Christian A Cappella Conference (Wait, that's a thing?!)

Hopefully I'll come back and edit this post later...

These Are My People

Hi y'all.

Hope y'all are having a good week. Did y'all know that I'm in North Carolina? Should I say y'all a few more times just to prove it? Here, how 'bout this, made by a couple of the kids in my group :D

So basically it's finally Spring Break, and we're on tour with Under Construction, the Christian A Cappella group I sing with. We've only been here a couple days, so I don't have a ton to tell yet, but shall we just say that I looooove the South?

Rocking chairs on back porches. macaroni and cheese, the accents, baked beans, all the churches, fried catfish, country music, warmer weather, pie, and friendly friendly people. It couldn't get better.

Take today after our second gig for example. We finished around lunch time, so we went to a nearby "Southern Cafeteria" for lunch. It felt like going out for ice cream in Utah after Priesthood session! Lines out the door, everyone wearing Sunday clothes, talking with total strangers, I guess this happens every Sunday there. The only family I saw not wearing Sunday best was wearing camo instead. It made me very happy. It's going to be a pleasure singing for these people for the next week.

The squad, enjoying our first Southern sunset

Ethan, our group's logistics manager, with his incredibly kind parents who are lavishing us in Southern hospitality

Loved the sign

Found sitting by the sink :D

Family portrait of Ethan's neighbors who are letting us use their house that they just moved out of

Straight outta a country song :)

We're givin' this life everything we got and then some
It ain't always pretty, but it's real
It's the way we were made, wouldn't have it any other way
These are my people

Air Power!

Detachment 365 on a Wilderness Survival Leadership Lab. This was the day I contracted.

Today I want to address a huge aspect of my life that I've only briefly mentioned so far.
Being an Air Force ROTC cadet at Harvard is not normal. In fact, out of my class of roughly 1700 freshman, 4 of us do AFROTC. Here we are at this week's joint Military Ball.

From left to right: Dom, Nadine, Christie, and yours truly

ROTC across all the military branches is fairly small at Harvard. So the local Navy, Army/Marine, and Air Force detachments are all based at MIT. Once a year we all dress up, get together for a fancy dinner, toasts, and a guest speaker. This happened Friday night.

Other than occasional bigger events like that, our weekly schedule involves two early morning PT sessions, an Air Force Heritage class taught by an current officer, and a hands-on leadership lab run by the 3rd and 4th year cadets. This week that was handgun training at MIT's pistol range. In the past we've done everything from marching drills to guest speakers, from career fairs to airsoft in the basement. Every week there is a new set of military knowledge to have rote memorized, and new chances to practice teamwork and leadership in action. I love it. It honestly often feels a lot like the "initiatives" from adventure racing. 

But enough about the program itself, here are my thoughts on the whole thing. 

1. It's a win-win in so many ways. They help me with school, AND I get a guaranteed job when I finish. Going to the schools we do makes our detachment special within the national ROTC organization, AND doing ROTC makes us special within our respective schools. (This has been evident to me when applying to things like the astronomy club within the school, and for scholarships and summer things from ROTC. I mean, I'm going to Jump School!!!) I get a legitimate excuse to live the "early to bed early to rise" life-style I like, AND stay fit. I get whole new group of down-to-earth, good kids as friends, AND an excuse to visit MIT and get off campus every week (that's a bigger deal within the "Harvard Bubble" than you might guess)
2. It's funny how similar to a mission it is in a lot of ways. So much of it is run by the older cadets, not the adult officers. Getting stared at for the uniforms. The emphasis on obedience. The comradery. Oh and the acronyms and jargon. I've been at it for 6 months and still get lots in POC's, OPORD's, COB's, ABU's, etc. Even the emphasis on "recruiting and retention" haha
3. I'd say my detachment on average is more "conservative" than our ward. Maybe that's just because of the schools and neighborhoods my ward draws from, but it's something I wasn't expecting
4. Two of my best friends here do it with me. Kevin, who I had the privilege of baptizing last semester, and Christie, with whom I also did Harvard's preorientation backpacking trip, and now do all my math problem sets

   

I could go on, but it's past my bedtime, so that'll have to do for now. The one thing I didn't put on the list, because it felt to big to go alongside all those other things, is that I'm proud to be a part of ROTC because I grateful to be an American. I get these moments when we all snap to attention for the national anthem or a visiting general tells stories of unsung heroes, or when I squared my arm and swore to support and defend, "so help me God". Moments where I'm just grateful for a higher cause to my education, grateful to represent a nation full of so many good people, and grateful for the chance I'm being given to make a difference.

 

"Be the best that I can be,

'cause freedom don't come free."

Sunday Afternoon

I'm sitting above the fast whining road
Everyone's moving, they will not be slowed
I'm sitting inside the vast college dorm
Everyone's grinding, cuz that is the norm

Where is the silence? Where is the peace?
This day is for rest! Relax my friends, please!
A day to delight in fam'ly and faith
A day of respite from a blistering pace.

I know because those are the things that I felt
When today in the chapel I broke and I knelt.
Prayed for Oh God, the Eternal Father above
To remember our promises, made out of love.

Then partook of the emblems so simple and pure
And shared with my friends, enjoying this cure
Direction, confidence, forgiveness and zeal
They burn in my heart, and I know that God's real.

And so I choose to make time for my God,
I know that I'm blessed against all the odds
I'll give time to my family, to service and prayer
It's an honor do so, for I know He's there

Climbing on Monday with my friend Sam

This year's annual Waltz and Shmaltz at Wellesley

Kevin and Sydney post-shmaltzing 

My new and decorated room!

The Waterfall Effect

I have this analogy that I use sometimes when I'm trying to describe how I feel. Mainly in moments where there's a lot to be felt. I first came up with it almost exactly one year ago, on the airplane when I was flying from New Zealand to Utah to report at the MTC.

I've heard a person's mood described as water before, calm and reflective or choppy and agitated. But sometimes there's just so many feelings rushing through you, so raw and powerful, that it can only really be described as a waterfall. And at that point, when someone asks you how you feel, you can try to stick a spoon under the waterfall to get a sample, but no matter how far in you put your spoon, when you pull it out all you have is a numb hand and an empty spoon.

I'm thinking about this again, because I've had some waterfall moments this week. As I mentioned, it's been exactly one year since I got home from my mission to Bulgaria. Maybe that's not a big deal for anyone else, but it sure is for me. As I was leaving my mission, I made myself goals for where I'd be in a year's time. I've lost the sheet of paper, but I remember the general feeling. I didn't even know where I'd be in a year! I had no idea what my plans were for that summer, what school I was going to attend, what I was going to study or with whom I'd be spending my time. Now I know. Here's a brief review of my year in pictures.

February I arrived home

   

    

March I did a once-in-lifetime roadtrip with the squad from high school

April I permanently moved out, visited Germany, checked out Harvard and ended up in Utah

May I moved to California with Danny and started selling pest control

June and July were spent working, exploring, and making lifelong friends

August I made the road trip back by myself (Danny was already on his mission) and flew out to the East Coast for a weeklong backpacking/canoeing trip before school started

September I started classes, ROTC, dating, and everything else that comes with college life

October and November I learned stuff

December I survived my first set of finals and made it back to New Zealand

 

And after one of the best summers of my life in New Zealand, I'm back at school again, still trying to learn stuff. Also trying to figure out summer plans. More updates on that next week probably. Unless anyone wants to throw some much needed advice in the comments? Jump School at the Air Force Academy or a Russian study abroad program in Kyrgyzstan? Work and study in Utah or go home to New Zealand? They're all too good to be true.

Maybe I don't have a good answer to how I feel now. But knowing that I thought the same thing throughout this year, and now look back with nothing but gratitude I can give a resounding amen to Trace Adkins...

"You're gonna miss this. You're gonna want this back. 

You're gonna wish these days hadn't gone by so fast. 

These are the good times, so take a good look around. 

You may not know it now, but you're gonna miss this."

Noisy

Noisy. It's one of those words. You know, the ones where if you say it enough times in a row you start to wonder whether it's actually a legit word or not? Is that really how it's spelled? What a weird combination of letters!

Noisy. Noisy. Noisy noisy noisy. Noisy noisy noisy noisy noisy noisy.

Am I right? Maybe? Okay, I realize you may very well think I'm crazy right about now. So we're just going to move on. I picked that title because a lot of the highlights of my week have revolved around making - or actively not making - noise.

On Monday night, Harvard played Boston College in the semifinal round of the Beanpot, a hockey tournament that's been going on here for almost 70 years. It's a big deal. Big enough that they played in TD Garden, which, Wikipedia just informed me, is the largest indoor sports arena in New England. And guess who sang the national anthem? That's right, we did! Under Construction, the a cappella group I sing with, was asked to open the game.

Pretty sweet, even though we ended up losing 2-1. I've been singing with Under Construction since last fall. We're "Harvard's Premiere Christian a cappella group" and the people I sing with and opportunities we've had to share our beliefs through music have been one of my favorite parts about Harvard so far. Here's some more pictures; like, follow and subscribe ;)

Other moments related to noise this week:

• Ward temple trip - silence
• Auditions for Harvard's cultural rhythms - noisy
• Standing at attention in this semester's ROTC opening ceremonies - silence
• First week back at our regular post-church LDSSA dinners - noisy
• Lots of grinding out the homework - silence
• Interfaith worship service with guest speaker Chaz Smith (the "watermeLONE guy") - noisy
• Visiting a Quaker "meeting of friends" this morning - silence

It's been another solid week. They just fly by. My quote this week is from my favorite country artist - name the song for bonus points ;)

When this world gets crazy
And tries to break me
And I had all I can stand
I can close my eyes
No matter where I am
And just be still