I have decided that I really like
blogging. It has slowly turned from an
assignment in English class to something that I legitimately enjoy doing. I feel as if it is a way to let everyone know
what I’m doing and where I am in life without having one of those awkward phone
conversations where you ramble on about what’s important in your life, knowing
the other person isn’t listening. I know
that I did a brief introduction discussing why I love food, but despite my
undying love of it, there are more important aspects of my life. This is my way of letting you all know who I
am away from my passion of food.
First of
all, let me begin with what is most important to me. The most important thing to me is my Lord and
Savior, Jesus Christ. My number one goal
in life is to constantly be searching for how God can use me to fit His overall
plan. I have dedicated my life to Him,
and I am trying to better myself and reflect God’s will for me. Unfortunately, it has not always been this
way. I grew up going to church every Sunday,
doodling in the bulletin, and planning what I was going to eat for lunch that afternoon. My life was pretty perfect and the only thing
I worried about was how many cosmic brownies we had left in the kitchen. Right before my eleventh birthday all of that
changed. It was around this time that
God placed a few events in my life that I was not ready for, that nobody could
be ready for. I found out that my
grandfather only had a few more days left to live after suffering from
congestive heart failure, and I found out that my mother had cancer. Since I was just a kid, no one ever outright
told me that my mom had cancer, but I knew that she had to keep going to the
hospital and that something wasn’t right.
Once I found out that she had cancer, I started doing worse and worse in
school. I was so confused. How was I supposed to focus on who killed who
in the War of 1812, when I knew my mother was going in for radiation therapy
that day. My teacher kept asking me what
was wrong, but when I went to tell her, nothing came out. I felt like God had left me alone and didn’t
care about me anymore. I stopped going
to church and decided that it would be best to still believe in God, not because
I thought he was real, but because Hell sounded awful and I didn’t want to
go. This state of my life continued for
almost eight years. Once I arrived in
Clemson, one of my friends, Biff, asked me to go to FCA. I had no idea what FCA was, but it sounded
like fun so I decided to go. I had a
great time and decided to go back the next week, and the next week, and the
next week. Then it all caught up to
me. I don’t remember what song was being
sung, who the speaker was, or what the speaker was talking about. All I remember is looking around at 800
people screaming the lyrics at the top of their lungs and I felt a shiver go
down my spine. It was as if my love of
God was grabbing a hold of my spine and telling me, “I never left, I’ve been
with you the whole time.” It was this
point in my life that I decided that I couldn’t expect anyone to change my life
for me, it was my responsibility. This
moment, to me, felt like walking outside for the first time in a while. It was that feeling you get when you’ve been
in the bottom floor of the library working on a paper for 12 hours straight,
and after you email it to your professor you make that climb up the stairs and
out the door. Once you take that first
step out of the shadow and into the sun, you feel free. All you can thing about is how great the sun
feels. Rediscovering my love for Christ
was my “walking into the sun” moment. I
now realize that God put those adversities in my life to wake me up, to make me
realize why I was put on this Earth.
While I do miss my grandfather, I can see myself turning into him more
and more each and every day. My mother
has been cancer free for years now and loves spending time with all of her grandbabies!
The second
most important thing to me is my family and friends. I have a rather large family and they can
definitely drive me crazy, but I know that each and every one of them would be
there in a heartbeat if I needed them for something. I can point out how each of my family members
has helped shape who I am today and wouldn’t trade any of them for the
world. I also love spending time with my
wonderful girlfriend. She came into my
life in what some would call an awkward situation. She is the little sister of my best
friend. She and I had slowly gotten to
know each other after spending time with his family. She would always play God of War, throw
football, and hang out with us after we got off of work. I loved hanging out with her, but knew it was
against the rules to date your friend’s younger sister. It wasn’t until years later that I asked my
friend if it would be okay if I asked his sister out on a date. That was definitely the most awkward
conversation I have ever had, but ended up being one of the best. Jessa and I have now been dating for over two
and a half years. She is one of the
sweetest and sassiest women I have ever met.
She helps me out if I ever need it, but she also makes sure that I get
done what I need to do.
As of right
now, my life is going great. I am hoping
to one day travel to underdeveloped countries and help them set up food
processing facilities. If I can help
improve just one person’s life, it will all be worth it to me. While I would love to jump right into this, I
know that I need to gain experience in the food industry before I can
accomplish such goals. I also know that
despite the goals I have in life, I could get another curveball thrown at me at
any given moment. Since I cannot prepare
for what God has planned for me, I have to be adaptable and be ready for any
changes He sends my way. I look forward to
getting to know each and every one of you.
While I may come across as shy and reserved, it’s really just me being
awkward. I really do love meeting new
people and learning what their passions are and what they enjoy about
life. I hope that all of you feel as if
you know me a little better and I look forward to getting to know you as
well. Thanks for reading!
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