet I know guys that don't really consult anyone on these decisions. They don't seek wisdom or advice, they just make decisions based on what they know, and alot of times what they are feeling, and I don't think that is the best thing to do.

I remember in high school I would meet with one of my mentors usually once-a-week just to talk about life, and usually if I had a big decision to make then I would seek advice from them, and over my years here at Moody I have found older guys to fulfill that role, but I think there are alot of guys who don't have this mentor role fulfilled in their life, and they don't know what they're missing.

This semester I've actually not had anyone in that mentor position in my life, and I've definitely missed it. My old roommate graduated last year, and I used to meet with him weekly to talk about life. But thankfully I still have my roommate, Nate, to talk to and to help me through life. And I think he will be a lifelong friend that will always be there, and I think every guy needs that.

It is all about relationships. Relationships with each other. But most importantly, a relationship with God.

Our relationships with each other are just ways to help us in our relationship with God.

Do you have a mentor or friend? Someone to go through life with? Someone with whom you seek wisdom and advice?

If not, I think you should find someone who would be willing to. And the cool thing is that it goes both ways. They help you, and you help them. They may have more experience in one area of life, while you may have more experience than them in another area of life.

It is all about helping each other in order to glorify God and grow closer to Him.

my roommate twitters!!!

I would like to apologize to those readers who have no interest in media whatsoever, my last several posts have been all about media and for me it has been great, because it is a great way for me to get my ideas out there, and get your feedback. But for those who are not interested in that type of thing, it has probably been boring you to death. So this might be the last media related post for a bit. But I've just had media on the mind constantly lately, and there has been lots of stuff going on.


One of these things is that my roommate is now on twitter, and has his own blog. Now I haven't figured out yet whether he's actually realized the value in these things or if he just started doing them because I am huge on both of them. I think its a bit of both.
So his twitter is NateNearpass and his blog is "This is for my people".

He said the thing that drew him to twitter was that he read somewhere that Lupe Fiasco had a twitter, and he had heard me explain the purpose and benefit of having an account, so he decided to go for it, and I'm glad he did. I've been preaching about twitter ever since I realized the purpose and benefit of it, but people just don't get it, and they don't take the time to get it either.

But now that someone who is not a geek is on twitter, I'm hoping that it will catch on among my other friends. I think it will eventually, it just takes a long time. I mean, Nate is already getting discouraged by the fact that one day he had 12 followers and now he only has 9. I told him that is the way twitter is, people come and go. And I told him, it is not as easy as adding friends on facebook. I feel like there's alot more commitment with twitter. I mean it took me 2 years to get to 200 followers. But then again, its not just about your followers, its also about the people that you follow.

Also, to talk about Nate's blog a bit more, he loves to write, and he does it almost constantly, so I think this blog will be good for him. He has posted every day since he created it, and the good thing is, they're not long posts, alot of them are poems.
He was telling me last night that he had a problem that he has written so much, that he could do multiple posts per day if he wanted to. Now that's a good problem to have. LOL.

I told him that its ok if he posts multiple times per day, or he could spread them out over each day, so he always has a post for each day. But I think he's definitely understanding the purpose of social media more and more. And its good. I wish more people would take the time to try and understand it.

Now for those of you who are on twitter, lets show my roommate some love and give him a follow. Let's show him the power of twitter...All together now

Do you twitter?
Do you blog?
Do you have friends who don't see the purpose in either of them?

Let's spread the word, there is purpose in these things, and they can be profitable.

a success

It has been another great weekend so far. And its just been great to get all those papers and stuff out of the way. I still have 3 finals to take before I go home on Wednesday, so I'm not looking forward to those, but I'm definitely looking forward to going home.

If you couldn't tell from me last couple posts this week has been a pretty sucky week. But there is always light at the end of the tunnel, and this weekend I think was part of that light. I realized some stuff through some processing and talking with some friends, so its been ok. Plus it helps to get some sleep as well. Yesterday I slept till 3:00pm cause we didn't have any classes, and then today I slept till 2:00pm. It was absolutely amazing. I haven't gotten to sleep in that long in a while.

O yeah, and I almost forgot, on Thursday me and Nate had our premiere of The Wheel Seat Live It was an episode of our videoblog except it was Live. And it was a huge success. We had 27 unique viewers, which really translates into 27 unique computers. We can't even tell how many actual people were watching because at alot of computers there were more than one person watching. I'm guessing we had around 40 or so viewers, which is phenomenal for our first episode. I'm really looking forward to what is to come. And I just want to thank all of you for making that first episode possible. It was a blast. If you join the facebook group you can get updates as to when the next show will be and other things.

Last night our soccer team had a little get together at coach's apartment. We ate some pizza and watched 2 soccer games, it was fun. And then today I went to Starbucks with a friend and talked about this week and got some things figured out which was really good. Then I took Nate and Savannah to the train station and now I'm sitting back in my room. So it's been an eventful day. LOL.

Just 3 more days to go and I'm home free. Thank the Lord.

go home

Forewarning, this post has the possibility to be somewhat "emo" so don't be surprised when this happens. Just a little disclaimer.

Well I just finished my ridiculously hard greek take home test that I wouldn't be surprised if I failed and it was almost impossible for me to concentrate. That's the problem with take home tests, my thoughts are all over the place. Right at this very moment I just want to be at home, I don't care what I'm doing at home, I don't care if I'm working at home, if I'm in pain at home, I don't care, I just wanna be at home. Why? Don't ask me why? I don't know. Maybe because one of my best friends is at home, the only guy that I can connect with on a geeky level, but I can not only connect with him on a geeky level, but also on a life level, which is great. I miss him alot.

Don't get me wrong, I absolutely love my friends here, especially one of my other best friends who is my roommate, and even since last night its been great to talk to him about life and different stuff, and at that moment last night I wouldn't have wanted to be anywhere else except right here in my room talking to him. But right now at this very moment I wanna be in my friend's apartment talking to him. Talking to him about computers, about life, about girls, about how he thinks the government is going to eventually be controlling every move we make as humans. LOL.

I don't know. (this is the part of this post where it might get really confusing because I'm just typing at random now, whatever comes to my head...). There's just been some things that I don't even know what the right reaction or the right feeling should be about it. I do know how I'm feeling about it, and some of that is natural, but I don't know if its right. How about this, how about I just skip this last week and a half of school, take my car and just get the heck out of here. I mean, the temperature here in Chicago hasn't been above 25 degrees since I can remember, let alone above freezing. Don't know what that has to do with my emotional state of mind, but I'm sure it has some effect on it. LOL. And this is the second paragraph that I have ended with the letters LOL. Just thought I'd point that out. Maybe my emotional state is as bad as I think it is, at least I'm making myself laugh out loud while writing it.

Anyways, this is officially probably the most confusing post I've ever written, but its probably because I have alot of thoughts about a situation that I can't really just talk openly about on here, so instead I'm just giving all these nuances to things that some may be able to figure out while others will have no clue. But thats ok I guess. I think I'm aloud to write a post like this every once and a while. Right?

any comments or complaints, let me know.

drink your ovaltine

this day

Today was a pretty good day, except for the fact that I had to get up at 7am for Syst. Theo. But other than that it was a good day. I actually spent alot of good time with friends today. I would say that was the theme of today, friends. I went to a cafe with Nate and Savannah, which was fun. I later went to Starbucks with Tom Clark. After that, me and Nate finally did another episode of "The Wheel Seat" which is our video blog that we started last year. Then we went to dinner, and came back. Our floor had a volleyball game which I went to and Savannah and I cheered for D3. After that we went to watch The Office. Then Benji finally got here, and me, Nate, Brooke, and Emily spent the rest of the night with him. We just caught up and had a great time, just laughing. It was awesome. We then ended the night with watching like 20 minutes of the movie "Hook" before we got tired and decided to go back to our room for the night. And that brings me to right now. I was trying to decide whether I should blog or not, and I decided to because me and Tom had some great talks today just about God, and His power. In fact that is what I originally wanted this post to be about, but it looks like it has taken a turn to another theme. Like I said, that theme is friends.

So I'm just gonna scrap the idea of writing about what I originally was going to write about, and instead just write about friends. Like I always say, "If you got a good thing goin, don't stop it." Actually I don't always say that, but it is appropriate for this situation. I will write about me and Tommy's talks tomorrow. But today I have been shown the importance of friends, and just stepping back and realizing that is good to do. Yes, this day has been busy, but not stressful busy, just busy with friends, which is usually good, especially when it has nothing to do with school whatsoever. And especially when one of my closest friends that I haven't seen in forever is visiting. This is a good thing.

Well everyone in my room is in bed, and I am struggling as I write this to keep my eyes open, so I apologize for the sloppy writing. That first paragraph was probably pretty rough to read, LOL. Anyways, cherish your friends, and don't take them for granted. So I'll end this post with a line from a popular Michael W. Smith song...

"and friends are friends forever if the Lords the Lord of them, and a friend will not say never, cause the welcome will not end..."

visit

There are always so many things to write about yet if I wrote about them all in one post it would be a VERY long post, and it would probably lose your attention very quickly. So I'll just start out with the latest. This weekend a very close friend of mine from back home, Adam McNeal came and visited me along with his girlfriend, who is best friends with Chelsi, so we all hung out all weekend. It was a blast. It seems that God is just giving me exactly what I need exactly when I need it. I had one of the worst weeks a couple weeks ago, and then that same weekend my parents flew up and surprised me at my game. Then this past week was really good because it was missions conference but through missions conference I've just been thinking about alot of different things pertaining to my future, and just been a bit confused, and then this same weekend my best friend Adam came up and visited so it was good to catch up with him, and just talk to him about stuff that I've been thinking about and such.

Not only was it really good to just talk to Adam about everything, but whenever we get together its just fun, because we've been through absolutely a TON together, and we could go on for a long time just talking about memories that we have together. It is awesome. So that was another enjoyable aspect to the weekend. It is good because when we get together we can be the most immature people but yet we have some really good talks, and that is what it is all about. Helping each other through the good times and the bad times, those of which I've had both recently. Just to be able to sit down across from a good friend at starbucks and just talking about life, what our goals are, and things we are going through. I love it. And when he got in his car today to go back to his school in Louisville, KY it made me sad because I feel like a piece of home is leaving me. I felt the same way when my parents left last time. There are somedays when I just want to get on a plane and go home. Hopefully that day will be coming soon after soccer is over. Me and Jared Tolley have a new project in mind that needs to be done within the next month so I'm hoping to go home soon.

So that is just one post of many that I could write about this week and this weekend. Hopefully I'll be able to write some more soon. This upcoming week looks as if it is going to be another busy one. I've got a big research paper due for Systematic Theology next week, so that is going to take some time for sure. Anyways, I'm listening to Hillsong right now and loving it. O yeah and why can't the Bengals win a freaking game. Its ridiculous. Not the best note to end on, but I feel like an appropriate one.

who dey!? yeah right.