Inadequate Lyrical Comprehension

If you know me-you know that I have a way with song lyrics. I sing what fits. What I sing is by no means logical.

I thought Lady Gaga's Poker Face said "carry my, carry my poker face". To carry a face is a slightly disturbing image. But then again, so is Lady Gaga's meat dress.

According to Selena Gomez "you are the thunder and I am the lightning". But according to me "you are the thunder and I am the lion". They both make a resonating growl of some sort so it makes sense that they would go together in a song...right? Wrong.

Aladdin claims to Jasmine in A Whole New World that "every moment red letter". I always thought it was awkward when he confessed a personal issue by saying "every moment bed wetter". Call me crazy, but that's not something you want to tell a girl on your first date.

Kris Allen sings "staring down the barrel of a gun" in his hit single Live Like We're Dying. I sing "staring down the bedroom of a gun".....what?!

With all this being said, I have decided to look up song lyrics before I commit to humming or singing the song in public. This will avoid further embarrassment. However, this always proves to give a laugh or two and I love making people laugh! After all, I'm beginning to recycle my jokes far too much...people are starting to notice.

So be prepared to hear a debauchery of musical lyrics when coming out of my mouth.

N'ap Kembe (we are holding on).

Every morning at 5 a.m. I grew accustomed to waking up to the sounds of roosters and worship. The sounds bounced around the room and slowly (but surely) woke the other missionaries in the room. I remember trying to see if I could block out the sounds of the roosters and just try and listen to the worship from next door. It was in those moments that a rooster would come right up to my window and started squawking to make sure I was up. This was the usual morning routine in Haiti for me. But the mornings in Haiti were so unlike my mornings in America. I remember one morning waking up to the song "Open The Eyes of My Heart Lord". That song never seemed more powerful to me.

"I want to see you. I want to see you."

My mornings started with God--something I rarely experience in America--waking up and your first thought being God while listening to the roars of worship from the villagers next door.

Our team of 21 was divided into three--construction, medical, and vacation bible school. Each field dealt with exposure to very different types of people. With construction I got an opportunity to meet with some of the villagers who were very closed off in the beginning of our relationships with them. Many of these villagers worked for a free meal and others were actual paid workers. Through the week the Lord broke language barriers and replaced odd stares with acceptance, enjoyment, and laughter. My favorite moment in working with construction was actually a moment that started out with extreme discouragement. It was our first day on the site and the heat was bearing down on all of us and I kept thinking, 'these people don't even want us here right now....'. I look up and notice almost 100 kids running towards us; excited to see us. They held onto me and my two friends, Matt and Ben. It seemed like each child wanted to be picked up or given a high five. They thrived off of the affection that we would give them-almost as if they had never received it before.

Speaking Creole with the kids was difficult because they could not comprehend what we would try and say. So this is one of the obstacles-I can't use words with these children. So its up to my actions to show them love. I could not simply tell them "you are loved." I had to show them. My actions were key here. Words meant nowhere near as much as my actions did. This is where the importance of being the hands and feet of the gospel really hit home for me. But here in America I take my own mouth for granted. Do I really use it as much as I could to proclaim and take part in the Gospel?

The next day I worked vacation bible school for the children. Ben and I took a smaller portion of the group to a field nearby to get out and play with some of the toys we had brought them. Ben and I noticed that there were almost 100 kids with us and no translator. We had nowhere near enough toys for all of the kids and as soon as they realized this violence broke out among the mass. I remember seeing kids swing tree branches as thick as pythons as a form of attack. I saw a boy start punching a another boy in the face in order to get the toy from him. I would try and yell "Stop!" but remember-words that can't be understood can only get you so far. Finally the fighting was broken up but I felt extremely discouraged. I had never seen playfulness switch to violence so fast.

That night I got very sick. Fever, vomiting, deliriousness, dizziness. I was scared that it would escalate into something much worse. I prayed for safety but I also prayed out of frustration. Frustration because I was not ready to be out of commission this early on the trip. As the rest of the team would leave the following days to go to the work sites I would stay behind and help with the medical team. It was all I was allowed to do after being sick. The other team members would come back before dinner time and talk about the relationships that were being cultivated, or about the Gospel being shared, or about the people who had come to accept Christ. I would hear this news and be glad but at the same time frustrated. Frustrated because I wanted to be in the front row of the good fruit of this trip. I wanted to be a part of it. I wanted to see it happen. Not just hear about it.

I continually found myself in prayer about this frustration. I knew the Lord raised my support money to get here, He physically made it able for me to come, He softened my parents' hearts in letting me come, I received nothing but affirmation about this trip--yet I was put out of commission so early in the trip. So why have me here in the first place?

This was one of my biggest struggles within the trip. But the Lord provided for some peace about this as my time in Haiti went on. Yes, I did want to be a part of the good fruit of this trip but all I got to do with it was hear about it. However, I completely looked over the fruit in my own life that was taking shape. Through the experiences I had in Haiti, I clung to the Lord in every one. From the children fighting, to having to endure Haiti heat, to getting sick the first time and the second (yes-there was a second time), and in my mornings when my eyes first opened. The Lord was who I sought after in every one of those situations and many more. But it wasn't like I would cling to the Lord for a short bit or for as long as I simply needed, but I would cling and hold on because it was that hope that got me through what was a tough trip. So the good fruit for me in this trip was how much I would hold on. At home I would become so consumed in everything around me that the Lord may not be the first thing I seek.

Nighttime was my favorite part of the day. Everyone would come back from their day of hard work and we would all eat delicious food together and talk about what we experienced that day and then follow up with an intense game of Spoons afterward. It was almost like a celebration each night. The good food would induce lethargy and drowsiness soon hit. I would say a prayer of thanks for an opportunity like this and then fall asleep to the sounds of worship from the sanctuary next door--just the way the day started.

Swords and Sharks

Caution: what you are about to read may contain violent acts of comical aggression. The men of 400 L are trained professionals (not really) and we dont know what we are doing.

I don't know what has been going on with my roomates and myself lately, but we have become more open to the appreciation of destruction that seems to only exists in boys-ahem, I mean strapping, young men with rugged masculinity that can only be matched by people like Bear Grylls and Bill Nye the science guy. I blame Glee for this recent uprising in aggression.

I have a sword. Dont ask how or why I have one-just know that I do. I have recently been practicing with it. My main sparring partners have been my futon and my roomate Matt. Sad to say, I got carried away the other day and stabbed a hole in my futon (not Matt). The other night, Matt was holding paper and I would slice the paper to test the sharpness of the sword until I nearly missed Matt's finger. Oops.

My other roomate, Jesse has recently found this new game called "Sydney Shark". You play as a shark in Sydney (go figure) and your main mission is to destroy whatever you can. The more destruction-the more points. You can destroy everything from killer whales to airplanes (how a shark can manage to jump high enough out of the water to bring down a commercial airplane still puzzles me). The other day, I looked over at Jesse playing the game and he was sweating. Not just the "it's hot in here and my back is sweaty" kinda sweat but the beads of sweat dripping down your forehead kinda sweat. He was so concentrated on this game. Everytime he managed to bring down a blimp or airplane or a parachuter, we would know because he would emit high pitched screams until the item was completely destroyed. I have never seen my roomate enjoy something this much since hush puppies from Long John Silvers.

I sneak in Duns room in the morning usually ten minutes before his alarm goes off and I slap him until he wakes up. Call me a bad roomate-but I like to think of it as....ok, I'm just a bad roomate.

Two nights ago I threw a shoe at my roomate. I don't remember why. It just seemed like the right thing to do. In response, he locked himself in my room and started messing with my stuff. Immediately, I became territorial. I then proceeded to ram my door so I could get in. It worked. However, in the process of actually getting in I broke my lock and put a hole in my door because as soon as it flung open from me ramming it it ran into my piano and my piano went through it. Oops again.

With all this being said, we really do love each other. We have just been choosing to express that love differently lately. Hopefully this is a phase that my roomates and I are going through. Maybe once this season of 24 is over things will be different. But until then, be warned-the men of 400L are not trained and we have no idea what we're doing.

Run & Fly

Run & Fly
By Mark Samudre

I am in a place
where the water is alive.
With ripples being blown by a man
In white as bright as light can get.
This wind blows me to an oak tree I used to climb.
With roots stretched deep within the earth,
With height beyond what my eyes can see,
With branches that lift me up
From one
To the other.
I fly
Over greener valleys with no end.
The wind blowing a clearing
In the tall blades of grass.
I choose to run,
Racing with the pastel colors
Of petals of flowers that sing
A sweet, sweet song
As they scurry to keep
Up.
I run till the wind beckons me to fly again,
Carrying me
Towards the choir of people
Where believing has gotten us to
Where we are today.

I'm a naturalist. I feel most at peace and closest to God when I am in nature. I've just recently come to grips with this. So I've been attempting to take time out of my day to just sit outside and soak in as much of the nice weather as I can-which is a reason as to why nature has a continual part in the poem. Lately I've just been thinking about Heaven more. Thoughts like : "I wonder what it's like?" or "Do we get wings or not?" (I seriously think about that quite often) or "Am I truly excited to get there?"...It's kind of a freaky concept if you think about it. One moment you're here and then the next-you're in the eternal. Woah.

I began the (very) rough draft of this poem during my poetry class which was outside by the New River (very scenic in the springtime-I highly recommend going if you haven't yet). The whimsical-like setting in the poem is meant to serve as Heaven. The man in the beginning is God-and the wind he blows is Jesus. The wind is constantly with the character throughout the whole poem, carrying him, lifting him, guiding him. And eventually the speaker of the poem is brought to the angels, where he joins them and sings.

Haiti

Hello Friends!

I would like to share with you my desire to go to Haiti to help with earthquake relief efforts. I will be spending 10 days in a city called Melot with other missionaries. We will be building a house for families in need due to the devastation of the earthquake. There is so much hurt in Haiti and I would love nothing more than to have the opportunity to go there and do what I can to aid in the relief and to share the love and freedom that Christ has to offer even in the midst of such trials. But I cannot do this alone! I am writing to ask for prayer and support in going to Haiti.

The Lord has been gracious in helping me raise $400 but by the end of the expenses of the trip I will still need $2000 more in order to go to Haiti. Besides the basic costs of airfare, food, and lodging, the remainder of this money will go towards building supplies for the house. Please help me in my endeavor through prayer and financial support as you are able.

All you have to do is click the “Chip In” button on the right side of this screen to be taken to the Paypal site. Enter in your amount you would like to donate and then click update totals. If you do not have a Paypal account just click the "continue to checkout" hyperlink.

All money is due by June 1st. I know that is not much time but I am confident that the Lord is in control and I will continue to place my trust and hope in Jesus. Please be praying for the people of Haiti so that they can trade in a blanket of heaviness for a spirit of praise and please consider joining me in raising financial support.

In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in heaven.
-Matthew 5:16

In Him,
Mark Samudre

Light Show

I'm in a poetry writing class this semester and it is possibly my favorite class I have ever taken here at Radford University. Every month or so we have to write a poem and share it to the class and then the class does a group peer evaluation on it. Here is one of my poems I have written recently and have shared with the class-hope you enjoy!

Light Show
By Mark Samudre

My eyes have painted the sky
The color of a ripened peach
With the pastel blue creeping in
Giving me time
To rehearse in my mind.
The sounds of crickets and geese
Serve as background music.
The fireflies are placed in the grass before me,
Waiting for the cue from the moon.
Our bare feet dangle off the top of my car,
Following the same percussive
rhythm, as they bang on the glass.

The twilight blue has settled in.
The geese gloat and crickets chirp.
The moon nods its ring-shaped head
And the light show begins.
The fireflies twinkle in the grass before us,
Like Christmas lights
Wrapped in bushes,
Harmonizing with the stars
In perfect timing.


At the end
The only two clapping
Are you
And I.

The Magic School Bus

Congratulations Human Biology lab-you have successfully convinced me that science is not the route I'm supposed to take in life. Good thing I'm an English major.

So I just got out of my human biology lab. Two hours of scribbling down numbers, measuring blood pressure, vital capacities, calculating standard errors, etc. All in all, it is everything I have tried to stay away from in my college career and have foolishly avoided it and now towards the end of my college adventure, I'm paying the toll.

It was during this painful lab (which not one single person in the class finished) that I came to a realization- I was perfectly content learning all the scientific facts and mechanics of life that we need to know from the Magic School Bus. Remember it? That show with a bus that spurted wings from its sides and rocket thruster things from its rear and could shrink, time travel, and journey to all the planets in the solar system in a matter of 25 minutes. Yep, sounds like my kinda ride. It sure beats my 21-speed mountain bike.

Lets be real, I would much rather be taking that class rather than human biology in college. Plus, their labs are much more...."hands on". Except maybe I wouldn't want to go on the trip to visit the dinosaurs-lizards bigger than myself scare me. Who knew children could retain so much knowledge from a red-headed eccentric teacher and a foot-tall lizard that has horns and could drive a bus? I wouldn't mind having them as teachers.

Ok...scratch that. This lizard scares me to.

Like A Lion

This semester at Radford University has been revitalizing.

For the first time here, I feel alive.

I am finally coming to grips with how big our God really is. He is moving in the New River Valley. He is the reason for this revival.

Cant you see it?

He is surely alive. He is living on the inside-roaring like a lion.

I cant be thankful enough to be a part of the awakening.

For the majority of this school year, I have been a part of a launch team working to start a church in the New River Valley- Valley Bible Church. Through the church, the Lord has taught me so many things. I am beginning to see the groundwork for transformation in this community and it's such a gratifying experience to be on the frontline.

I have been blessed with the opportunity to cultivate new relationships that seem to have been there for years while still strengthening old ones. Valley Bible Church has helped this place not just be school to me but rather home as well.

The Lord has instilled a desire to live missionally-loving the poor and broken to give beauty for ashes-to trade in a blanket of heaviness for a spirt of praise.

There is peace in the life that Jesus has to offer and for the first time here, I feel alive.

For He is living on the inside-roaring like a lion.

Spring Fever

Im currently sitting outside squinting my eyes so I can make out what is on this screen as I type it because the sun is so bright! The weather is 65 degrees and the wind is blowing at just the right speed-enough to give you some relief from the sun and enough to throw a frisbee straight. On my way over to my friend's house I saw two girls awkwardly tanning with barely anything on. Im also just starting to realize how many people have dogs around here-have all these dogs hibernated these past 3 months? The hollow thumps of a soccer ball going to and from people are the only sounds I hear right now. And free cone day at Ben & Jerry's is next Tuesday. But this all means one thing-Spring is finally here!!!

Winter has this lethargic and depressing factor about it, but this place sure does have some spring fever! Even though winter is where the technical end of the year happens, spring still has an element of closure to it. The school year is ending and if you're in high school prom is right around the corner.

Sun and funny shaped clouds seem to provide for a good mood no matter what.This good weather even had enough power to get the girl with a broken collar bone out here to toss a frisbee with me. Sling or no sling, you would have to be crazy to stay inside on a day like this!

Scared? Yep.

So my friends and I have been going through a phase (or at least what I hope is a phase).

Scary movies. I have yet to find a genuine scary movie that has a good plot line-but that's besides the point. As much as I usually dislike scary movies I have taken to watching them more often; hoping for a make-you-jump-out-of-your-seat kinda movie.

With the movies we've watched recently, I've definitely gotten that and much more. Here's the thing though-before watching the movie I'm usually the one out of my friends pushing to watch it the most. However, at the first hint of anything scary I usually think one, recurring thought,

"What was I thinking?"

Here's a rundown of some general characteristics that I take on during a scary movie:

1-The blanket is my best friend, something to hold on to, and a good blindfold (thanks to said blanket I have yet to watch the end of "Paranormal Activity"...and I've seen it twice).

2-I'm about as jumpy as a kid in a double-dutch contest. My jumpiness may result in me grabbing ahold of the person next to me. Just this past Thursday during "The Uninvited" a dead (ish) woman hopped out from under a garbage dispenser and it made me jump so bad that I grabbed hold of my friend, Jessi, sitting next to me. Everyone else claimed that I pushed her forward and was hiding behind her. I like to think of it as I was holding onto her to make sure she wasn't scared to....yeah that's not true.

3-My screams tend to get about 3 octaves higher. I'll be the first to admit that it's hard to differentiate my screams from that of a 12 year old girl who just got tickets to go see the Jonas Brothers.

4-I giggle. Not laugh. I emit a high-pitched, short, and detached squeal. I find that giggling at the situation helps me get through the temporary terrified state that I repeatedly have found myself in these past couple of weeks.


Now of course my friends dont make this process of coping or recovering from a terrifying movie any easier. The video below is a testament to this.

So really the obvious solution to this would be to simply stop watching scary movies so I dont get so freaked out. That and just keep telling myself that the girl below isn't some demonic figure who wants nothing more than to inflict pain and suffering on and off the screen....

But let's face it. Neither of those are going to happen.

My Last Summer

The realization that this is going to be my last summer felt like Robitussin to me. Wierd. I know, but work with me for a second. You know that you're going to have to take the medicine eventually. But you havent taken it just yet so there's still a smile on your face. You don't want to stay sick forever, you want to keep moving on with your normal, day-to-day activities. So you take the medicine. Yep, you were right. This taste is not pleasant in the slightest. I bet that wasn't comforting at all. But you swallow it anyways and the Robitussin leaves a sour aftertaste in your mouth. As soon as the initial shock of that taste fades, there's a note of optimism because you know you're on the road to getting better, to moving on past this temporal stage.

With this being my last summer I wanted to do something else other than work for some summer cash. As much as I love my family and friends at home, I wanted to go someplace for mission work. There was this internal conflict between comfort and discomfort. I prize comfort so much. I have everything I need, why leave it all? It's a spoiled mentality that I've been trying to get out of, but it's a process. As Christians, I don't think we're called to be comfortable. We're supposed to be uncomfortable. If we're comfortable then something is not right. There have been opportunities to leave and go do mission work but it was this same mentality of total avoidance of discomfort that I was still holding onto that prevented me from leaving.

My good friend, Lee Thomas, and I came to the Coffee Mill and ran into her old bible study leader, Paige. We got entangled in this long conversation about the very thing that I've been trying to let go of--comfort. Security. Stability. Safety. Have y0u ever been at a place at just the right time and heard exactly what you needed to hear? Take a step in my shoes and that's what happened to me. Hearing the Lord speak through Paige was just the affirmation I needed.

So this summer I am going to Haiti for a couple of weeks. It's going to be tough, expensive, but nonetheless eye-opening. Am I scared? Yep. Am I excited? Beyond belief. How do I feel about my last summer spent in a place that has just encountered so much destruction and hurt? Wouldn't have it any other way. Bring on the uncomfortable.

Surrounding Symphony

I'm sitting on a wooden chair the color of blueberries. My feet are propped up on the neighboring chair as I sit and listen to the couple to my left talk about their opinion on the new movie Valentine's Day. Behind them is a girl reading a Bible while her feet dangle due to the elevation of the barstool. Immediately beside me is my friend Jess. All I can see is her eyes dart from left to right and all I can hear is the sound of her coffee mug hit the wheat colored table everytime she takes a sip. Diagonally behind me to my right is another girl skypeing with someone who seems to be either her sister or her best friend. I've seen her many times before. She's what people would call a "regular". The baristas know her usual order. Even I know: a medium dirty chai. Every 7 or so minutes, my thought process is disrupted by the noise of a blender that sounds like the whirring of a vaccuum cleaner. I think about putting my earphones in and listening to the sounds that Pandora chooses for me. But who needs music when I have a soundtrack surrounding me? The sounds of a page flipping to the next, the laughter of the couple to my left, the rapid talk of the girl on skype, the ceramic cup hitting the table every 2 mins. Even the volcanic sounds of the blender. It all goes together; a definitive factor of where I am sitting. If I were anywhere else, this would all be noise, not music.

I look towards the rocking chair with a winter starlight blue cushion that invites me closer. I succumb to the invitation and my body agrees much more to the comfort of this. I look out of the window beside me and watch as the snow makes magic of the sky; falling as if someone is gently grinding the flakes between their hands and sprinkling it lightly to illuminate the stone gray sidewalk. To follow one, single snowflake is difficult to do. Your eyes switch from flake to flake and then to the occasional person walking past. A woman has just walked past holding her child's hand as he skips to keep up. Her face is down to block the snow but the child's face is up to invite it.

My eyes eventually divert from the spectacle outside to the numbers at the bottom right of my computer screen. 5 o'clock is almost here so it is just about time to go.

Goodbye Coffee Mill. I'll be back tomorrow before you close your doors on Monday.

An Off Morning

Today I had one of the most off mornings I've had in awhile.
It's actually quite funny looking back at it.

I usually like to go up to campus earlier in the morning to buy a four dollar beverage from Starbucks (I know, I buy it more out of habit than actual desire). Then I usually proceed to sit on the couches outside of Starbucks and whip out my itouch while pretending that it's an iphone <---it's entertaining, you should try it sometime.

This morning I'm walking over to Starbucks and I remember my test grade for Biology is online. My usual route to Starbucks had a slight detour to a computer to check out my grade.

Background story.
Biology is the death of me. I've never been good at it. Never. For the love, I'm an english major! I was perfectly content learning all of my science facts from the Magic School Bus. I have no desire to further my scientific knowledge. This hindered my learning capacity while trying to study. Ask Laura Herald. She helped me study but it wasn't an easy task. It took me an hour to grasp the fact that animal cells consist of membraneous organelles.

I get online to check out my grade. Lets just say I could have done better...alot better. With my mood a little dampered and my pouting pretty apparent, I then make my way to Starbucks, order my cup of coffee, take a sip of it and make my way to the couches. I then spill my drink all over me. Great.

After spending a couple of minutes cleaning up, Sheila, the usual cashier in the morning at Starbucks, offers me a new cup. Sweet! Finally, I get to the couches and habitually pull out my itouch. After about 5 mins it was about time for me to head to class. I get up without realizing that my itouch was in my lap and not my hand. MY itouch crashes to the floor and the protective case split away from it as heads turn my way. I bend down to pick up my itouch and coffee spills all over it. Great again. At least it missed me this time.

I finally get out of Starbucks and start walking to class. For the entirety of the next hour I kept smelling burgers. Wierd, I know. I smelled it on campus and all the way into my classroom. I was a little self conscious because I thought it might have been me. Burgers. Of all things, why burgers?

Was it an "off" start to the morning? Yep. But today was honestly one of the coolest days. From sweet coffee shop convos to painting on canvases with Clark for a couple hours, it was a great day. Sometimes we need to just laugh at ourselves a little, and that's exactly what I have been doing all day when I think back to the series of unfortunate events and odd smells that took place this morning.

"If you can't laugh at yourself, life's gonna seem a whole lot longer than you'd like."
-Garden State

Early Riser

I'm an early riser. The latest I've slept in the past year was 10:30 in the morning-and that was because I was heavily induced with sleepytime meds, oh the joys of Nyquil. This past school year, my body has been waking me up at around the same time no matter what time I went to bed the night before. Sometimes I hate it, but for the most part I love it. I personally think that the morning is the best part of the day. Granted, I do get a little lonely in the morning because all of my roomates like to take advantage of the times they can sleep in, which is totally understandable. The reactions to being woken up by an alarm clock differ between all of them...

Jonathan.
He is definitely the most sociable in the morning (besides me). He is the one roomate I can wake up in the morning without him getting upset. He does this thing where he rubs his stomach and his left eye while trying to get reoriented to being awake.

Matt.
Matt doesn't like to talk in the morning. He knows what he needs to do to get ready and he does it. After his morning shower, his daily routine consists of washing out his coffee mug and then going to the dryer and taking his clothes out of it. For some reason, Matt does his laundry everyday becuase I dont think I have seen a morning where he doesn't visit the washing machine. I never understood why, but I have just come to accept it. Matt doesn't dilly dally, yet somehow he is always catching the bus just in the knick of time.

Stephen.
His alarm usually goes off around 8:30. However, Stephen does not wake up until around 10:30. Stephen has an adept skill at mentally muting his alarm. Who needs a snooze button when you can do that? The song replays over and over and a morning just doesn't feel right if I dont hear it. The song is Mason's Revenge by Senses Fail if you want to look it up and get a glimpse of my soundtrack in the morning.

Jesse.
Last, but definitely not least. Jesse Bowden. To say in the least, Jesse doesn't function in the morning. He wakes up, sure. But he mentally does not check in until after his morning shower. He tends to be a little grumpy as well. Here is an example:

Me: Morning Jesse (followed by a hug from me and Jonathan)

Jesse: Don't touch me. (remains standing still and retains a nuetral expression on his face while avoiding eye contact)

Me:.......

See what I mean? But it's more entertaining if anything.

Sometimes mornings can be the best way to really get to know a person!

Brothers

I'm so blessed. Let me just get out there and say it. Shoot, I'll say it again. I'm so incredibly blessed.

As most of you know, I have two brothers- Neal and Sly. Neal is 18 and starting anew at James Madison University. When you see or talk to him wish him congrats because he just got a AV technician job over the summer for World Changers missions board! Sly is 24 and works fulltime for a company that cares for brain injury survivors. Alongside that he works with the different worship ministries at our home church, Grace Baptist. Truth is-I couldn't be any prouder of them! And I couldn't be any more blessed to have them as my brothers. It's so awesome to see the different directions that we are all going in but still knowing that our relationship remains constant. I can't tell you how much advice Sly has given me through the years. Girls, fashion, music, matching socks, and how to make toast. You name it, he's helped me through it. However, Sly did once lie to me and tell me I was a superhero. I believed him. Sly if you're reading this-I'm still a little bitter. Aside from that, he has been called to be a man of Christ and he shows that to both me and my little brother.

I have been given great roomates this year and it has been so gratifying hanging out with them and seeing how they all genuinely care for people. From the plethora of meals Jon makes for people to the long hugs given by Jesse that often prevent breathing (I pretend that I dont like them but I really do), all my roomates have such a unique way of showing love. The recent talks Matt and I have had have been so awesome. It has been such a reward growing with him these past couple of years. Stephen and I have this fun game we play called "Indian in the cupboard"....don't ask but it usually means he loves me. These guys are all so unique from odd fears of mayonaise to sleep talking in German-but that is why I love them all!

Daniel and Zack. It's crazy how alike us three are. Daniel once drove me 4 hours to school and drove 4 hours back just because he wanted to spend extra time with me and Zack is always the person in my life who drops everything he is doing to help not just me, but anyone he cares about. That and he drops sick beats. I look forward to growing up with these two characters.

All of these guys have seen me in my best times and when I've had to fix myself. You've now heard me say it 3 times now but I am so incredibly blessed to have these people as my brothers.