If you want to know anything about me, it's that I love music, and I love long car rides. Put the two together and I'm set. My earliest recollection of a long car ride was when I was about 10 or 11. My family was heading to a family reunion in Tennessee, at the time we lived in Texas. I remember receiving a brand new set of Phonics books that had every level ranging from "Dick and Jane" (simple reading) to the age appropriate "Frog and Toad." This was the equivalent of the nowaday electronic entertainment.
As we traveled, I remember thinking that Texarkana was as boring as any car trip could get. It was mile after mile with trees and there wasn't much to look at. I remember bickering with my brothers, playing the ABC game, and the bagged lunches and dinners. We pulled in late one night, my parents woke us up, and we checked into a motel. It was exciting times, being on the road and living the child's interpretation of a vagabond lifestyle. Every mile was one that you've never discovered before. It was as if God himself was laying out the road and scenery just for you. You pictured yourself being the first to ever see it, not realizing the history lessons that were taught that school year.
I remember seeing the "Mighty Mississippi" for the first time. My brothers and I huddled up against the window staring at the very wide and very brown river that everyone always talked about. Impressive looking, but at the same time, not. I was more fascinated by the fact that someone actually built a bridge across it and how it really had to stand taking a beating from the river. The mind of a child, it's always a wonder.
When we hit the hills of Tennessee, I was in awe. This was not the usual Texarkana look. These trees towered on mighty hills and you actually had to arch your neck in order to see most of them. Keep in mind, this wasn't my first time seeing hills. We did live in Germany, and I have been on the Swiss Alps. These weren't Alps, but in the summer, the Tennessee hills were breathtaking. My small Rowlett, Texas mind was being changed yet again with this unfamiliar scenery.
The family reunion, if you are wondering, was great. I remember it very clearly, as if I was there yesterday. The mansion in the foothills, the in-ground pool was beginning to be filled, playing soccer and volleyball, and playing pool for the first time. These were all things I treasured in my adolescent heart. Don't even get me started about catching fire flies on a beautiful summer night with picturesque sunsets. I'm glad I didn't take that for granted.
Just as I was that little boy that saw the world anew, with endless possibilities after every mile, I can retrace that exact same feeling during different points in my life. I can easily put myself on the plane leaving DFW airport, wondering when the next time I'll see Texas and hang out with the friends I had made there. I can recall sitting by myself during a freshman get together at a classmate's house. I didn't know anyone there and one of my friends from grade school helped me feel welcome and I opened up to the classmates around me.
High school came and went, and college happened. I removed myself from the comfort of family and placed myself in New Ulm, Minnesota. Greeted by a typical Midwesterner as my roommate, I'll admit, I felt superior being from California, but I learned so much from the friendliness of the people at MLC. Everything was unfamiliar and every experience a new frontier.
I graduated, relocated to Nebraska and worked with the best faculty I've ever had the chance of working with. Marriage followed suit and then another teaching position in rural Fremont, WI. When I think about it, have I ever really settled down or am I still that adolescent kid on an adventure?
Here I sit at the computer, remembering some of the finer points in my life, trying to hold on to what is familiar while embarking on yet another new adventure. Recently I was offered a position to teach in Kissimmee, Florida. It'll feel like home, being on the coast, and yet it is completely unmarked territory. To keep me from getting overwhelmed with picking everything up from what is familiar and moving a growing family, I latch on to the memories of great days in unfamiliar places. Each of these memories help me realize that in every new situation I've encountered, I've met people who have made a huge impact in my life and have forever changed who I am for the greater good.
Yesterday, I was sitting in church trying to think of a good theme for my last graduation speech, and I came up with a theme to help not only apply to the graduate's new beginning in high school, but also my personal journey. The theme goes like this: If you want the Lord to guide you, you have to be willing to walk. The Lord has guided me through many blessings and difficulties; it is only when I sat in my sins that I found the hard times to only get harder. How would the Lord guide me out of the bad if I sat in it? I've learned to let God direct me because he knows what I need for my daily life and for the good of my faith. This new adventure in Florida has endless possibilities in growth (both professionally and spiritually.)
As I move down to Florida, I will have the chance to, once again, visit the hills of Tennessee, and cross the "Mighty" Mississippi. This time, as I visit these places, I will have had 20 years of life ahead of that 10 year old boy. If that kid knew the road life was going to take him, I feel he would be just as excited as I am when remembering them. Yes, even excited about the trials and tribulations, only because they have shaped him into the man he is today. I can't wait to get on the road, put some tunes in, and see each new mile of the road as if God was laying it down just for me, crossing paths that have never been seen by others and landmarks that he perfectly made for me.
This vagabond isn't ready to settle just yet. He has so much more to experience. Hopefully, when I am 40, I can take my kids on a trip that will make them feel as alive as I did that trip to Tennessee. To give them the experience of the adventure, knowing their destination, but not the roads that will take them there and the sites that accompany them.
As we traveled, I remember thinking that Texarkana was as boring as any car trip could get. It was mile after mile with trees and there wasn't much to look at. I remember bickering with my brothers, playing the ABC game, and the bagged lunches and dinners. We pulled in late one night, my parents woke us up, and we checked into a motel. It was exciting times, being on the road and living the child's interpretation of a vagabond lifestyle. Every mile was one that you've never discovered before. It was as if God himself was laying out the road and scenery just for you. You pictured yourself being the first to ever see it, not realizing the history lessons that were taught that school year.
I remember seeing the "Mighty Mississippi" for the first time. My brothers and I huddled up against the window staring at the very wide and very brown river that everyone always talked about. Impressive looking, but at the same time, not. I was more fascinated by the fact that someone actually built a bridge across it and how it really had to stand taking a beating from the river. The mind of a child, it's always a wonder.
When we hit the hills of Tennessee, I was in awe. This was not the usual Texarkana look. These trees towered on mighty hills and you actually had to arch your neck in order to see most of them. Keep in mind, this wasn't my first time seeing hills. We did live in Germany, and I have been on the Swiss Alps. These weren't Alps, but in the summer, the Tennessee hills were breathtaking. My small Rowlett, Texas mind was being changed yet again with this unfamiliar scenery.
The family reunion, if you are wondering, was great. I remember it very clearly, as if I was there yesterday. The mansion in the foothills, the in-ground pool was beginning to be filled, playing soccer and volleyball, and playing pool for the first time. These were all things I treasured in my adolescent heart. Don't even get me started about catching fire flies on a beautiful summer night with picturesque sunsets. I'm glad I didn't take that for granted.
Just as I was that little boy that saw the world anew, with endless possibilities after every mile, I can retrace that exact same feeling during different points in my life. I can easily put myself on the plane leaving DFW airport, wondering when the next time I'll see Texas and hang out with the friends I had made there. I can recall sitting by myself during a freshman get together at a classmate's house. I didn't know anyone there and one of my friends from grade school helped me feel welcome and I opened up to the classmates around me.
High school came and went, and college happened. I removed myself from the comfort of family and placed myself in New Ulm, Minnesota. Greeted by a typical Midwesterner as my roommate, I'll admit, I felt superior being from California, but I learned so much from the friendliness of the people at MLC. Everything was unfamiliar and every experience a new frontier.
I graduated, relocated to Nebraska and worked with the best faculty I've ever had the chance of working with. Marriage followed suit and then another teaching position in rural Fremont, WI. When I think about it, have I ever really settled down or am I still that adolescent kid on an adventure?
Here I sit at the computer, remembering some of the finer points in my life, trying to hold on to what is familiar while embarking on yet another new adventure. Recently I was offered a position to teach in Kissimmee, Florida. It'll feel like home, being on the coast, and yet it is completely unmarked territory. To keep me from getting overwhelmed with picking everything up from what is familiar and moving a growing family, I latch on to the memories of great days in unfamiliar places. Each of these memories help me realize that in every new situation I've encountered, I've met people who have made a huge impact in my life and have forever changed who I am for the greater good.
Yesterday, I was sitting in church trying to think of a good theme for my last graduation speech, and I came up with a theme to help not only apply to the graduate's new beginning in high school, but also my personal journey. The theme goes like this: If you want the Lord to guide you, you have to be willing to walk. The Lord has guided me through many blessings and difficulties; it is only when I sat in my sins that I found the hard times to only get harder. How would the Lord guide me out of the bad if I sat in it? I've learned to let God direct me because he knows what I need for my daily life and for the good of my faith. This new adventure in Florida has endless possibilities in growth (both professionally and spiritually.)
As I move down to Florida, I will have the chance to, once again, visit the hills of Tennessee, and cross the "Mighty" Mississippi. This time, as I visit these places, I will have had 20 years of life ahead of that 10 year old boy. If that kid knew the road life was going to take him, I feel he would be just as excited as I am when remembering them. Yes, even excited about the trials and tribulations, only because they have shaped him into the man he is today. I can't wait to get on the road, put some tunes in, and see each new mile of the road as if God was laying it down just for me, crossing paths that have never been seen by others and landmarks that he perfectly made for me.
This vagabond isn't ready to settle just yet. He has so much more to experience. Hopefully, when I am 40, I can take my kids on a trip that will make them feel as alive as I did that trip to Tennessee. To give them the experience of the adventure, knowing their destination, but not the roads that will take them there and the sites that accompany them.
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