my week of  thanks

Where do I even begin?? I did so much on thanksgiving week that we had off from mcc. It was great because I went to Oakley Kansas with a friend and her brother. It was fantastical. We chilled at her house the whole time, watched a couple of football games and then once we went to what they called monument rock. It was great. I got to get out of my bubble by staying in town and get to know some people a whole lot better. Even though I was offered a plane ride home from my parents I know it would’ve been better for me to stay in the great state of Kansas. Staying was great because I know at home I would’ve have had some parents that loved me but I needed to venture out and I guess you can say like test my limits. I was offered by a friend who is like family to me so I have realized that it’s great to just get out of my norm. One great thing about thanksgiving is the fact of the good. It was great to have some great ham. No turkey but it was ok. We had some fantastic other bunches of food. Even though the food is great the moment and the time spent with a family away from family was worthwhile. I haven’t been around kids for a long time and being with her younger brothers reassured me that I know I want to spend my life changing kid’s lives with what God puts on my heart. Before the first night was even over I had acquired the name Uncle Myke.  With those kids we really did nothing special but we just chilled and hung out. We played a lot of video games and played some horse and for some reason I was always a horse and never a rider. One of the greatest things I have learned about Kansas is the snow. Sure everyone has seen snow but I haven’t. Well, I mean I have but I have never seen it come down from the sky. And let me tell you for my first time I would’ve have had it in any other place. I remember what I was going at the exact moment. I was sitting at the lunch table eating my taco salad knowing it was snowing outside but I refused to look at it. I wanted my first time seeing snow to be at mcc but well I couldn’t wait. I saw it and my eyes lit up and it was just great. I was like a little kid in a candy store and I know that’s a cliché but I don’t know any other way to describe it that anyone could explain.  So I found out that with my thanksgiving break that if you are willing to go out on a limb that God has placed then God will surely bless you.

I sure am thankful

As the week before thanksgiving I have had a lot of memories of all of the thanksgivings from the later years. I‘ve chilling watching football, played football, or just eaten food and just treated the day nothing better than just another day, but this past week I had my mom ask me if I wanted to come home. I was automatically thinking sure but I know if I stayed here it would benefit me better.  So I told my mother that and I really hope she understood what I was saying. I mean I would love to go home and chill with family. I also know that with the friends I have here it would make me a better person and would make me more thankful, or maybe, just more willing to see my parents while I’m away. Also I was asking my mom to get me a plane ticket so that I won’t have to drive all the way back to Arizona and she always said money is tight. But instead of saying that I need to find a way to get down all on my own she said she will buy me a ticket to come down. So as much as some might think that their parents don’t love them or care about them your parents really do. That is also true with God and how we are away from him right now but he is just happy and willing to do anything to make us come and see him. Along with that I have been looking around at the little things and since I have gotten a new camera I have seen new and more possibilities to see the beauty in things. It could be anything from how the light comes off a street light to the colors of the leaves when they are scattered on the ground. Lately I have been looking and seeing how more and more how God meant us to have or see the world around us. And I have been confronted more and more with that we should find the little things in life that are the most beautiful things. Like for most people in the United States they get to go to college if they really wanted to. For people out of the country they don’t get that chance so they come here and they try to live a dream when we really don’t put forth the effort that would make God happy that he did that for us. Also the simple thing of someone playing the guitar or the piano playing the simplest songs are the best and they are the ones that to me sound the most beautiful and don’t even question how simple it is.

My week???

Well this week was something. First of all I really did absolutely nothing but hurt myself playing football this past weekend. But I do have to say I pretty much rocked it. I had over 7 touchdowns and well I was pretty much just darn amazing. During one play I had someone step on my foot with metal cleats. And it was bleeding through my sock. But, I didn’t let that stop me I still rocked and god pretty much gave me the strength to play through it and still win the game for my team. And lately I have been thinking and reading about how children should obey their parents and well when I was younger I always resented that verse. But lately I have thought about all of the things my parents did that they didn’t need to do. Like just this past week my parents went to a family force 5 concert and they bought me a t-shirt. Since I’ve been here I have been getting pretty much like a package every two weeks from my parents. Showing to me that they really love me and miss me making me feel all bad for all the times I have had arguments with my parents about little stuff like taking out the trash. So for me I have realized that I should’ve loved on my parents before and not throwing a fit for the little things because who knows how long you will live other than God. I also had a friend die this past week which has been a hard time for my dad because her dad and my dad are like best friends. And well she was first in the hospital and she just collapsed, so I was told, and she was dead for 45 minutes with no heart beat. So I have been telling people to pray for her and I found out a couple days ago that she died in surgery. That hit me kinda hard knowing how fragile life is and how young she was. It could happen to any of us so we have to make out life mean something. Especially with your friends and family but especially with your family because you don’t know what can happen next. Lately I have been telling people to pray for the family and it has been comforting to hear people say that they will pray for my friend’s family and they don’t even know her or them. So it is if I have a little family of my own here with so many diverse people and backgrounds we make one kewl family.

Our tight little family  

So we all decided to get out and just to something. So we got about four people together and just went to go chill. We decided that there really isn’t much to do out here in the middle of a little town but it helps you grow and makes you find and create things that are entertaining. So just out of some boredom we decided to just go somewhere. We had no idea but we wanted to get out and away. So we got my roommate Zach, my Kansas sister Allyssa, and Emily (we like to call chuck). We all just piled into Alyssa’s car and started to drive to Wal-Mart first to get something to do while we decided what to do.  While we were trying to figure out what we were going to do someone decided to buy the game Skip Bo so we can have something to do. As we slowly decided to drive around we wanted to get something to eat and well not much is open at almost eleven o’clock but we found pizza hut. It was really kind of fun to just get away and chill, get some pizza and play some Skip Bo. We played till about twelve thirty. We did all that we could with the little place mat we got when we sat at the table.   Also another thing we got to do was go to the mcc barn party. It was just some random fun that was put together with the school. It was held at one of the teacher’s barns. It was just a really old barn and we got it all set up to look like out pirate theme and we just had a blast setting it up and chilling. For that day I was feeling kind of out of it but I was feeling really good once I got out and actually did something with my day. So I got out there only because I was asked and it was exciting.  I also wasn’t planning on going to the actual barn party but it was still pretty fun. They had a dance in the actual barn. Along with that we had a pumpkin chucking contest, a pumpkin carving contest, a little fire pit for smores, and a mechanical bull. It went on all night but it was a blast to just see what kind of different costumes that some people created and went with. So all in all it was a great weekend.

Family Weekend

This past week was family weekend and I was regretting it since I heard about when I got to MCC. I was afraid that my parents would come down here and just treat me like a little kid. Or just that I would be nothing and I would be just sitting there while they ask me questions. Once I noticed they got here I was in the mall chilling with some friends and I got a call from my mother asking me where was I. So being a good son, I told her I was in the mall and as I was anticipating seeing my parents I was soon mislead. When she found me there was no dad there was my grandma. This for me is a huge thing because my grandmother is not saved and the last thing I expected her to do is to come see me at a Christian college.

We really didn’t do anything but go to a couple of soccer games and the volleyball games and it was good to just spend some time with my family. I felt since that they knew I was leaving for college we never really got any closer than our relationship. Like we never got any closure or goodbye time so having them both come up here was huge for them and me. We had some fun walking through Wal-Mart which we happened to do several times in the few days they were here. And at first I was really looking forward to just being able to have some good meals out and not just eating in the campus center but once they got here it all changed.

I was not just focused on the meals I was focused on the time I had with them. It was like when you are told you have a family member dying and you just want be able to spend the most amount of time with them. Like I really didn’t care what we did I just wanted to chill with them but I just wanted to chill and be with family.

But instead of doing what they wanted we have decided we should go to Tad’s (the best snow cone place ever) before it closed. They really liked it or well they said they did. After that we couldn’t find anything else to do so we decided to go down to Tuttle Creek and just chill down by the lake. They always hear me talking about the lake because I like to just chill and they finally got to see it as I see it. Except it was during the day but it was still really nice. So to end the weekend it was great to spend time with them and I can’t wait to spend more time with them the next time I see them. Whenever that will be.