Love makes the world, makes the world go 'round.

When I first stepped onto the fields at World's Fair Park, I was a nervous little Freshman. The Ultimate field was muddy as heck due to the recent downpour. I had just been introduced to VFC and was about to meet some of my closest friends in college. Ultimate was super fun, but I took away something much more meaningful. I felt community. I felt love.

Fast forward to January 2011. I am sleeping over at the VFC House because my dorm is not yet open. There is actually snow on the ground. It's mid-morning and the house guys decided to spend some time worshiping. I'll always remember this because of the magic of the moment. In front of me were twelve college guys. Rather than doing what I thought were "normal" college male conversations, they were actually worshiping and praising. I felt community. I felt love.

Community and love are two of the more important aspects of the Christian religion. As a community, each of the group loves and cares out for each other. They reach out to each other, pursue each other and genuinely care how each and every other. There is a mutual love. According to the bible, God has given non-believers the right to, in a way, judge whether a person is a true Christian or not. I was in this role last year. I, a non-believer, was able to judge for myself whether these people were Christian or not. Of course, now I know they were truly Christians. However, when I was looking at these people for the first time, I didn't make a snap judgment. Honestly, I was drawn by the community and love that the group possessed. That drew me and that kept me coming around until the point we are at today.

I love people. Everyone that knows me knows this. However, I love that He love me more and made me so that I can love people like I do.

So it breaks me a little when people post facebook statuses or say things that are simply full of sin. Christian or not, no one like sin. No one wakes up and thinks 'I am gonna sin today.' However, we all are sinning left and right, mostly without realizing it. It just frustrates me, I don't know. I can't control people, nor can I judge what they are doing. I know I need to love, but it's just hard when faced with certain situations people put themselves into. Sigh....oh well.. Rafting tomorrow!!!!

<3

Thank you...

Thank you.
Thank you for being you.
Thank you for being my friend.
Thank you for talking to me.
Thank you for plugging into me.
Thank you for taking all that time.
Thank you for the sarcasm.
Thank you for serving.
Thank you for always being there.
Thank you for the talks. The many, many important talks.
Thank you for being such a presence in my life.
Thank you for that very first time at the beginning.
Thank you for that look that help turn my year around.
Thank you for never giving up on me.
Thank you for being one of the greatest people that I could have run into at college.
Thank you God for working in you.
Thank you for being an older brother and true friend.
Thank you Proverbs 17:17
Thank you for fearing the Lord.
Thank you for being such an influence.
Thank you (very partially if at all) for what happened. 4.23.11
Thank you, you knucklehead.
Thank you for all you've done.
Thank you for knowing how I work. And then setting me straight afterwards.
Thank you for going off and doing what you're meant to do.
Muchas gracias para todas cosas, mi amigo. Te amo.
Thank you. Love you!

Let the Sun Shine In

"I believe that the sun has risen: not only because I see it, but because by it I see everything else."-C.S. Lewis


We always have learned that the sun is one of the most important beings in our solar system. It gives us the nutrients, life, etc. that we need in order to survive. It does all these great things...


...but we'd never actually look at it, would we? 


Even with any protection, the sun is just so great and so bright that no one would dare look at it directly. It's just too powerful. 


How, then, do we cherish it so? As Lewis puts it, we believe the sun is present because of the things in which we see the sun's effect on. If it wasn't for the plants, people, buildings and other items that the sun touched, we'd never know it existed at all. 


And on top of it all, there has been many times in class where I've learned how insanely difficult the universe is structured. I don't understand science often, but I understand that if things weren't perfectly done, then we would not have the sun or anything.

Believe it or not, this is a metaphor....get it?

Summer '11

Seeing the Knoxville skyline for the first time in months was awesome. I admit, I was jumping, giddy, super pumped to be back in K-Ville for sophomore year in college. Of course, this marked the end of summer for me. Back up north, my friends are still having three more weeks (ish) of summer, still hanging out, still working, still relaxing like there's not a care in the world.

I do not get such luxury, but I couln't be happier. Of course, this sudden change in routine does allow one to look back and analyze how the summer went.

There were two simple sides to this past summer.

The first side involves all the "positive" aspects. I got to travel to many amazing places (i.e. Puerto Rico) and meet/hang out with some extraordinary people that make my life that much more fruitful (see NSCS blogpost, for instance). Great memories were made and I loved every moment. Plus, I made money. Always awesome.

The other side involves the "negative" aspects. Not necessarily in a literal sense, but more in a way of improvement and growth. Coming off such a monumental year, I was really excited to continue to grow and mature and what not. I had a long, long list of books that I planned to read. I planned to talk with many people that would keep me from straying off course, so to speak.

To an extent, I succeeded. In reality, my laziness came back to bite me.

So, I didn't read every single book I wanted to and I didn't have all the conversations, but I believe that I was extremely encouraged and inspired by what I experienced, what I saw, and what I felt over these two months. I have noticed sides of people that I would not have expected to witness and I was able to tell people my story, while at the same time note on what I have to do in order to mature and become a stronger person.

Overall, a great, successful summer. I am happy.

School life starts back up now and I am back on Rocky Top.

CASE ASAP 2011: Showtime!!!

Nashville, Tennessee is one of my favorite cities in the South. As the birthplace of country music, Tennessee's capital has a certain kind of feeling to it. A feeling where there almost always seems to be a main event. The city's a stage and all the performers come alive to give the city its unique character.

The first August weekend brought in a new talent. The CASE ASAP convention, a conference that focuses on the Student-Alumni Associations across the country, premiered in Music City USA for its annual performance. Starring the SAA's from the University of Tennessee and Northern Kentucky University, this year's conference planned on being the biggest in the program's history, and, with all bias aside, this year lived up to a lot of the hype.

Of course, as a still relatively new SAA member at UT, it was great to meet other SAA's and learn some tips on how to run and partake in a successful association. However, from the staff's perspective, it was extremely encouraging to see everyone there who came in from all across the country meeting each other and learning new ideas themselves. At UT, we are extremely blessed to have such a solid SAA program. We are able to bring 35-40 people, bring so much to the table, heck, even co-host this entire convention. There were many programs that were making their debuts, so to speak. I was talking to some reps from Georgia State and they have grown to about 600 members (or some ridiculous) in an extremely small amount of time. The newbies from Atlanta also won the Spirit award this year. It'll be great to see how they grow in the future.

My favorite moment, though, overall was inside my own group. Getting to know the SAA's from my own school better was by far the best part of the weekend for me. Having been in SAA for a few months, I somewhat knew people in the group, but this weekend allowed me to get to know everyone a LOT better. There is still some novelties that will wear off with time, but I definitely consider SAA more of a family now than I did at the beginning of my SAA time. I can't wait for more SAA memories.

And hopefully, CASE ASAP will make an encore appearance in Nashville in the near future.