Blessing in Disguise

About three weeks ago, my boss at my job told me that I was going to be power washing sidewalks for the next month. While I have not spent every day power washing, most days I have found myself cleaning the sidewalks for 8 hours of my day. Upon receiving this as my month-long task for 40 hours/week, I thought to myself, "Really? This is what I'm going to be doing with myself?" Well, after a few days of making sure the sidewalks were spotless, I came to realize that I enjoyed the time to myself. Just pop in the headphones and go to town. This also gave me an opportunity to learn about my faith.

I have recently begun listening to a lecture on the Catechism of the Catholic Church. It is a lecture given by Fr. John Corapi whose five university degrees make it no surprise that his words are very powerful and moving. An embarrassing fact about a lot of Catholics - myself included - is that we do not know a lot about our faith or the Church. Sure we have faith in God, and we love Jesus Christ; but Fr. Corapi explains why that is not enough. The more I get to know my faith, the more I love it; and the more I love it, the more I want to learn more about it. Often times, I do not take enough time to learn about it, and it is during those times that I begin to lose sight of God, and that results in my falling off the path of righteousness.

I know that listening to this lecture is not going to be enough and that I must take it upon myself to delve more into my faith, but it is certainly a great way to start over again after a period of time in the dark.

St. Louis Wedding

I went to a wedding in St. Louis last weekend. A lifelong friend of my girlfriend's. Fortunately, I had met her family a couple of times before (more fortunately, her dad doesn't actually want to shoot me with a shotgun or a rifle...I think he was kidding). My mission for the wedding - embarrass Annie. From making fun of her about how fast she walked down the aisle as a bridesmaid, to my killer dance moves, I would say MISSION ACCOMPLISHED.

In order to get to this wedding, I had to make my first trip on the Megabus. Not as awkward and crazy as a lot of people make it out to be. As far as I know anyway. After all, I got the entire back seat of the bus to myself. Five seats against the back wall, my MP3 player and headphones, and lack of sleep from the week of work leading up to the journey makes for a seemingly quick bus ride. Round trip from KC to Columbia for $10.50! Can't get better than that. Although, I did have a little bit of trouble. And it goes to St. Louis and Chicago from KC as well. Not sure how much those round trips cost...yet, but I plan on finding out some weekend!

Family

I talked to my mom for the first time in a little over a week today. Things have been crazy with work, trying to figure things out with the house I'm going to be renting, getting into a routine, so many things going on right now. I haven't had time to think about how much I miss home. It will always be my home, no matter where my house is.

I am really enjoying being out on my own. Things are going great for me out here in Kansas City. I have a full-time job on campus so I don't have to drive to work. On top of that job, I work random shifts that puts a little extra jingle in my pocket...well checks don't really jingle that much, but they're worth more than pocket change so that more than makes up for the lack of jingle. A little off topic there. Anyway, I'm getting into a routine in which after I get off of work at 4, I do some physical activity - this week has been tennis on Monday and a run on Tuesday and today. After my exercise I grab a bite to eat, and either work my desk job, or plop my now worthless behind on the couch at home and watch TV. Rinse, dry, repeat.

As much of a great time as I am having, I do miss home. My family is the most important thing in my life. To explain the picture...Christmas 2008, my brothers, sister, and I took on a project to make family jerseys. The kids' numbers reflect our birth order (I've been told that the 3rd one's a charm. That's not me talking, that's just what they say. And everyone knows that they are experts on a lot of things, so if you want to contest that's up to you). My parents are "19" and "86" for the year they got married. They turned out terrific! That's just an example of how close my family is. One thing that I miss the most is camping and fishing with my dad and brothers - my sister just outperforms all of us; I don't miss that at all. Just kidding Shannon, I taught you well. No sane person would ever think about leaving their mother out of the mix when reminiscing about home. I appreciate everything that both of my parents have done for me. I feel like they have done well by us. Nobody's perfect. They didn't get everything right. But they did everything out of love for us. Couldn't have asked for more. Thank you mom and dad!

So here's to family, mine and every family in the world. I miss you and love you all!

Living on My Own

I had my first experience grocery shopping for myself this past week. After the first couple of days, I realized that I am definitely not a natural. I came out of Price Chopper with a carton of eggs, a gallon of milk, a carton of orange juice, two packs of tortillas, and sixteen polish sausages. No fruit, no vegetables, no snacks. I realized that I'm going to like having a little something on the side to compliment my polish sausage dinners for the next two weeks.

Thankfully I am gradually getting worked into life on my own. Me and two of my friends - Josh Hollis and Nate Olson - are going to be renting a house for next year. The lease officially starts on July 1 but we're trying to find people to sub-let the place because we all have summer housing already. We've met up with the property manager quite a few times and he's done a really great job working with us. It's nice to be in somewhat of a "halfway house" in the townhouses on campus because it's giving me a chance to get a running start, so to say, in learning how to live on my own. Paying for rent, utilities, food, furniture, etc. It's a lot and I'm really glad that I'm not just being thrown into it. I'm sure that I would be able to handle it if I was, but it is nice.

In trying to pay for all of the things that I am going to need to start living on my own, I am working two jobs this summer. The first one is a position through the Office of Residence Life at Rockhurst. I am a Conference Assistant - in a nutshell, I'll be checking in and out camps and conferences that stay on campus throughout the summer. The position pays minimum wage and I don't get a ton of hours, but it gives me a place to stay for free and I get a $100 food stipend so I feel like it's a fair trade-off. My second job is a grounds-keeping job on campus. Unfortunately, it's less pay and less hours than I was working for the past two summers, but it's a job and I thank God that I am blessed so much to have two jobs while there are millions of people across the country that don't even have one. They are on my mind, and they'll be in my prayers tonight.

Overall, life on my own is going pretty well. It has helped me realize that there are so many things that I have yet to learn. So many that I feel the need to reiterate how many things I have left to learn. Sometimes it's a little overwhelming, but I haven't been doing it for long and I'm still getting settled into my place so I know that it will come along just fine. Mainly, I know that I cannot do any of this completely on my own. God will always be in my life, carrying me through each and every challenge that I face. Without Him, I am nothing.

Paul Bunyan??? Oh no, it's Justin Langfield

My first blog. To be honest, I've never really understood blogging and have never gotten into it at all. I thought I'd give it a try so here we go.

Last week I got an incredible opportunity to go on a retreat to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan. The retreat included a spiritual, physical, social aspects - not to mention a 16 hour ride with 11 people in a 12 passenger van with bags on our laps. The main reason for the retreat was to chop up wood and deliver it to elderly people who are living basically only on social security checks from month to month and we provided wood that would heat their homes and their stoves for free. We worked through an organization called Little Brothers Friends of the Elderly.

The first aspect of this retreat that I mentioned is the spiritual. How does the work we are doing affect our relationship with God? What I have come up with from my personal experience is that the work we did in Michigan was not just us going up to chop wood; there is a deeper meaning behind it all. Although I have always been one that appreciate the outdoors - camping, fishing, hiking, etc. - this retreat really strengthened that appreciation because at the end, we planted 150 trees to offset the ones we had chopped into woodstove lumber. God has blessed us with such an amazing world, and there are so many beautiful things to see. During one of our reflection periods, one of the questions was, "What gift do you want to give to your children?" One of the answers - not mine - had to do with making sure that the earth would be in good condition; that it would be just as beautiful for their children as it is for us.

The physical aspect of this retreat doesn't exactly need a ton of explaining. We chopped logs down to size! I spent most of my time on the ax, but I did give the chainsaw a go. I didn't really enjoy it that much. There's something about having the satisfaction that your own inertia defeated that thick, knotted log. With a chainsaw, you just pull a trigger and it does the rest of the work for you. My favorite part was the barbarian death swing. Full-on, over the head, screaming, CHOP! No log stands a chance. Now I have worked a manual labor job for the past two summers, so I know how demanding it is; lumberjacking is hard work! We went for about 4 hours per day, and by the end of each day, I was ready to collapse in a worthless heap on the couch.

Finally, the social aspect of the retreat. This was the first thing we experienced when we got into the van at 4:45am on Monday, May 17, 2010. Some of us knew each other, but there were a few on the trip with whom I was less familiar. Anyway, I started off with a 5 hour nap, but upon my awakening, the road games commenced. Building relationships in that van ride made 16 hours feel like nothing. The friendships continued to prosper throughout the week. Not only did I meet new friends who go to Rockhurst, we were also able to spend some quality time with the people for whom we were chopping the wood. The first woman, Ester, was such a hoot! So many years under her belt, yet so full of life! The second delivery was not quite as successful. It says a lot that I don't actually even recall his name. We stacked the wood, he shut his door, and we were on our way. Wesley was by far my favorite. This man had a good head on his shoulders. He really knew the important things in life. The one he stressed most: family. He couldn't talk enough about his sons and how glad he was that they were living in the same area in which the were raised. Gosh, I could go on about Wesley for a long time. What a man!

Overall, terrific retreat. So many memories that I will cherish for countless years. I'd love to write more, but I seem to have lost track of my blue ox and I must find him before anything bad happens...