Future Tense
Summer is a funny time of year. When I'm about at the end of my rope in late May, burned out on work, classes, and the daily routine in general, it seems like an eternity in the distance. I keep thinking "Will summer break never come?" But then finally, it does, and for those first few days of freedom, the three month spread of June, July and August stretches out before me like an unending blanket. It's impossible to even think of the school year to come because it seems so far off in the future. And with your hard-earned break finally arrived, who honestly wants to?
But even summer has to have an end point. And it comes so quickly I can't tell you how many people react in surprise and shock by the time August rolls around. "Where did the time go?" they wonder. "Why couldn't the summer last another month?" I agree; summer is short. It never seems long enough to do all the things I want to accomplish. I guess that's why this year, I resolved to make the most of my summer time, and to maximize it to the best of my ability. Landing a new job in another mall, leading the music at Vacation Bible School, teaching drama at Creative Arts Camp, and visiting elderly folks in residential homes on top of doing construction work at Johns Island... I think I can say I made my summer of 2005 one I'll always remember. I didn't want it to be just an interval between sophomore and junior year. I wanted to use it as a building block for what I'll face later on. I wanted to try new things and grow closer to the Lord at the same time. I wanted to find God's transforming love and to share it in the least-likely of places. I wanted to emerge from summer energized and inspired for autumn.
I'm not saying my summer was the perfect one. Believe me, I had plenty of tougher days and times when my faith was not where it needed to be. But I do feel that my summer is leaving me with a hopeful outlook for junior year.
So what are my goals for the coming year? I've layed them out right here. This isn't meant to be some expert's guide to college survival or a list that works for everybody. And these are in no particular order either. They're just my personal goals as I've thought of them, stuff I need to get better at, and concepts I want to reinforce.
1) Branch out, but strengthen my roots. I want to make new friends, and I want to seek them actively and not with a spirit of timidity. At the same time, I want to build and develop the friendships I already have, trying harder to be there for anyone who needs help, and on occasion, to put aside the books for awhile to just hang out with them. Sometimes, academics and GPAs just aren't as important. They'll always be there when you get back. I remember one thing Lauren said about showing love: you never know who might need a boost.
2) Think ahead before I procrastinate. This is going to be a major one. I can look back on times in the past when my grades have slipped early on and I've ended up spending the majority of the semester fighting to dig myself out of a hole. A lot of those times, I know it was my own procrastination that hurt me. Taking the time to get an assignment done early, reading ahead, and meeting with the professor more often could go a long way to making sure I stay on top of things. I'd rather start strong and coast to the finish instead of claw my way there.
3) Give back to the BCM ministry. I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to be on the Leadership Team this coming year. I couldn't believe it when they nominated me for an interview; I still remember thinking on that day, "Is this really happening?" But anyway, I remember it was after my first TNT last year that I started to warm up to Furman and campus life in general. Last year's L-Team and the others made me feel so welcome and were genuinely excited to have me there. I want to do that too. Now that I'm a regular, I want to give back to BCM by doing the best job I can this year. I want to make an effort to meet several of the incoming freshmen and stay in contact with them, to keep our website updated and running smoothly, and to help my other team members do their jobs. I can't tell you how pumped up I am about what God's going to do through us this year. I really am.
4) Take care of my health. When I put this down, I confess I wondered why I was bothering. My own health is one of the major facets of my life that is constantly overlooked. I've gone into work suffering from the flu more than once (don't worry, I didn't endanger anyone else's health). But after thinking about it, I realized that if I want to effectively carry out God's plan for my life, then I want to be at my best. I know that won't always be the case but I can still take steps to safeguard my well-being. Sticking to my exercise regimen is a big one. Eating healthy, balanced meals is another. Bed rest when I do get sick (and you know I will) is huge. So please hold me to that, because you know I'll shrug it off when it happens.
5) Stay involved, but don't burn out. Exhaustion really starts to set in by about March or April for the students who try to do too much. I want to keep busy, but I don't want to give up every last second of my downtime. All students need time to just unwind, take it easy, go for a walk, play some frisbee, and hang out with their friends. It's good to stay involved in activities you enjoy doing, but if you don't set aside adequate time to yourself, it's an invitation for burn-out to creep in. My quiet time in which I read a passage from the Bible and spend some time praying to God is one thing I never want my other activities to encroach upon.
6) Take time to do and appreciate the little things. Mr. Sell really clued me to this in high school. When I go out in the morning to breakfast in the Dining Hall or to Furman Hall for Religion, I want to be able to look up at the morning sunshine (or the morning rain), notice the fresh dew on the grass, look out at the Bell Tower barely obscured by early morning fog...I want to look out at my environment and be thankful. I know I gripe a lot, and never have enough positive things to say, but I really want to do this. And beyond appreciating God's creation, I want to extend that to people as well. When someone walks past and says "Hi, how are you?" I want to initiate a mini-conversation with that person. I feel that shows how glad I am that he or she took the time to ask me about my day. The ladies that serve the food in the DH and the PalaDen are some of the nicest people I've ever met. I want to give them a cheery greeting when I come in, make sure they know how much I appreciate the hard work and long hours they put in just to serve us. Getting a little card from a friend asking about me and how I'm doing just makes me beam. If you want to see one of my rare smiles, come find me when I read a card in my mailbox. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Big actions are good, but it's the little things that make the difference.
7) Pray, pray, and pray some more. Huge one right here. And alongside it, I would add "Continue digging into the Word." In the good times and bad, I want to always, always remember the One who made it all possible.
8) Don't bring Furman to work. This is for my job at Chick-Fil-A, whether it will be at Haywood Mall or at Cherrydale. Too many times in the past, I'd come in with my mind on classes, a bad grade on a test, or whatever else going on at Furman. That mindset caused me to fall behind at work and lose focus, often to the detriment of my co-workers who all have their jobs to do and don't need to pick up my slack. I want to change that this year. When I clock in, I want my mind to be on my job and nothing else for the next 6 hours. I don't want distractions to hamper my efforts and keep me from working to the best of my ability. If something's going on at Furman, it should stay at Furman. I want to deal with it either before or after work. My job doesn't need to suffer for that.
9) Loosen up. My sister invented a new word for this: "chillax." (an amalgamation of chill out and relax) I want to be able to let stuff slide off my back and greet things with a cordial grin instead of a stone-faced frown. By now, I've learned that no matter how hard you try, sometimes things just aren't going to go your way. You get thrown curveballs, stuff changes on the fly, and you're forced to adapt. Now the next step is learning how to take it. One way or another, you have to adapt to the unexpected, but you still have to think about how you respond. I want to be able to laugh it off and not treat things like a big deal, because more often than not, they aren't a big deal. They're not worth freaking out over. Life is like a a cherry phosphate. You have to take the fizz with the good stuff. But the key is how you take it.
There. That should just about cover everything. I expect as the year goes, I'll make adjustments as needed. Add stuff to #2 and #5 maybe, and repeat #7 without ceasing. Anyway, that's my list of future goals. What's yours?
Song of the Day: Caedmon's Call - "There's Only One (Holy One)"
Verse of the Day: "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." - Lamentations 3:22
But even summer has to have an end point. And it comes so quickly I can't tell you how many people react in surprise and shock by the time August rolls around. "Where did the time go?" they wonder. "Why couldn't the summer last another month?" I agree; summer is short. It never seems long enough to do all the things I want to accomplish. I guess that's why this year, I resolved to make the most of my summer time, and to maximize it to the best of my ability. Landing a new job in another mall, leading the music at Vacation Bible School, teaching drama at Creative Arts Camp, and visiting elderly folks in residential homes on top of doing construction work at Johns Island... I think I can say I made my summer of 2005 one I'll always remember. I didn't want it to be just an interval between sophomore and junior year. I wanted to use it as a building block for what I'll face later on. I wanted to try new things and grow closer to the Lord at the same time. I wanted to find God's transforming love and to share it in the least-likely of places. I wanted to emerge from summer energized and inspired for autumn.
I'm not saying my summer was the perfect one. Believe me, I had plenty of tougher days and times when my faith was not where it needed to be. But I do feel that my summer is leaving me with a hopeful outlook for junior year.
So what are my goals for the coming year? I've layed them out right here. This isn't meant to be some expert's guide to college survival or a list that works for everybody. And these are in no particular order either. They're just my personal goals as I've thought of them, stuff I need to get better at, and concepts I want to reinforce.
1) Branch out, but strengthen my roots. I want to make new friends, and I want to seek them actively and not with a spirit of timidity. At the same time, I want to build and develop the friendships I already have, trying harder to be there for anyone who needs help, and on occasion, to put aside the books for awhile to just hang out with them. Sometimes, academics and GPAs just aren't as important. They'll always be there when you get back. I remember one thing Lauren said about showing love: you never know who might need a boost.
2) Think ahead before I procrastinate. This is going to be a major one. I can look back on times in the past when my grades have slipped early on and I've ended up spending the majority of the semester fighting to dig myself out of a hole. A lot of those times, I know it was my own procrastination that hurt me. Taking the time to get an assignment done early, reading ahead, and meeting with the professor more often could go a long way to making sure I stay on top of things. I'd rather start strong and coast to the finish instead of claw my way there.
3) Give back to the BCM ministry. I am absolutely thrilled and humbled to be on the Leadership Team this coming year. I couldn't believe it when they nominated me for an interview; I still remember thinking on that day, "Is this really happening?" But anyway, I remember it was after my first TNT last year that I started to warm up to Furman and campus life in general. Last year's L-Team and the others made me feel so welcome and were genuinely excited to have me there. I want to do that too. Now that I'm a regular, I want to give back to BCM by doing the best job I can this year. I want to make an effort to meet several of the incoming freshmen and stay in contact with them, to keep our website updated and running smoothly, and to help my other team members do their jobs. I can't tell you how pumped up I am about what God's going to do through us this year. I really am.
4) Take care of my health. When I put this down, I confess I wondered why I was bothering. My own health is one of the major facets of my life that is constantly overlooked. I've gone into work suffering from the flu more than once (don't worry, I didn't endanger anyone else's health). But after thinking about it, I realized that if I want to effectively carry out God's plan for my life, then I want to be at my best. I know that won't always be the case but I can still take steps to safeguard my well-being. Sticking to my exercise regimen is a big one. Eating healthy, balanced meals is another. Bed rest when I do get sick (and you know I will) is huge. So please hold me to that, because you know I'll shrug it off when it happens.
5) Stay involved, but don't burn out. Exhaustion really starts to set in by about March or April for the students who try to do too much. I want to keep busy, but I don't want to give up every last second of my downtime. All students need time to just unwind, take it easy, go for a walk, play some frisbee, and hang out with their friends. It's good to stay involved in activities you enjoy doing, but if you don't set aside adequate time to yourself, it's an invitation for burn-out to creep in. My quiet time in which I read a passage from the Bible and spend some time praying to God is one thing I never want my other activities to encroach upon.
6) Take time to do and appreciate the little things. Mr. Sell really clued me to this in high school. When I go out in the morning to breakfast in the Dining Hall or to Furman Hall for Religion, I want to be able to look up at the morning sunshine (or the morning rain), notice the fresh dew on the grass, look out at the Bell Tower barely obscured by early morning fog...I want to look out at my environment and be thankful. I know I gripe a lot, and never have enough positive things to say, but I really want to do this. And beyond appreciating God's creation, I want to extend that to people as well. When someone walks past and says "Hi, how are you?" I want to initiate a mini-conversation with that person. I feel that shows how glad I am that he or she took the time to ask me about my day. The ladies that serve the food in the DH and the PalaDen are some of the nicest people I've ever met. I want to give them a cheery greeting when I come in, make sure they know how much I appreciate the hard work and long hours they put in just to serve us. Getting a little card from a friend asking about me and how I'm doing just makes me beam. If you want to see one of my rare smiles, come find me when I read a card in my mailbox. Trust me, you won't be disappointed. Big actions are good, but it's the little things that make the difference.
7) Pray, pray, and pray some more. Huge one right here. And alongside it, I would add "Continue digging into the Word." In the good times and bad, I want to always, always remember the One who made it all possible.
8) Don't bring Furman to work. This is for my job at Chick-Fil-A, whether it will be at Haywood Mall or at Cherrydale. Too many times in the past, I'd come in with my mind on classes, a bad grade on a test, or whatever else going on at Furman. That mindset caused me to fall behind at work and lose focus, often to the detriment of my co-workers who all have their jobs to do and don't need to pick up my slack. I want to change that this year. When I clock in, I want my mind to be on my job and nothing else for the next 6 hours. I don't want distractions to hamper my efforts and keep me from working to the best of my ability. If something's going on at Furman, it should stay at Furman. I want to deal with it either before or after work. My job doesn't need to suffer for that.
9) Loosen up. My sister invented a new word for this: "chillax." (an amalgamation of chill out and relax) I want to be able to let stuff slide off my back and greet things with a cordial grin instead of a stone-faced frown. By now, I've learned that no matter how hard you try, sometimes things just aren't going to go your way. You get thrown curveballs, stuff changes on the fly, and you're forced to adapt. Now the next step is learning how to take it. One way or another, you have to adapt to the unexpected, but you still have to think about how you respond. I want to be able to laugh it off and not treat things like a big deal, because more often than not, they aren't a big deal. They're not worth freaking out over. Life is like a a cherry phosphate. You have to take the fizz with the good stuff. But the key is how you take it.
There. That should just about cover everything. I expect as the year goes, I'll make adjustments as needed. Add stuff to #2 and #5 maybe, and repeat #7 without ceasing. Anyway, that's my list of future goals. What's yours?
Song of the Day: Caedmon's Call - "There's Only One (Holy One)"
Verse of the Day: "Because of the Lord's great love, we are not consumed, for his compassions never fail." - Lamentations 3:22
posted by david @ 10:17 PM
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