| | "When you pursue your personal legend, all the universe conspires in your favor." ~Paulo Coelho [paraphrased]
I realize that I have been truant in regards to my xanga . I should let you know I will be continuing in this pattern, but if you can handle the long delays between posts when ever something exciting or interesting happens I will be sure to update you on it. This post will be dedicated to my summer, which was busy, but awesome.
I returned from my last semester in Korea to North East Pennsylvania on July 1st. I spent a week at home and during that time I met up with my friend Jeremy for some taco bell action. Going to the States for the summer is officially a weird experience. It's always a time for processing of the past year, and reflection, but also a time to form personal goals for the coming year. I bring this up now, because dinner with Jeremy was the beginning of this process for me through out the summer, and let me just say it was a magnificent summer for reflection.
After that first week with my family, I returned to the first summer camp I ever worked at, to spend a week as a counselor again. Dude, it was so amazing! It had been 5 years since I had last worked there, and just getting out there and doing camp again was so much fun. The staff was great as well, it so refreshing to see Camp Hebron still producing quality staff. To wrap up the week that last weekend there was the 50th reunion of all the summer staff, where there some serious legends coming out of the wood work. Revisiting that period of my life was really rejuvenating for me. I was fortunate enough to have to of my closest camp friends ever be working there, Ben and Rodney, and that was definitely one of the highlights of my summer. I miss how much we tease each other, laugh with each other, challenge each other, and encourage each other. Those are good people
 
From there a group of us [Stauffer, Curt, Phil, and Ondeck] from Ship
met at Hebron and headed to New York City for one of the greatest
concerts I have ever been to in my life...DISPATCH!!! We weren't able
to sit with each other so we all got meet new friends. From there, I
went to Brooklyn and spent the weekend with Griffis. We went to see
Mama Mia on Broadway and then went to dinner and the Brooklyn Bridge,
it was a great time.
Ok, so here's another interesting thing about coming back to the states
for the summer, I feel like a tourist. I am not returning home, but i
am visiting the USA! With that in mind, I decided that no matter what
the circumstances I was going to go see some things in the US that I
hadn't seen yet, so I borrowed my mom's van and went to Maine, alone.
I went to Acadia National Park and watched the sunrise on the US. Let
me just say that place is gorgeous, I really miss the majesty of the
nature the states while i am out here in Korea. While in Maine, i
toured the park, and ate lobster. The morning I watched sunrise was
gorgeous, but then it started to rain and didn't stop for the entire
time I was on my road trip, the thing was, it was still amazing. From
there I went to Vermont and saw the Ben and Jerry's factory, and then
from there I went to New Hampshire and had dinner with my friend Jimbo
from Camp California, so great to see him again, a walk down memory
lane for sure.
 
After my New England road trip, I went to Stauffer's house for the
night where we started planning out our sailing world tour. We also
went for ice cream and apparently some girls there at the ice cream
shop thought we were so good looking that we were gay. The next day we
went to a pig roast back at Camp Hebron; they roasted their pet pig for
the summer, it was hilarious. The day after that I drove to Ship and
had lunch with the Kosers and the Keenes.
The next few days were with the folks, but I had dinner with the
Skinkers, from there we flew out to Kansas City for a family reunion.
The first of it's kind...ever! Some of the cousins there I had never
met before and the others it had been maybe 10 years since I had seen
them, it was wild. Unfortunately I was sick the whole so spent the
first half of the reunion in bed, but the last day I was well enough to
attempt to be social. I loved seeing my brothers! Then I packed up
and a day later, on August 1st, I departed for another year in Taejon,
South Korea!
[I tried to upload some photos of this but it wouldn't let me, sorry about that]
So it was a profound summer of reflection. It's interesting to think
about how people view you in different places, and how well that person
is accepted. Once you made a reputation for yourself, it's pretty
tough to shake it, that's for sure. One thing I realized this summer
is that I am stepping further and further away from religion with each
passing day, and this is something that's not easy for some people to
grasp. In contrast, each step away from religion is one step closer to
spirituality, but even still some people will not see this as a good
thing, and will not understand why I wish the same for them. I have
also realized that by taking these steps that my life and faith must be
exponentially more proactive. I need to be a living example of love,
above and beyond. I have seen what happens when you step away from
religion and closer to spirituality with out being proactive, and let
me just say it has an appearance of hopelessness and depravity. But if
I am going to be displeased with the world, I had better be prepared to
change it, or at least try to. I think your faith is defined by how
proactive you are in it. I know that was kind of a heavy shift from
the rest of the post and if you have questions please feel free to ask,
but there it is. Those are my reflections and goals that arose from
the summer
Thanks for the prayers, keep it real!
|
| | Posted 8/5/2007 3:05 AM - 51 Views - 20 eProps - 12 comments
- recommend
  - recs0
- share
- email
 - sent0
|
