Goood Morning campers! The ticket window is open! (My Philly friends will remember those words from "Bubba" John Stevens)
The
opportunity clock went off at 4:30 this morning but I was already
awake. Don't know what woke me up but there I lay...caught between sleep
and awake, and the bell rang once again. This morning's schedule
is...Math for 2 hours followed by work all day then come back and work
on a paper for my class on the book of Daniel. I have to do a full
exegesis on Daniel 9:27...the prophecy of the 70 weeks. It's my final
bible class and the first one where I had to do an actual line by line
exegesis of a passage. I'm looking forward to it. Sometime tonight I
have to draw plans for a couple of decks and a carport.
I have no plans on going out tonight and now you all know why.
This
has pretty much been my schedule since February first. After this
weekend I'll be caught up enough in Math that I'll feel good about going
back to the gym in the mornings. I'm looking forward to that.
No
one has asked me yet, but I'm sure somebody may be wondering so I'll
answer a question here..."Why are you writing this 30 day journal before
graduation?"
Well the answer has a few facets. First of all I am
pretty sure I will be the first homeless graduate of Liberty University.
Technically I'm not homeless anymore but I was until January. That
means that of the 6 semesters it took for me to finish my degree, I
completed five of them while living in my car. When you are enduring
something like that you don't see it as inspiring or character-revealing
or whatever. It's just a humiliating grind that you wish wasn't true
and you want to get away from as fast as possible. But once the finish
line is in sight, and you have hung in there and made it through...you
begin to appreciate the path you just walked and you see how others can
look at you and be inspired. So I'm telling my story because I know...as
sure as I'm sitting here...that there are people out there who had to
bury some dreams at some point in their lives. Maybe it was finishing
the degree...maybe it's starting it in the first place. Maybe it's
starting a business or losing weight or taking the plunge and getting
married. Whatever it is, I'm hoping more than a few of them find this
blog and read about my own very difficult path and say "If he can do
that...I can do my thing too". I hope so. I hope I get a few more emails
and tweets from people (I've received a few already) who decided to
enroll at LibertyUOnline (or another school) because they heard about
me.
Let me interject a sidebar here...I was a resident student at
Liberty University for two years so for me, the decision to finish there
online was natural. But if you are considering a school...especially an
online option...please consider my alma mater. This road I trod to get
my degree was NOT easy and I was frequently of ill humor as I battled
the joy-killing grind of homelessness. I never told anyone at LU about
my homelessness until this last semester because I didn't want to use it
as an excuse, so there were times I snapped at some poor adviser and
they undoubtedly had no idea why I was so cranky. But without
question...every single person I dealt with at LUOnline was as helpful
and kind and truly concerned as they could possibly be. They really
approach this from the perspective of having a burning desire to see you
all the way through. They want you to graduate.
My other hope is
that people will see my struggles and be encouraged to endure in the
everyday grind. Some people have dreams that have nothing to do with
returning to school or finishing an education. For some it might be a
career change or a personal change or whatever. But I hope they'll
see--underneath it all--that God enabled this journey. I could not have
survived what I went through without the grace and strength that my
faith provided. Paul says "His grace is sufficient for me..." Sometimes
sufficiency means overflowing and sometimes it's just enough grace to
hang on one more day and not give up and become tragic. For me, most
days were the latter until this past year. Since August, when the goal
moved into clear view and the finish line was plain and it was apparent
that I was actually going to graduate, my hopes have been higher than
any point since 2007 when I lost my home. Hope is everything! I want
people to read this journal and take away some hope. Listen...I've taken
courses in Bible, U.S. History, Creation Studies, Anatomy and
Physiology, Algebra, and Life Coaching. As valuable as all those classes
were to me, the lesson of hope was equally important. Maybe even more
important. With the hope of graduation came hope for other successes as
well. If I can do only one thing for the readers of this blog, I want it
to be bestowing a little hope on them...on YOU. This has been the
hardest of journeys but I would not have it any other way. Exactly 28
days from today...two hours from the time I write this...I will file
into Williams Stadium to begin Commencement Exercises. Sometime around
1PM I will assemble with my classmates from the School of Religion and
take the walk. The walk that concludes at Liberty Mountain...where it
began, half a lifetime ago. I learned as many lessons along the way as I
did in the classroom. But that is tomorrow's story. Factoring
Trinomials beckons...
Until Tomorrow...
Craig...
Class of 2012 (In case you forgot) :)
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