10 Things I've Leanrned at Southeastern

It's been awhile since I've blogged, but here I am. For Christian Thought, a class here at Southeastern, and our final was to write 10 things that we have learned over the year. So this is it. Some are funny, some are deep, and some are both. These 10 things are still in rough format because I wrote it an hour before class started haha!

1. Good Parking in Valencia
The parking in Valencia is amazing, most of the time. During regular school hours your already parked so you don’t have to worry about finding parking, but even if you do decide to leave, is you come back around 4:00-5:00 there is always parking. Unlike Aventura, Esperanza, and Destino, where you have to rely on luck constantly to get any kind of decent parking. Valencia is also very quite and peaceful, away from the rest of the school with the great view of the (now empty) mobile home park.

2. Southeastern is safe
I’ve come to the realization that southeastern is a very safe place to be. Not only physically, with the well trained and well armed staff of young security guards, but also spiritually. By this I mean that we really don’t have to act out our Christianity here. Most everyone one here is a Christian, and usually always happy. I mean how could you not be in a good mood when you’re walking around a beautiful campus like Southeastern’s, with background music, none-the-less! We are practically forced to go to Chapel 3-4 times a week, and are even given a bedtime. I’m not stretched here. Maybe it’s a good thing at this point in my life, but I don’t know if I want “good.” I think I want the lost, the desperate, and the hurting. I need to be pushed and stretched. I’ve gotten lazy here.

3. I want a cleaning lady when I get older
I do not take advantage of the wonderful cleaning ladies that we have. I appreciate everything they do and always great them each day they come in with a smile and a thank you. I love not cleaning! Maybe it’s selfish and a bit wasteful, but as long as there are desperate women with desperate families trying to do all that they can to feed their families I will employ them.

4. Not cleaning your plate is not a waste
I know that the statement is a double negative, but I think it’s the only way to get the point across. Just because I don’t eat all the food on my plate doesn’t necessarily mean that the children in Africa are going to starve. Though they are hungry, it’s a direct result of me not eating my food. If I am served more than I can eat, and I don’t eat it will be thrown away in the garbage, or as some like to call it “wasted.” But if I am served more than I can eat, and stuff it down my throat because I don’t want the children in Africa to starve I’m still wasting that same food, it just ends up in a different place.

5. With freedom comes greater responsibility
Although being away from home has its perks and pleasures, I really miss home. I don’t enjoy paying bills. I don’t enjoy grocery shopping. I don’t enjoy paying for my own meals, and buying my own clothes. I really don’t enjoy caring for myself when I’m sick! “I don’t wanna grow up, ‘cause I’m a Toys ‘R’ Us kid!”

6. Chartwell’s gets really old, really quick!
The Tuscana Ristorante is an amazing place, and when you first come here it adds so much to the experience, but over time the excitement that makes your taste buds numb to the food, soon wears down. Once you’ve stood in the sandwich line 100 times because everything else usually taste like it was frozen the night before, you soon get tired of them. Although, I have never been let down by the cheeseburgers! It’s the unhealthiest thing there, but still the best tasting, which isn’t saying much.

7. The older you get the more you realize you don’t know anything.
The more I learn the more I realize I need to learn more. Everywhere that I go, I learn something. Everything experience I have I learn something. Every person I meet I learn something. This just tells me, that everything that I do will teach me something, which tells me that I really don’t know a whole lot.

8. I really should read more.
I’m really not the person that loves to read, but every time I pick up a book, and actually finish it, number one: I feel very accomplished and good about my self, and number two: My head is flooded with so many ideas and feelings that never would have been there if I hadn’t read that book. Books is gooder than T.V. (Grammar error on purpose).

9. I really love music a lot.
I’ve always been a musician, and have always loved music. My dad was a jazz pianist in the Gainesville area, and he talked me into playing bass with him when I was 10 or 11, and when I was 12 I was gigging with him bars all across Gainesville. But recently music became really old and stagnant. Worship music began to lose its passion, and I thought it might be because of something tat was spiritually wrong with me. But through the differences of everyone on campus, and playing with a million different bands and churches and listening to everybody else’s favorite music and jamming in my room with random people and clothes friends, I have rekindled my love for music.

10. I really love God a lot.
Everybody has his or her ups and downs. Everybody plays with the idea that God doesn’t exist. I’ve had the most incredible struggles with God this past year. I loved him with all my heart and forgotten him like a sock behind the couch. But through everything, no matter what, no matter if I acknowledge him or turn a cold shoulder, He is still there. If I walk down the wrong path, and get stuck and call out to God knowing He won’t be there, I feel His hand grab mine, and pull me to safety.