I Don't Wanna Be Together, I Don't Wanna Be Apart

First off, I would like to point out that the "Geography Theory" proved true with the North Carolina Tar Heels claiming the title last night with a 75-70 victory over Illinois. I don't know if I will attempt to expand it to other sports, but I kind of like the idea of bringing it out once, batting 1.000, and then putting it back on the shelf.

So much has happened since I last wrote, so I will try to provide a day by day recap. If you don't like that format, well tough dice.

Friday: In order to take my mind of the end of voting and the impending counting of ballots, I went out to dinner with Cole, Jon, Heather, Cris, Alex, Brooke, Lyndi, and Erin at Chili's. As I was riding back to campus with Erin, Layne Rouse (current SA President) called. When I answered the phone, I thought that Layne would go into this long schpiel about the inherent value of the democratic voting process and I would be left wondering for a while about the outcome of the election, but Layne was all business and told me that I had won. I turned to Erin and mouthed the words "I won." This was probably not the best thing to do for multiple reasons, two of which I will explain: 1. She was talking on the phone to Heather and screamed when I she saw what I said. I am sure that Heather thought there was either a wild animal in the car or one of us had just found the body of Jimmy Hoffa. 2. When people get exicted while driving a car, they usually swerve a bit. Let's just say that if you are in Tahoe, you want to minimize the chances of flipping a vehicle, and I was thinking that my days as SA President were going to be very limited. After that, we went to hang out at the Llama (the house, not the animal) with some celebratory ping-pong.

Saturday: Early wake-up for a Saturday and off to Austin for formal. Heather and I rode with Cole, Brooke, Erin, and Jon down to Austin. We had formal this year at The Oasis on Lake Travis. Let me just say this: Even though I had already decided that I want to live in Austin at some point in my life, walking out on the deck at the Oasis confirmed that it shall come to pass. I will not argue about this. Formal was incredible (great job J-Gay) due to a great setting, a great club video, and a great hypnotized performance by my date, one Miss Heather Norman.

Sunday: After spending the night at Lance Agan's ranch house, where I shared a futon with Jake Roseberry and Brandon "Sideshow Bob" Maenius, we loaded up and headed back to A-town. Sunday was mainly filled with studying for a Con-Law test and Quizno's Sunday with MT, The Mayor, The Dizz, Jawsh, J-Gay, and Jonny Heintz.

Monday: Back to the grind, but there are new things on the horizon. I have already enjoyed having so many people come up to me and tell me about things that they want to see happen on campus. I have begun to carry around a yellow legal notepad to take down their ideas and record their names so that I don't forget in the midst of everything. Layne and I had a really good dinner last night as we began to talk about the transition that will be taking place in this next month from his administration to mine. The fact that I will be working with two other Executive officers like Melanie and Tyler with one year of experience under their belts is invaluable. I think this year will be incredible and I cannot wait to get started.

That is the end of the travelogue. I know that it is a lot less captivating than the travails of Sal Paradise and Dean Moriarty, but I do what I can.

Current Listening: "Use Your Voice" by Mason Jennings.

One of the things that Layne and I talked about last night during our discussion about mentoring and the process of transition was the idea that people love salvation but hate discipleship. We want to receive Christ's free gift, but we really don't want to be stretched and changed. I guess I cannot get away from this idea of costly grace. It runs after me even when I want to try to make my salvation cheap. What does it mean to embrace the process of transformation that is fraught with times of pain and confusion, but leads to something that far surpasses what we could ever expect? In our society we are so consumed with the product, that we often forget that the process is equally important. We always use the metaphor of a journey or walk to describe the Christian life, but all too often we do not think about the individual steps we take as we head to our ultimate destination. Today, embrace the struggle, enjoy each step, and keep your eyes forward on the goal.