Q - Quixotic (Chuck)

Today's post for this month's theme of people who have affected my life is dedicated to Chuck McMichael.

And Chuck gets the letter Q because someone had to get it and it has proven difficult to get everyone assigned to each of the letters. I chose the word quixotic because, much like Don Quixote, Chuck is always ready to take on the world. Even if it just beats him up.

I met Chuck in college. Chuck, like me, foolishly took on the rigors of higher education after getting married and having children. In fact, all my old friends from college were in the same situation. I think the harrowing experience of us getting together each night to lament "What were we thinking?" was the common bond that cemented our lifelong friendships.

Chuck's family and mine all lived in the same apartment building in Married Student Housing. They even lived in the same stairwell. Sometimes one of us could just yell out the front door and get the other's attention.

Because all the people in the complex were in the same basic situation (classes all day, part-time job, family life, finding time for homework, etc), we had somewhat similar schedules. Our lives did not have room for homework until the kids were down for the night, so we all kept late hours. It was mostly during those late hours that I got to know Chuck.

Stepping outside for a study break, we would sometimes run into each other. We also shared many of the same classes so one of us might wander over to the other's apartment to compare notes or discuss the complexities of a paper we were writing. However, Chuck and I both are more than happy to take advantage of socializing and often burned many more hours talking than we should have.

1998 - Chuck (on right) and I probably discussing
video games rather than our assignments

With time, our families became more involved with each other. One semester, I kept his youngest kid at my house while Chuck went to his afternoon class. We each had a daughter the same age, so they were always together at one of our houses. Being poor college students, there was always the situation of borrowing each other's pots and pans, a cup of milk, a couple of eggs, etc. We had a lot of fun struggling through those college years together.

There were other families that lived in that stairwell also, but most of them were forgotten once we all went our separate ways. Chuck's family is one of the few that stayed close. When I left school to go on the mission field, Chuck became my stateside liaison. If there was something we needed, he took care of it. He even drove five hours to pick us up from the airport at midnight when we returned to the States. He then drove us six hours to our families (while we slept) and then another two hours to get himself back home.

Once back in the States, we each made regular trips to each other's houses to visit. And there were a lot of phone calls (still are today). Chuck was one of the main people who I talked to when I was going through my divorce. A few years later, the situation was reversed and I got to do the same for him.

When Red and I decided to have a small wedding in her parents' backyard, Chuck was the first person I called. I wanted him to officiate and he was happy to do it. He is getting married this year and asked me to do the same for him. I'm on the other side of the world, so it just wasn't possible. I hate that this distance will keep me from even attending his wedding, but he understood.

Chuck has always been immediately ready to jump at whatever needs to be done to help out his friends. He has proven to be a much better friend than I could ever hope to be to anyone.

Chuck is someone who I expect to stay in contact with for the rest of my life and I highly value that relationship.

Chuck, thank you for your unwavering integrity and constant willingness to be there. I am so grateful that our paths crossed 20 years ago and we did not waste them.

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This month, I am participating in the A to Z Challenge. Each day this month, people around the world are writing blog posts and working their way through the alphabet. Each person decides their own personal theme. I am writing about people who have affected my life.

"M" is for Master's Degree

From the time I started my Bachelor's Degree to the time I received it was fourteen years. I lost my focus there for a while and even moved out of the country during that time. However, as soon as I finished (finally), I immediately started on my Master's. This one I am not getting distracted from.

Whatever life may throw at me, I will finish without interruption. On my current schedule, I should be finishing my last class in September of 2014. That will be just a few months after my daughter graduates high school. She will go off to college and I will move away never to talk to her again.

She insists that I have to tell her where I am going so she will have a place to stay in the summer time. I takes me a while to stop laughing. She hasn't yet decided if I am joking or not.

The truth is…I don't know where I'm going when I graduate. Ideally, I would like to move close to Red so we can be close enough to become a part of each other's daily routine. However, life doesn't always work out the way you want it to. Once I have my degree, I will want to start working in that field as soon a possible and will need to go wherever the work is. I don't yet know how, but I'm sure we'll work it out.

I may have graduated high school 25 years ago and am just now getting my education, but my future is starting to look exciting. I don't know where this will take me, but I am glad to be on the journey.

I feel like I am cheating with these short posts.

macrocephalous
malacissation
manganiferous
microspectrophotometries 

Now I feel a little better about it. 

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Happily participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For the entire month of April, 1,861 bloggers are working their way through the alphabet. One letter every day but Sundays for a total of 26 days.

Click here to visit the website and get more information to see if you might want to join in next year. It's a lot of fun, introduces you to hundreds of new blogs and gives your writing some fantastic exposure.

"L" is for Lincoln

Some of the best years of my life were when I was in college in Lincoln, Illinois. I know many people claim college to be their best years, but mine were not stereotypical. It wasn't because of partying. I was just insanely happy and made some lifelong friends.

Three hours south of Chicago

Lincoln is right in the center of Illinois, about 30 miles north of the capital Springfield on I-55. There are a lot of places that claim to have a connection to Abraham Lincoln, but for this town, the claim is true. Lincoln, Illinois was named after Abraham Lincoln before he even became president. In fact, he was present the day they officially named the town and he christened the town by smashing a watermelon on the town square. 'Honest Abe' practiced law in the courthouse a few times a month when he rode up from Springfield.

The town of Lincoln is home to two colleges. Lincoln College is a private liberal arts college and Lincoln Christian University which is one of the first Restoration Movement colleges (it was Lincoln Bible Institute in the beginning).

This is the school where I got my Bachelor's Degree in Christian Ministry and am currently working on my Master's in TESOL. I love this school. I briefly went to another college in between degrees, but had been spoiled for Lincoln and came back.

During the beginning years of my undergraduate studies, I lived in married student housing with my family. Like most college students, we were flat broke and wondered every month how we were going to pay the rent. We soon learned how wonderful it was to be a part of a great group of friends who relied on each other.

In the summer time, the families from the surrounding apartment buildings would pull all the picnic tables together and bring what food they had. Fifteen to twenty families would share. We cooked out, ate well and enjoyed each other's company. It was wonderful. It became an unintentional, big, happy family. We laughed and cried together, took trips and classes together, studied together, prayed together, got to know each other's extended families and took care of each other's kids.

Today, over 10 years later, I am still in contact with most of those people. A few of them I talk to several times a week. As much as we struggled, I wouldn't trade that time for anything.

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Happily participating in the Blogging from A to Z Challenge. For the entire month of April, 1,868 bloggers are working their way through the alphabet. One letter every day but Sundays for a total of 26 days.

Click here to visit the website and get more information to see if you might want to join in next year. It's a lot of fun, introduces you to hundreds of new blogs and gives your writing some fantastic exposure.

Broken Promises

I like to have my blogs posted in the morning, but this one is going up very late. It is also not the post I intended to make. In my post on Monday, I requested suggestions from my readers on topics to write about in future posts. You can look at the original post and comments left here. This idea was born as I was writing the post and was not what I had in mind when I started typing that morning. That is what I get for sitting down to write without knowing where I was going with my words. As a result of that post and the suggestions I was given, I had intended to address the first topic I was given. However, life does not always play out the way we intend it to.

I took my daughter to school this morning and was coming home to take a quick shower so I could then concentrate on writing about 'planking', as suggested by Kalen Soger in Mondays post. As I was dropping my daughter off, Kyle (my brother) called me to ask why I wasn't home. Since he is self-employed and his children are home schooled, he forgets about how the rest of us are still slaves to that infernal clock. I told him I would be back home in a few minutes if he wanted to wait for me. He did wait and was sitting in a lawn chair in my front yard when I pulled in the driveway. I sat in another chair and we just talked and enjoyed each others' company. We talked about ministry, our jobs, my new neighbors, our kids, travel and a variety of other topics. After a while, Kyle mentioned that he needed to head home, so I get up and check the time on my phone. It was 3:15. We had sat outside for seven hours. I even still had my keys, I had never gone in the house. I then realized that it was supposed to be 102 degrees today. If it did get that hot, we never noticed.

Because of this, I did not get the blog written that I had intended to write. I do not regret this. I enjoy my time with my brother and will not let this blog get in the way of my life, but I did set a personal goal to blog every Monday and Friday. To write the blog I meant to write today will take a little bit of time, so it is not getting written today. It will be posted on Monday. The only reason I am making this entry is to keep the promise I made to myself and my readers.

Here are the topic suggestions I will be tackling in the next few weeks.

• Kalen Soger wanted to hear my take on the recent fad of PLANKING. I will cover this on Monday and explain the adventure we had while attempting this new phenomenon. DONE (9-3-11)
• Shane Morgan asked what I would choose to be my last meal on earth and how would I make my decision. I haven't figured out yet, why I am in a situation that I have to make this choice, but the question definitely promotes some thought. DONE (5-23-2012)
• Adam Elliott challenged me to write about the difference in the TV ratings system over the decades and the evolution of what is considered acceptable for television. There has definitely been a change over the years.
• Jessica Patch had more of an adventure based week in mind. She suggested doing something I had never done before every day for a week and blogging about each experience. It will make for an interesting week.
• Ian Cates gave me one word, but it was a wonderful word: BACON. DONE (12-16-2011)
• Tammy Soule wants a study on how Facebook has changed the way we relate to each other. Is it good or bad to be so 'in touch'? Good question, Tammy. DONE (5-31-2012)
• My new friend from Colorado, Brandi Boddie, wants to hear more about what lead me to pursue a career in teaching. It is self-reflection time. DONE (11-29-2012)
• Kyle Minor, my brother, wants to know who would win in a fight between Mr. Rogers and Pee Wee Herman. I have been thinking this one over and it is going to require some research. DONE (12-1-11)
• Mary Stark challenged me to write a story. I have not done this on this blog yet, so it will be a change in genre for that post. She asked me to go to a cemetery, pick the plot of someone I do not know and 'weave a tale' about that person.
• Stephanie Maines wants to hear about the places I want to travel to and why. I think I could write on that topic forever.
• Jayson Ferguson is not included on the comment section because Blogger was giving him some trouble, but he sent his suggestion in via Facebook. Jayson and I went to Lincoln Christian University together about 10 years ago, and we got into more than our share of trouble while we were there. He would like me to write about some of those adventures. Jayson, it looks like some of our hijinks are about about to come to light. Now that I have my degree, what can they do? DONE (4-1-12)

You can see all the original comments (with the exception of Jayson's) by clicking here and scrolling down to the comment section directly under the blog entry. I will address each one of these over the course of the next few weeks. I may write about other things in the mean time. For instance, I intend to give my recollection of 9/11 next week and I am turning 40 on September 19. I have to write about that. Thank you to all of you who participated and be watching for me to cover your topic.

Look Out, World...I'm Back!

When I first started this blog seven months ago, I listed things about myself so my potential future readers could get to know me.  One of the items on that list stated that it has taken me 14 years to get my Bachelor’s degree.  That statement back in October was more speculative than fact, although a week from now, it will be true.  I am very proud to say that I will be a college graduate in one more week.

I never meant for it to take this long.  When I got out of high school, I went to college like most people do.  However, I hadn’t really given it a lot of thought.  I went to college because that is what you are supposed to do after high school.  I withdrew from my classes in the middle of my third semester at Rend Lake College.  I really didn’t want to be there.

I was excited to go to college at first.  I was finally out of high school and it was time to venture into adulthood, but the vision quickly fizzled when I got to RLC.  It took about a month for me to come to the conclusion that nothing had really changed.  I felt like I was still in high school.  College was supposed to be bigger and better, but the only things different were the increased commute time and number of students on campus.  The classes weren’t even harder.  What was the point?  DISCLAIMER:  I want to make it clear that I am not bashing Rend Lake College or any community college.  They have their place, but I expected so much more than what I experienced.

I definitely could have made better choices, but I was 19 and wanted to get on with my life.  I quit school, moved out of my parents house and ventured north to be with the girl I was dating at the time.  We were together for about another year before I moved back to my home town.

Fast forward about ten years and I had reached a point in my life where I knew it was time to get serious.  I was a year into my second marriage, had two kids, had become a Christian and decided I wanted to go into ministry.  The spring semester of 1998 I started classes at Lincoln Christian College (now Lincoln Christian University).  College was a whole different experience this time.

We moved into Married Student Housing and I hit the campus full-time.  This time I wanted to be there and instead of barely making it through my classes, I was on the Dean’s List.  I loved it.  It was difficult to balance the family with school and definitely challenging to find time to sleep, but I pushed through.  With the exception of one semester of part-time studies, I went full-time for three and a half years.

The summer before my senior year I accepted a job as minister at a church in San Juan, Puerto Rico.  The plan was to incorporate this job into my internship and finish my schooling through distance learning.  It may have delayed my degree by a semester or two, but I would be working in my field already.  A small delay would not be an issue.  However, things did not work out that way.

Due to a variety of issues, we were only on the island for seven months.  I will tell that story in a future blog.  None of my schooling had been started yet and we came back to the States.  After bouncing around for months of not being able to find decent work and living with my grandmother, we decided to go back to Lincoln.  We were there one semester before I was kicked out (another story I will tell in a future blog).

Seven years later I start taking classes through distance learning.  Just a class or two per semester.  I even took two classes that were on campus.  Once a week I would drive three hours for a class and then drive three hours home.  I was accumulating more credits, but it was a tediously slow process.  Finally, last November, I started full-time again.  I decided I need to get this finished and finally have it behind me.  I even doubled up on classes to get it done faster.  I took 24 hours this semester; it has been rough.

I have a few more papers due in the next week, but nothing I am worried about.  Last night I turned in a rough draft for a major assignment.  It has had me stressed for the last month, but was the last big assignment.  I have to fix it for the final paper, but the bulk of the work is done.  As soon as I hit the send button to my professor last night, I felt a huge weight fall off my shoulders.

I have opted to skip the ceremony (en absentia - LATIN: see how smart I am now) and just have my degree mailed to me, but I am attending a graduation banquet tomorrow night.  I am not interested in sitting in a stuffy room for hours after spending money for a black robe I will only wear once, but the opportunity for free food cannot be turned down.

I will finally have that piece of paper.  I started at Lincoln in the spring of 1998, so it only took me 13 ½ years, unless you want to count when I first started at Rend Lake, then it makes 21 years.  I will, at long last, be able to say I am a college graduate.  I do welcome any congratulations, but would more appreciate prayers.  I am starting my Master’s Degree next semester and would love to complete it before I retire.