Humbled
I have been humbled by a lot of things recently. And as always, I needed it. I have been pretty high on coming down to San Diego in hopes that I could find a job quickly and a place to live. With my wedding coming up in less than five weeks, these were all good things.
Unfortunately, the economy has thus far proved tougher than I expected. As a man, I feel the need to provide deep down inside of my loins. I think it is something that is inherent in every male that they feel the need to provide and generate some sort of income (aka win bread). I think this is true whether or not we have a family to provide for.
Therefore, as I look forward to getting married in 34 days, I feel the need deeper than ever before. As I moved down here to San Diego, I thought I would have more control over my destiny. But with day passing rapidly by with no job, I feel more and more helpless. The economy has vacuumed the jobs out of this country.
I have been humbled. But alas, I will move forward. I will pick myself up and keep walking. Its like Abraham Lincoln said, “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.” Or Robert Frost put it a different way, “In three words I can sum up everything I’ve learned about life: it goes on.” These next five weeks will go by slowly and quickly, but they will go by. After that time, I will be married, whether I have a job or not.
I could not be more thankful or blessed by my situation now, in spite of the fact that I am jobless. In the least, I am fed. In the least, I am sheltered. In the least, I am loved.
Where are you headed?
My life has been a whirlwind over the last couple of weeks. Within that time period I have taught my last lesson as a snowboard instructor, packed up my stuff at the mountain house and moved out to San Diego. Along the way, I got to spend Easter with a lot of amazing people at the Miller house before driving down to Phoenix the next day.
On my way to San Diego from Phoenix, I got stopped by border patrol (to make sure I was not hiding any illegal immigrants). They proceeded to ask me, “Where are you coming from?” and “Where are you headed?”
The answer to the first was pretty simple and though I gave the easy answer for the second, it really got me thinking, where AM I going? I am getting married in less than six weeks. SIX WEEKS! I am in San Diego right now with the intention of finding a job to support my bride and myself, and then I am to find a place to live.
Up until this point, this all sounded pretty simple. I knew that it would be tough, but I think I am finally seeing the amount of work it requires and the raw emotions that go into it.
The part that scares me the most is that I do not feel in control of my life right now. I have always been a ‘planner’ and have each step of my life carefully planned out with some larger vision. Right now I am struggling for a vision. What am I doing here? Am I supposed to be in San Diego looking for a job? Why? Does God have different plans for me right now?
There, I did it. I mentioned God’s plans for me. Does anyone else get a weird feeling when talking about “God’s plans” for us instead of our own plans? You see, I am comfortable trusting myself, but I have a hard time trusting an all-powerful being that I cannot see, touch or feel. Ironic, eh?
This is a time in my life when I have little to no control. Whenever that happens, it brings me crawling back to God. It happens every time. And every time I learn to trust God for what he has in store for me, but as soon as I get control back into my life, I do not need Him anymore. I hope that this time around it sticks. I hope that I can learn to depend on God when I have things under control and when I do not.
Right now I am stuck in a hard spot. The only thing I really have a peace about is the fact that I will be marrying Lindsey in such a short period of time. I know that with her support and our faith in God, we will be just fine. It all sounds so cliché, and those of you who know me know that I hate clichés. Yet, clichés are clichés for a reason. I hope and I pray that I will discover God’s plan for Lindsey and me over the next couple of weeks.
Walk Slowly.
Here is a quote by Abraham Lincoln: “I walk slowly, but I never walk backward.” This is what it means as I try to do something new every day. It is not as if I am trying to do something monumental with every breath I take. Instead, I simply never want to stop learning. By doing new things every day, I am always learning and always growing as a human being. Most days the things I do are minuscule, but then there are times where I will do something new that will change my life forever. These are the days I believe we all live for.
February 25: Went and read at a new park in Winter Park for the first time today. It was a beautiful day outside, too beautiful not to take advantage of it.
February 26: Somewhat came to a conclusion that I want to pursue accounting for the first couple years of my career. This is a first for me in the sense that I feel at ease about it. Should I pursue getting my CPA, I will be able to use that in any sort of field that I want for the rest of my life. So if I ever want to start my own business (a dream of mine) or if I want to work in non-profit (another dream) or if I want to start my own non-profit, accounting will serve me well. I can use the skills I acquire these next couple of years for the rest of my life.
February 27: Got to go snowboarding with my parents for the first time this entire season. It was a grand ol’ time! I got to give my mother some pointers on the snowboard. Let it be known: she has superb form snowboarding!
February 28: Getting married 3 months from today! Also, I watched a rematch of the Muhammad Ali-Joe Frazier fight tonight for the first time. As Generation Y we hear about these legends, but we hardly ever take the chance to go back and watch their greatness. I now understand why Ali has the reputation he has today.
Making up for Lost Time
Sorry for the lack of blog posts over the past couple of weeks. In my priorities of life, social media and the interweb take a back seat to face to face interaction with the people I love.
Over the past two weeks I have had the opportunity to go to Phoenix to spend some time with my beautiful and loving fiancé. Then, this past weekend Kanakuk Colorado invaded Winter Park. Well, at least the guys side of K-CO did. We had sixteen guys up here on Friday and Saturday night spending time in communion with each other. I am positive that these times are the elixir of life. Without times like these and friends like these guys, life simply would not be the same.
I am prayerfully thankful for the people in my life, starting with my fiancé, my family and my wonderful friends. I could not ask for anything more. But in the light of my missed posts, here is a list of the new things I have done over the last couple of weeks.
February 9: Got to see the place at which I will be married on May 28.
February 10: Met with wedding photographers today for the first time and ate at El Zocalo, where the rehearsal dinner will be.
February 11: Took my valentine to Sassi tonight for an early Valentine’s day dinner. She is so beautiful!
February 12: Not anything spectacularly new today. I got to spend the whole day with my lovely bride-to-be and in the process fell in love with her deeper. And with her, every day is a new day.
February 13: I flew on a plane on Friday the 13th today and didn’t die. That’s a first.
February 14: Taught a level 4 lesson in snowboarding today. This means I get to goof off with my kids all day and take them down tree runs and blue runs! How exciting.
February 15: So today I turned a downhill corner a little too quickly and successfully completed six fishtails in a row. Never again, hopefully.
February 16: Spent the entire day researching jobs to apply for in San Diego. I have a feeling there will be many days like this in the future.
February 17: First time I have attended an overtime hockey game. I was really hoping that it went to a shootout, but nonetheless, the Avalanche pulled it out and scored to beat one of the worst teams in the league.
February 18: Took some skills tests from one of the employers I am looking into. Truly, it was probably the first knowledge tests I have taken since the SATs and ACTs.
February 19: Bought plane tickets to go on my honeymoon!
February 20: Truly was the first time that we had more people staying at the mountain house than we had beds. That’s awesome!
February 21: Laughed way too much at dinner with all of the kamp guys. Unbelievable night.
February 22: Was one of the best days of actual riding I have had all year. I got to board with Sam Duregger and Jamie Norman for the first time today.
February 23: I had only two kids in my lesson today. One was the best kid I have ever had and one was the worst kid I have ever had (in terms of attitude). Today was the first day I have had to call a kid’s parents to tell them to come pick them up. He had such a poor attitude that he could not do anything without crying. Also saw Slumdog Millionaire for the first time tonight. One of the best movies I have seen in a long time.
February 24: Ate at the Star of India here in Winter Park for the first time today. They have an all you can eat lunch buffet! Also, I am pretty positive that half the Indian restaurants in the United States are called “The Star of India.”
February 8
First time I have been lectured and yelled at by two hicks on a snowboard mountain. Story:
I was teaching a ten year old girl today who had been snowboarding for a grand total of four days. She was making very methodical turns and very slow turns across the mountain. As a more hesitant child, she wanted to learn how to do something correctly before doing it quickly. Needless to say, I thought she was doing a great job, even though she was going slow and cautious.
I was approached by a couple as I was stopped waiting for my student, when they told me, “You need to learn how to teach your students to look uphill before going across the hill.”
EXCUSE ME! She is a ten year old girl who is trying to learn how to snowboard! Beyond that, YOU are the uphill skier, not HER! The responsibility code of the mountain states that the uphill skier is responsible to watch out for the downhill skier.
Being completely unreasonable, the couple continued to argue with me. At one point, the man said, “We have been skiing longer than you have been alive!” I wanted to tell him that I highly doubt he had more experience on the snow than I did and that I am a trained snowboarder and I know the rules of the mountain. Instead I just told them both that I refused to dignify myself to that ridiculous argument any longer and I went back to teaching my lesson.
I felt so bad for my student, as she was criticized by two strangers and did absolutely nothing wrong. The moment they began attacking her, I became very defensive. I could not believe that two grown adults would claim to be such good skiers, yet not know the rules of the mountain. I told them that if they did not want to deal with beginners then to get off the beginner slope. It is not as if she was going to fast for them to go around her.
Okay, I am done with my rant. Please note-the uphill skier is responsible for watching out for the downhill skier. But then again, you probably already knew that.
February 7
Performed a flatland switch backside 180 today. Dope dawg.
Domain Change Now!
adamanto.net is now adamanto.com
February 6
Taught two Kenyan boys how to snowboard today. They were the adopted sons of some medical missionaries living in Kenya. Very neat.
Also, I was informed of the yodelling exclamation point on the Yahoo! homepage. If you click on the exclamation point, it yodels!
