Productive? Nope.

This week has been good, but certainly not the best. I had productivity goals that I haven’t been making and that’s frustrating me slightly. I even took a nap today, one that set me so far behind in my work. Naps are not good for being productive. I’ve broken my Lentin fast and been on the internet several times. Not a great week. On the other hand, our speaker this week was Joe White’s son, Brady White. He’s pretty funny, and Donyes likes him apparently, so he was sure to be a great speaker. He spoke on several things this week, certainly not the least of which was how much emphasis our society puts on feelings. In relationships, if we no longer feel love towards our partner we divorce or break up with them. On a related note, we were created to love God and one another in the way God loves us. Αγαπε, or “agape” (I have a Greek keyboard now (I know some Greek now)) is the divine, selfless love we were created for, and we put much more emphasis on ερος, or eros, the sexual love. This causes the feelings of emptiness people get from one night stands or putting their identity in a significant other. I haven’t even talked about Logos! We got this super expensive bible software at highly discounted prices (~$2,000 off and 50% discounts after that!!) and all we have to do is take a class over using it. It was an awesome deal. With Logos, you get a ton of different books, both teaching books and textbook-type deals. You can cross reference them side by side, read related verses in separate tabs, and even see the original Greek and Hebrew words used so that you can truly understand what God meant originally. I recommend it to anyone with a few thousand just lying around. I got my job back at Hollister as well! Not super excited about it, but I now have an income and can finish paying for Ireland, so that was definitely a plus for this week. My friendships here are going amazingly, these guys are the best. Okay, the random updates are over. Until next week, party peeps!

Very Productive Week!

This week has been quite a fun one. Link Year is a fantastic place and I learn so much each week. First off, last Friday, we went rock wall climbing! Don’t worry, it was in an indoor gym. I found out I’m not the worst climber in the world, but my forearms don’t much endurance. I made it up the easy and medium difficulty walls without much problem, but by the time I thought I was ready to try the harder walls, my arms were cramping and I couldn’t even do a full pull-up. I even waited another hour to try and get rested up and go for it again, but I still couldn’t do it, I was exhausted. It was fun though, and the Chik-fil-a definitely helped heal my sore arms. I had a productive weekend and accomplished all my goals for the week, so that was fun. Right now, I feel like I’m rambling slightly more than usual. I may be a bit out of practice with this blog thing. Over the week, we’ve had different speakers from the staff of the  Kanakuk Institute, the older people who we share a campus with. Joey Tisdale talked to us mostly about college and how to be lights wherever we go, no matter what we choose to do. Chad Hampsh acme on Wednesday, but I forgot my journal in my room, so no notes were taken that day. I remember playing an altered version of the morality game where we were asked to split based on whether or not we loved Jesus with our whole hearts, felt confident about sharing the Gospel, and believed wholeheartedly that Jesus is who He said He is. We also discussed the validity of the Bible and relationship/dating stuff. Dating is, to me, a pointless tradition that only encourages premarital sex, but he made some valid restrictions to actual dating that could work, I guess. One of the lesser-known things that make Link Year such a fantastic program is the thinking it makes you do on your own. My view of dating was formed here, but not because of anything a speaker said to us in class. I came to my conclusion after discussing with protégés and reflecting on my life and experiences. Anyway, back to the week. Today we had Keith Chancey, the president of the Kanakuk Institute, and he walked us through Paul’s journey after becoming a follower of Christ. I once tried reading through the book of Acts, but couldn’t get very far. I may try again soon, the talk was interesting. If you wanted more updates on the week, I’ve been working out a bit harder than before, have enjoyed the warm weather days and sat by the dock on a few occasions, and have made sure to build community and hang out with people daily, rather than sit on my computer or read in my room all day. I’ve got a masquerade ball starting now, that I’ve gotta leave and get ready for. In case you missed it, I’m in the place a semi-formal party is starting dressed in basketball shorts. I now have to leave the party, get ready for it, and come back. Later, party people!

Hello There Lads and Lassies!

Hey there strangers! SO much has happened in the past month! I’ve gone to Ireland and had a blast over there, hung out with my dad and brother, and came back and had a blast with my Linky friends. Ireland was fantastic, I built friendships on stellar levels while gazing out at that beautiful countryside every day. Just writing that and remembering how amazing the trip was makes me miss it terribly. I am so incredibly blessed to be able say I was in those places with those uber amazing people. We saw the place the R.M.S. Titanic was built. It was actually three separate places. Dangerously deep places. We also saw Tollymore Forest. Probably the second most fun day there. I was with Heather, Selby, Caroline, and Victoria. We climbed trees, told scary stories in the denser areas, and even jumped rivers. It was so awesome. On the last day we were there we got to climb a mountain! It started out in an insanely beautiful forest, full of streams and rocks and junk. I didn’t stop a ton to pay attention to it because we had been told we weren’t going to make it to the top because of time and I was determined. Later, once we passed the wooded area of the mountain we saw a sort of valley between the two peaks. It was pretty much what you’d expect to see when in an Irish valley. There were even sheep grazing near us! I filled my water bottle with the surprisingly clear stream water as we neared the top. The last leg got really steep and was really tiring. We ended up not making it to the top, a fact that disappointed me immensely. So that was Ireland highlights. Besides the amazing friends. Did I mention them? They’re pretty amazing. I also got pretty into poetry over there and wrote about ten poems, some for others and some for the poetry nights. Being back at Link Year has been a whole experience in itself. Having everyone back in the same place has certainly been nothing less than incredible. I’ve also enjoyed the speaker this week. His name is Joshua Straub, and he’s definitely in my top three of this year. I unfortunately don’t have my journal with at the moment, and this is due very soon, so I can’t share his wisdom with you guys. Maybe next time! Later!