Friday, July 31, 2009
It's been over four months, but this blog is finally active again. I'm sure you've all given up on it long ago, so I expect it'll be a bit before anyone actually reads this. A lot has happened in the past four months: Bethany's and my one year anniversary, my final bi-county band festival (in which I was the only participant of our trio as Corey and Bethany had prior commitments), AP exams, our final Memorial Day parade for marching, prom, Regents and finals, graduation, and all of the parties that followed.
However, I don't expect I'll address these subjects much in this post or any subsequent post due to the amount of time that has passed. One trait of mine that is at some times a blessing and others a curse is that the past all blends together in my mind; I have trouble remembering specific details about most events from my past. I have previously been cursed with remembering almost exclusively the bad, embarrassing times of my life, but now even those are beginning to fade away. I've changed since my last post. I now live somewhat in the present and even more so in the future.
With that in mind, there are some topics I do want to talk about. Obviously, the main subject on my mind and certainly on the minds of most of my peers is college. One of the main worries associated with college is keeping in touch with friends from high school. I do worry about keeping in touch, but probably not as much as most people. With the technology we have at our fingertips, namely AIM and Facebook, keeping in touch shouldn't be an incredible chore, assuming we will have time to at least access them relatively regularly. Unfortunately, that doesn't do much for preventing us from growing apart. Certainly, my best friends from high school will for the most part not be my best friends even by the end of our freshman year of college, and I don't expect to be any of their best friends either. But we will still be friends, and that has to count for something.
With that out of the way, I am extremely excited for college. I have been placed in a quad this year, which is something that is seen by many as a negative thing. However, I prefer to think of it as an opportunity to make even more friends than my peers who have only one roommate. And that's something I definitely want to make different from high school: having more friends, or at least more good, close friends.
One of my roommates plays guitar, and another is experienced with running sound systems. As I have mentioned, I play bass and one of my greatest ambitions is to be in a band, so knowing that about my roommates is very exciting to me. However, before I get too carried away with imagining the possibilities, I am trying to prepare myself for the most likely outcome, which is that it won't amount to anything. I haven't been practicing much, and I haven't written a song in forever, so it's not like there's much to work with. That said, anything is possible.
I had intended on trying out for RIT's cross country team this fall, but deep down I always knew I wasn't going to be in good enough shape. Thus, I'm taking a different approach. I'm not going to try this year. I'll focus on my studies and slowly but surely build up mileage until next year, by which time I hope to be in shape. I have run a total of one time since graduation, so I'm not off to a great start. But a year is a long time. My first priority is to get my core into much better shape, and in the meantime I will start with shorter runs, probably about four miles a day, and then work my way up to around 80-90 miles per week by next fall. Then, even if I'm a terrible runner by college standards, I'll be in great shape and happy with the progress I will have made.
Before I forget, I should take the time to mention the changes in layout I have made to the blog. A few widgets, including recently listened to tracks, albums of the month, and my mp3 player, have been replaced by my top artists, an artist of the month, and a single album of the month. There are reasons for these changes: I feel that my top artists will give a better idea of my taste in music than recent tracks, and for the other two basically the new features will be easier to maintain than those they replaced. You'll notice that under the artist and album of the month, I've pasted the first paragraph of their respective Wikipedia articles in an attempt to give a brief summary of what they actually are and perhaps increase the likelihood that you might actually give them a shot. I've also moved the archive, labels, and followers underneath the latest post rather than on the side, because I can.
Finally, as I mentioned briefly in an earlier paragraph, I've changed somehow in the past four months. I'm not sure if I can quite place it. Maybe I'm more mature, maybe I'm happier, and maybe I'm just more at peace with the way things are. In any case, I think I've grown closer to God in that time. I've had some rough times since my last post, as have several of my friends. Some of my rough times have involved people who I had considered friends turning out to be not so good friends. I'm doing my best to see God's plan through everything, and I trust that He will make everything right in time. For this reason, it is not as important to me whether I ever make it in a band, whether I make the cross country team, or even who my friends are when all is said and done. Don't get me wrong, I would absolutely love to be in a band, make the cross country team, and keep all of my best high school friends while making loads more in college. But in the end, God's will is going to prevail, so I might as well just accept it now. If I don't get what I want, it will be very hard for me to cope with the loss. Even so, I know that I can get through it, because I will always have God on my side.
Wednesday through today is this year's edition of Vacation Bible School for my church. Some of the previous paragraph is a result of my thoughts that have been provoked from the two nights I've experienced so far, and I'm sure even more will follow tonight's finale. One of the main points of this year's program is that true heroes obey God's plan even when it is hard. I want to be a true hero. Our new youth leader, Todd, has really made me think about things in a way that I have not been challenged to think very much recently. I have never been baptized and never considered it important since I will get into Heaven just fine without it. However, Todd last night compared baptism to a wedding ring. It's a proud symbol of my relationship with the Lord. That makes sense to me. I hope I can get baptized before I leave for college in less than a month, and if I can't then I will be sure to do it as soon as possible after that.
Another great thing I've gotten from VBS is a simple, red spiral notebook. But it's not just a spiral notebook; it's my prayer journal. As Todd said Wednesday night, sometimes it's easier to write than it is to talk. I've found that that is very true for me. I have thought of so many things that I want to write in my prayer journal but haven't had the time to do so yet. I'm kind of wondering if it will even take me until Christmas to fill the thing up. I suppose it doesn't matter either way. As soon as I fill it up, I'll just get a new one and keep going.
Until next time.
