Regionals

It was one of the best weeks of my life....and one of the hardest. I feel like a success....and a failure. I feel like I did my best to glorify God....but that I also let pride have too much control. I'm excited to move on to college....but I'm really going to miss this people. What a roller coaster ride. And what an incredible journey it's been in speech and debate.

Being able to compete in Region 3 has honestly been one of the best experiences of my life. I've met many people and have rekindled friendships from the past, and I've grown so much through competing in Team Policy this year. Josh and I had our last debate round ever (more on that later) and I still can't quite bring myself to unpack the debate box, recycle the evidence, and put the flow pads back on the shelf. I know God had a reason for us not making it to nationals, but the hardest part for me is knowing that it's over...forever. No more great clashes of arguments, topicality presses, power-matching speculation, or anticipation while waiting for breaks to be announced. That ship has dropped me off on the shore and sailed off without me.

As hard as saying goodbye to debate was, saying goodbye to friends was harder. I'm thankful to be able to attend nationals with some, but most will not be there. Instead of seeing each other once a month, it could be many months or years before I see many of these people again... I might not ever see some of them again.

At the ballot party, I was talking with one of my good friends about how much it sucks to be a senior and to know this was my last Regionals. He said, "I never say goodbye to anything. I just say hello. Saying goodbye is too hard." That is so much easier said than done, but those are some of the wisest words I've ever heard. Hello college. Hello adulthood. Hello Andrew the alumni judge. Hello stronger friendships. Because I thank God the end of my speech and debate career doesn't mean the end of the fellowship with the people I've met.

I Am Second

Andrew’s 100 Word Story

Before following God, I was living for myself. Everything I did was about me.  I didn’t care about helping others.

I gave my life to Christ, but I didn’t live like it. Destructive habits and pride continued.

During high school, God used my Dad and others to show me by example what it means to serve others and surrender my whole life to Christ.

Since making the decision to intentionally live out my faith, Jesus has given my life direction and purpose. I’ve a new joy in serving others. I still face struggles, but I’m comforted knowing God will always be there for me.

My name is Andrew, and I am second.

Choosing A College

Wow. Talk about pressure. I've made a lot of decisions in my life, (some good, some bad) but I've never actually had the opportunity to choose exactly where and how to spend the next four years of my life. College is a big decision. Depending on this decision I could either wind up with a job I love, or a job I hate. I can set myself up for financial success, or burden myself with debt. I could go off on a giant adventure and experience something new in California or Alabama, I could stay close to home, or I could move back to the northwest near friends. 

After much prayer and thought I've decided to stay closer to home to attend New Mexico State University in Las Cruces. It's the only school that's offered me a full-ride scholarship, so it definitely makes sense financially. It also has a fantastic hospitality management program for me to explore. It's a very "safe" choice, which bugs me a little bit. I've played it safe almost my entire life, and playing it safe with my first major decision as an adult doesn't feel quite right. However, I've got my entire life left to have adventures, and the world's still wide open after college. Besides, going to a secular school will be an adventure in itself, since most of my high school friends are Christians. God's definitely given me a great opportunity to be an example and to grow in my faith while also being "out there" in the real world.

I know this transition into the next phase of my life will be difficult, but I'm not going to let my life stall. I'm going to actively try to become the person God wants me to be, and this is the right step to take right now. I'm excited, to say the least!

Lemonade

"When life gives you lemons, make lemonade." When life keeps handing you lemons, it's only a matter of time before it hands you some sugar too, and then you'll have all the ingredients you need.  It's incredibly corny and cliche, but it's true.

God has completely turned my life around this month. Speech and debate has been amazing. I've met some of the coolest people, and I'm really stoked to spend more time with them this year. Not to mention I'm having a blast with TP. I'm still an LDer at heart, but this has been an awesome experience so far. I have a great debate partner, great competition, and a great resolution.

Not to mention two additional fantastic opportunities. Planning an awesome road trip with my buddy Noah and going to see my favorite band in concert was something I could only dream about last month. Now it's happening. It's going to be the experience of a lifetime. Also, I get to go to California to check out some colleges after the next tournament. I guess all those college application essays were worth it after all.:D

Well, I've got no more time for pain or self-pity. It's time to life my life. I've got nothing to complain about anymore. 2013 is off to a super start.

Adversity and Plans

If I only had one word to describe the last six months it would be "adversity." Sometimes life just seems to throw everything it has at you. And it's not about the move. I'm actually really starting to like it here. Although settling into a new church and getting used to new social circles is difficult, it ultimately just gives me more friendships, which is never a bad thing. What's getting me lately is that none of my plans seem to be working out.

This year was supposed to be an easy year. Adjust to the move, take advantage of the educational opportunity of TP debate, find a college, and then hopefully head back to the northwest in the summer to spend some time with friends before I go off to college in the fall. I should've known that wouldn't work out. College is expensive. More expensive than I ever would've expected. I'm going to have to work for at least a few months this year, in addition to getting a job during my first year at college. Working during speech and debate season is impractical if not impossible, which means most of my summer plans are going to fall by the wayside.

On top of that, fitting in speech and debate this year is turning out to be much more difficult than I anticipated. I'm finding I have a case of "senioritis" and am having a very hard time getting motivated to work on my speeches. And I'm finding out it's extremely difficult to prepare for debate tournaments with a long-distance partnerships. Especially when both of us are swamped with college stuff. We're not even going to be close to prepared for the first tournament.

It feels like the last few months have turned from a dream into a nightmare. Yet, during this special season, there's a reminder. The Angel who told of Jesus' birth proclaimed, "Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace..." Jesus came into a world filled with tyranny, war, injustice, and tears. In that turmoil, he came to bring peace. Christmas is a reminder that the ordinary turmoil of this world is not significant. Eternity is. And we have the everlasting peace and assurance of eternity.

Still, I doubt. If these well intentioned plans didn't work out, what about my future plans? College? A career? A family? What if these plans don't work out either? Life is full of disappointments. I've pushed through adversity before, and I'll do it again. God knows what college I'll attend, and if He wants me to get married he'll bring the right person into my life. Still, sometimes I hope that His perfect plan and my flawed human plans will align.

UPDATE: Looking at this post a few days later it sounds pretty whiney. I suppose I don't have much of a right to complain when I have good health and great friends and family. It's just hard when one plan after another crashes. But, good has come out of this. These circumstances have helped me realize a big weakness that I have. When something doesn't work out the way I want it to, I tend to get upset. Well, life is like that. Transitions won't go as smoothly as I think they should, and sometimes you just can't do two things at once. Perhaps God's trying to tell me that I need to learn to just go with the flow, and not look forward to things that aren't for sure going to happen. Life can still be very frustrating sometimes, but when you've got great friends you can always make more plans. And that's something I'm very thankful for. (Hey, if I make a bunch of plans, at least one of them is bound to work out eventually.=P)

The Wilderness

A couple months ago my buddy Jake and I decided to do a crazy thing.  We decided to strap heavy backpacks to our bodies and hike miles into the Pecos Wilderness in New Mexico.  We'd need to filter our own water, brave whatever weather would come our way, and be prepared for anything that could come our way.  Some people in life choose to never venture out of their comfort zone, to rarely try something that they've never done before.  This is the story of what happens when you put that irrational fear aside.  

Day 1:

We spent the night before doing last-minute shopping at REI and Costco, while Mom picked up other miscellaneous things for us at Walmart and Target.  We had all of our new wares and food piled in the garage along with our rented equipment: backpacks, sleeping bags, pads, and a stove.  Unfortunately the water filter I ordered online didn't arrive in time, so our morning started with another trip to REI to get a new one.  We then stopped at Subway for some lunch, then got some gas and drove up into the mountains.  We arrived at the trail head about two hours later, and as soon as we stepped out of the truck we saw a deer.  Pretty darn good start to the trip.  We were starting much later than planned due to distributing and redistributing the weight back at home a lot of times in an attempt to get the backpacks somewhat even.  

The trail began with a steep incline and switchbacks as we climbed to the top of a ridge. When we were about halfway up we took a break and my dad broke some bad news. "I don't think we got the stove in." Not good. Without the stove we can't boil water, which means we can't eat! We all emptied our backpacks.  No stove.  It was looking like we would need to go home to try to find it, which would take hours. Thankfully God was looking out for us (the first of many times on this trip), and Dad remembered that he had put the stove in the coffee can to save room. We had everything we needed. 

As the day went on it became clear that we weren't going to make it as far as we'd planned.  We found a spot to camp so we would still have time to find a place to hang the food away from bears and set up the tent.  

Bear Bag

Later that night when we were eating dinner and watching the sunset, a mother elk and two calves came walking by over the horizon. It was amazing. The hung around for a while, but eventually they figured out there was someone else around and went off in the other direction. It was so cool!  

Day 2:

We got up and going around 8:30 ready to hit the trail. Our next stop would be a campsite near Pecos Falls. After we had hiked for a while it became more and more obvious that our original plan was not going to work. The land was mountainous, and it seemed like we were constantly climbing. There was no way we would be able to climb another 1500 feet to Pecos Baldy Like like we had planned. We decided to stay two nights around Pecos falls and do day hikes to give ourselves rest from the packs.  It was around noon when we reached Beatty's Flatts, the place we were planning to camp the night before, so we stopped to have some lunch.  

Once we got back on the trail we quickly wore out. We just weren't used to carrying 45 lb. packs up and down hills. Whenever we thought we were getting close to the campsite there was another hill to climb. At one point we pulled out the map because we were sure we should've been there by now. We definitely were on the right trail, and thankfully we were close. Just one more hill to climb. I was feeling lightheaded and my legs were numb. I just had to focus. Left-right-left-right-left-right. One step at a time. Somehow we all found the strength to get there. Finally we made it. We found a nice campsite in a grove of trees near Jerosa Creek.  None of us felt up to a hike down to the falls that night, so we just set up camp, had dinner, played cards and went to bed earlier.

Day 3:

We slept in a bit and enjoyed some coffee and oatmeal for breakfast. We filtered some water and headed for the falls. We took a slight detour since we weren't sure which trail to take, but we eventually made it. And it was amazing. It was so cool being there just us, our awesome God, and His creation.  We climbed and hiked around the falls and took a bunch of pictures, then we hiked back to camp.

After we got back to camp and relaxed for a while, we decided to check out another trail.  It had some pretty awesome views of the mountains and we decided to hike out using that trail.  

After returning from our hike, a cool guy named Luke came into our camp and wondered if he could camp near us. We said it would be fine, and he set up camp on the other end of the creek. Luke built a great fire later that night, and we pretty much shared our life stories. We found out Luke was also homeschooled and now teaches in public school and works for summer camps. He was full of great stories and backpacking tips. Never know what kind of cool people God will bring into your life at the most unexpected times! 

That night was by far the coldest yet, but once we got into the tent we had no problem staying warm. 

Day 4:

There was a skiff of snow on the ground.

We bid farewell to Luke in the morning, as he was off to see the sights over by Pecos Baldy Lake. Meanwhile we made our way back towards Beatty's Flatts and the trail head. We ended up hiking even more than the second day, but this time it was mostly downhill which was much easier. We stopped for lunch by a really neat creek. Man, Korean BBQ Pork Jerky sure tastes good. 

By the end of the day we once again were nearly exhausted. We found some evergreen trees to camp in up on a ridge and settled in for our last night in the wilderness.

Day 5:

We started the morning by reflecting on the trip over coffee. Dad asked us what our favorite part of the trip was. Jake and I said the elk and the falls were our favorites. Dad said he was just happy we did it. We accomplished it. We relied on our instincts and survived in the wilderness on our own for five days. (With help from our equipment and food of course. We aren't quite Bear Grylls yet.;-)) We ran into Luke again on the trail and exchanged e-mail addresses. We had a fairly easy hike out since we made it so far the day before. We enjoyed more spectacular views and colors.

We made it back to the truck around 12:30. We called our moms so they could stop worrying, then went to Dairy Queen for a celebratory lunch.  

One morning in the wilderness I read in the book of Psalms. People often think roller coaster emotions and ups and downs are a bad thing. I was amazed at the Psalmist's transitions from happiness and thankfulness to anguish and sadness from chapter to chapter. It was then that I realized that life is kind of like a backpacking trip. There are amazing highs, like seeing the elk and the falls. But there are also lows. There will be exhaustion, and areas where we must struggle to meet our goals. One thing to always keep in mind? Keep on hiking. God always has a surprise waiting for us on the other side of the mountain.

Summer

Sorry for the long gap in posting, I've been busy with various adventures summer, so I'm going to take all of my activities and lump them into one giant post.  Feel free to skim.=P

The summer began with a trip to Colorado Springs, for NITOC.  The road trip was great, and the tournament was a great time for reconnecting with friends.  I did fairly well in debate.  However, despite feeling I did well with my speeches, I didn't move on.  It served as a great reminder that our successes have very little to do with how well we think we perform, but rather they depend on the grace of God.  If you think about it, this truth applies to all areas of life, not just speech and debate.  God puts us where he wants us to be, not where we think we deserve to be.  God also reminded me that His plans are always better than our plans.  Since I didn't break, I had a lot of time to go watch other speeches.  This gave me a great opportunity to support my friends, and meet and chat with some cool people that I probably wouldn't have had time for if I was trying to rush to a round.  Overall, the tournament was a great life lesson and a great time with friends.

The next big event was the NCFCA National Championship in Minnesota.  The tournament I'd been working towards all year long.  I wanted to make the most of it, as I knew many of my friends were graduating, and it would be a long time before I would see most of my Region 2 friends again.  The tournament was amazing.  From a great drive over, to John Branyan's comedy, to placing 6th in extemp and 4th in LD speaks, to playing frisbee in the sprinklers at 11 at night it was one of the best weeks of my life. 

After arriving home, there would be no rest from speech and debate as it was time to prepare for the Boise speech and debate camp!  God used the camp to put me in a position to mentor young speakers who were just beginning to be introduced into NCFCA.  What an amazing opportunity!  I could see tremendous potential in them, and it was so cool to be able to see them grow in their confidence and abilities even just during the course of a week. 

The week after camp, moving became more and more of a reality as the truck came.  We had very nice movers who worked very hard during the week.  After the house was empty, my dad flew up from New Mexico to sign the papers.  It was hard to drive away from the place we had lived for the past eight years.  As I look back on all of the songs I had written in that house I realized the story that they tell.  I am not the same person I was eight years ago.  I'm much closer to the person I want to be, but I still have a ways to go.  I know the move and my experiences the next few years will also work to change me for the better, and add to my life story.  I miss the people in the Northwest every day, but at the same time I know this is where I am supposed to be.  Sometimes God puts us in a place that we don't necessarily want to be, but He does it to help us to become more like Him.  The Israelites didn't like wandering through the desert for forty years, but God used it to prepare them for the promised land.  I know God has the perfect plan for my life as well, and He will use these experiences to shape me into who He wants me to be.  What an awesome adventure He has for all of us!

After spending about a week in Santa Fe, I had the awesome opportunity to fly up to northern Idaho for the TP camp in Post Falls.  I got to stay with my very good friends, the Pauls, and I was able to see many of my Region 2 friends one more time.  It's very cool when it feels like your friends are more like your brothers and sisters than just friends.  I also was able to practice debating with my new debate partner Josh, which I think will really help us as we compete this year.  Simply an amazing week with amazing people.  I feel very lucky to know them.

After debate camp ended, I flew out to Oregon.  The morning I flew in, I got to hang out with another one of my good friends from debate, and then I went to the coast for five days with my old band mates from Boise.  We had an awesome time playing badminton, poker, and jamming on guitars.  We also got to see a lot of the sights along the coast.  Such a cool place.

As a write this, I'm back in New Mexico and the summer's adventures have come to a close.  Another year of school is in front of me.  Life the next year is starting to look extremely boring compared to last summer.  I am determined to change that, though.  I'll use my spare time to record my first CD with the songs I wrote in Boise, and I'll prepare for my last year in debate.  A lot of doors close after this year.  I'm going to make the most of them while they're still open.

The promise I remind myself of:
For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.-Jeremiah 29:11.

God bless, everyone.