Welcome to the Real World!!!

Graduation:

UNC Charlotte's PM Graduation

Me handing over the Degree change card :)

The relieved 'rents and I

Josiah, Val, and I

We are family

Jonathan, James, and I

 PROOF that I actually did indeed graduate. Took 4.5 years but I got the paper. Now on to the "real" world!

Circa De 4 years

Fall '06

Summer '10

Star Gazing...

Tonight, after dinner with my parents, we headed back to the house on the rural country back roads. As I was riding in the car I could not help but notice the vast number of stars in the sky.
 My sister and I, not long after we moved here noticed how different the night sky was here from where we lived in SC.  We started having nights where she and I would lay back the front two seats in the camaro and watch as the night sky declared it's vastness on us, through the tee top windows. Most of the times it was quiet, but some times we would listen to music or just talk about life in general.
Tonight I went outside and lay on my car to soak in the vastness of the night sky here in the rural Frederick County Maryland, alone, as my sister is away for the weekend. I went to lay down on my car and the motion light came on so I ended up laying in the driveway. Even though the light was on it seemed like there were immeasurably more stars in the sky than previous nights before this back in CLT. When the motion light finally went off, I remember thinking, how do you describe the vastness of the night sky in a rural area other than AWESOME: inspiring awe.  It seemed like the more time that passed as I was gazing the more stars that came into view or that I thought I could depict against the black background.
I don't just stare at the stars, I ponder life, God, and my place in this Universe that He has created and given me the chance to live in. It's a great reminder of God as creator of the universe and to think that we are his most precious creation. Hard to believe he would choose us but, he does.  I will leave you with this: Psalm 147, says "He determines the number of the stars and calls them each by name."....Jaw dropping, right?!?!


I took pictures towards the end of sky gazing and that is what I have posted. These are not my first night sky shot's and will not be my last (still have much more to improve upon)

Resume, job application and Deadlines

Two days ago marked a big step in this thing we call life for me. I completed and submitted my first Professional real world job application. How it all came about was quite strange. I randomly thought between two my classes to check the USAjobs site and see what jobs were being offered for meteorologists. I scrolled down looking at many different jobs that came up. My eyes then immediately went to a job posting for the National Weather Service.

Not only was it a NWS position, it was dictated as an intern position (All NWS meteorologists start as an intern). On top of that the location was great as I would get to stay in the great state of NC.  I just happened to find it two days before the closing date and was able to complete everything required to apply. I am not getting my hopes up, as everyone I have talked to says that it's very uncommon for an intern to end up in a non-podunk office in the middle of nowhere. I am mostly excited, because it feels great to be able to know that I will be fully qualified for this position in a little over 2 months from now. My professor also informed me when I went to ask her questions that it's not easy to get in but that it was well worth it once you were in. So we will have to see what happens.

Last year:

Last year, particularly spring semester, was a season of great growth in my life. I found that I have depended on friendships in the past to give me joy, and God knew it. It so happens that all of my close friends that I had made during my time at school were GONE at least for the semester, some the whole year. One friend simply took a break from school to work, one went to teach in Korea, two went to the Philippines, and others just simply graduated or transferred schools. Not only did I lose my friends, but I stopped attending the reformed church after Christmas Break that I had attended most of my college career. I also ended up leaving CRU again, both had to do with the absence of friends that once were there.

As the fall semester progressed, I was suggested to read a book, by many, many people. So I did. (Up until that point I had not bought a book to read for myself in a long time) The book was, "Crazy Love" by Francis Chan a Christian pastor and speaker I had heard many times before. I have always been moved by his talks at conferences and everything about the man screams extra-ordinary life lived for God. That was what his book was about. The CRAZY relationship that God calls us to as His children. His Crazy Love for us and the relationship he seeks with us. As I went on reading it, chapters at a time, I felt like this is exactly where God wanted me to be. The book is life-changing, if you get a chance to read it do so, you will not regret it.

SIDE NOTE: I don't like reading long posts but this is my first, so I will try to keep it as concise as possible..

That being said, basically as the semester progressed I relied less and less on the friends around me and started to fully focus on my relationship with God. I began attending Elevation Church with a good friend so that we could ride together and not have to go by ourselves. I started thinking about the whole idea of putting God in a box and trying to contain Him and His ways. I really started to realize that some churches try to do that, and that I was starting to live that way myself.

There are many things that have been said of Elevation Church, but as far as I am concerned the church's way WORKS for growing His Kingdom. It's doing exactly what the beliefs section of the website say: "Elevation Church will aggressively utilize methodologies in an attempt to reach people who are far from God. Rather than run from culture we have chosen to harness it to connect with people and show them God's timeless truths. Although our approach is anything but traditional, we believe in and maintain a conservative theological position."  Attending this church has awoken my eyes to the fact that God uses whatever he wants to reach his people. After this awakening, I started to view things in a different light. Thoughts and beliefs that I had been testing all along, and had been testing more strenuously since I had come to college are back in the testing and refining stages.

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Attitude:

“The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, the education, the money, than circumstances, than failure, than successes, than what other people think or say or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness or skill. It will make or break a company... a church... a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice everyday regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day. We cannot change our past... we cannot change the fact that people will act in a certain way. We cannot change the inevitable. The only thing we can do is play on the one string we have, and that is our attitude. I am convinced that life is 10% what happens to me and 90% of how I react to it. And so it is with you... we are in charge of our Attitudes.”

-Charles R. Swindoll

“Ability is what you're capable of doing. Motivation determines what you do. Attitude determines how well you do it.” - Lou Holtz

Purpose

I have not really decided what direction I want to take this blog... I have this thought that it will become a random collection of thoughts, photos and stories of mine.  I foresee this blog becoming an eclectic view of my life. 

I make no promises as to the frequency that this blog is updated.

I hope you enjoy...