Family Weekend

I have been looking forward to this weekend for a long long time. My little sister and brother have never been out to Kansas City, and neither of my parents have seen my new house. My dad was not able to come out for the weekend because my other younger brother had a big football game. (It's his senior year, and I can't wait to go home in 10 days and see him play!) There was so many things that I wanted to share with the three that did come that I was just overwhelmed with who I should introduce them to, what I should show them, where I should take them...and with so little time!

First things first. Once my family got all of their stuff into my house, we went to Costco. I never thought I would get so excited about grocery shopping! I think we may have gone a little overboard though because now there is limited space in the fridge and the freezer - five dozen eggs gives you an idea. My roommates and I will be making omelets this week. We attended the Rockhurst soccer game on Friday night and after many other activities from the evening, we returned to my house for the night. Oh, but the day was not over. The furniture in the house was not "feng shui." So, at 12:30am my mom and I rearranged the furniture. I had to text my roommates to make sure they didn't come home and call the cops! "Don't be alarmed, nothing is stolen guys; it's just in a different place." Jokes about the eggs and the rearranged furniture flew around all weekend long.

The weekend came to an end too quickly, as time with loved ones often tends to do. My mom and my two youngest siblings began their 9-hour drive back to Denver at about 2pm CST. If I hadn't known it before, that was the moment that I knew that when it comes time for me to finally settle down and have a family of my own (God-willing) there's no way that I could ever be this far away from my true home. I watched them drive away, out of sight after one quick turn down the block. I have plenty of things I want to do before I settle down; plenty of growing, and finding out who I really am and that might take some time away from home, but when all is said and done I will remember where I came from. I don't know what God has in store for me in the next couple of years, but I definitely know in my heart that something big is coming in my life. Something is brewing that is going to change my life forever...I'll keep you updated.

TOGA! TOGA! TOGA!

All of the long weeks of planning for this dance. Calling different venues, advertising, setup, practicing a dance performance for the crowd; the entire thing came to a head last night in an epic showdown. I have never been this involved in planning for a dance before, and there is a TON of work that goes into it. Everything from where it's going to be, the dance performance, and everything in between. It is all very stressful. You can especially see the stress peaking the day of the dance. Everyone has a very short temper...I'm not personally one that let's it get to me because I feel like people are going to enjoy themselves no matter where they are or how it's set up. Everything always turns out alright in the end.

As much stress as it produced, it was all sooo worth it as I burned up the dance floor last night. We got a lot of positive critiques from the attendees - especially about the dance we performed for them. Even more stress came from this, though, as the CD that we had burned with the music that we cut for it was not working. We had to drive back to campus and get the computer on which it had been made. Once again, we pulled through the adversity of the situation and got it done and put on a good show. On that note, I was really hesitant to do the handstand, tuck-and-roll move, but in the midst of all the adrenaline I just couldn't pass up the opportunity. I'm paying for it a little bit this afternoon, hit the tile floor hard at the base of my neck, but I'm still in one piece and still walking.

After the dance was over, it was awesome to go over to a friend's house and just sit around with a small group of good company. Quiet, good conversation with a handful of great friends. It was great to have such a stress-relieving time at the dance followed up by a relaxing time to just collapse on a couch with not a care in the world.

Another successful dance. More cherished memories. Thanks again, my friends!

Challenge Air & Founders' Day

This weekend, I got the opportunity to volunteer at the downtown airport in Kansas City. There was an event there called "Challenge Air." The organization finds pilots of small private planes to volunteer to take mentally and physically handicapped kids for a flight. When they get to altitude, they even let the kids take over some of the controls! This program, even at surface level, is such an incredible idea.

There is much more to it, however. Some background as to how this organization was started: A navy pilot was going in for a landing on an aircraft carrier, and his landing gear failed. He ejected from the plane, and fell into the water safely. Unfortunately, he landed in front of a giant aircraft carrier and something on the ship struck him high on his neck, paralyzing him from the waist down. Anyone who has ever flown any kind of plane knows that there are foot pedals involved with operating the plane. This man loved to fly, and developed a way to fly a plane using only his hands. His "Can do" attitude is what inspired the idea behind Challenge Air. Challenge Air gives children who are often seen as being able to do very little for themselves the idea that they can do something as complex as flying an aircraft. In doing this, Challenge Air hopes to instill in these children that same "Can do" attitude as its founder.

I saw the faces of two kids there who were nervous and anxious before I helped load them into the plane. When they came out of that cockpit, they had an attitude about them that said, "I can do anything!" True joy in the faces of these kids...just melted my heart.

On a lighter note, my fraternity's Founders' Day was on Friday. We celebrated on Saturday by getting together for a little pigskin on Saturday at the park, and later on in the evening we had a BBQ at one of the guys' houses. Seventy-eight years of a great, and still improving organization building the ever-growing City-Walled. Ad Dei Gloriam.

Slow me down, Lord

At the beginning of this school year, I had the pleasure of meeting a new freshman student, named Frank Kane. I met him and his family on Freshman Move-In Day. We had an immediate connection because they were from Colorado (don't run into a lot of people from Colorado here at Rockhurst). I had a great opening conversation with his dad and then had to go on my way to help other freshmen moving in.



I'm going to step away briefly just to say that over the past couple of months, I have been particularly frustrated with the condition of my back. I have been dealing with back problems since I was a sophomore in high school, and things have not improved really at all since then, despite numerous doctor's visits, treatments, and countless hours of physical therapy. Nothing has provided me with any type of lasting relief.



Enter Frank Kane. Frank was born with cerebral palsy. For the most part, he has to walk around with crutches everywhere he goes. Not once have I seen his spirits affected by this. I was lucky enough to have gotten the chance to spend some one-on-one time with Frank this weekend, and we talked a little bit about each of our conditions. I was truly moved and inspired by outlook. Everyday, I take for granted the simple blessing of being able to walk, free of any dependence on anything such as crutches. Frank carries this cross everyday, and yet, he said something to me yesterday that I have been trying to convince myself of for so long; something on which he seems to have an incredible grasp. He said to me, "It could be worse."



There has been a song stuck in my head lately, "I'm in a hurry to get things done, oh I rush and rush until life's no fun. All I really gotta do is live and die, but I'm in a hurry and don't know why." I went shopping with Frank yesterday, and it took longer than I normally would have liked to have been at Price Chopper; however, I so enjoyed his company, the time spent with each other was really awesome.



He played soccer with us yesterday. And now I am left speechless as to what more I can say about him. Thank you, Frank.