long time coming

so I have been wanting to write this post for a really long time. i had thought of the idea for it but have never gotten around to it. i'm in my kitchen in texas city, waiting for my mom to get dressed so we can go to church! christmas eve mass.

on july 20, 2004, shawn best and I got off for our break at sanders pool. we went and got bases with my sister and then decided to drive to galveston because we really wanted a hemp bracelet. we drove to galveston and ended up buying two hemp bracelets together. i mean, they weren't like friendship bracelets or anything but we just bought them together and they were the same one. by the time we were done in galveston we realized that it was approaching 3 and we needed to get back to sanders asap. i think we ended up getting there at like 3:04 but there were no kids there. there were almost never any kids swimming at sanders. i think the largest amount of people that have swam at sanders while i was a lifeguard was no more than 10. so anyway what i wanted this post to be about was that bracelet. to this day i still have it on. i would like to say that i've had it on for the past 4 and a half years but i haven't. last year, i went to michigan for a volleyball tournament and they made it take it off. usually, i had put tape around it but i wanted to play well so I decided to take it off. for the very first time. i had it on for three and a half years. i've had the best years of my life with that bracelet on.

i had the bracelet on my entire senior year. if you didn't know, senior year was definitely my best year of high school. not only was I very involved and had many elected positions but I had finally found a good group of friends to hang out with. i started going to crossroad and grace and that pretty much was the foundation of my faith today. i had it on when i got accepted into texas and i knew that my life would change forever. i had it on when i was stupid and tried to play volleyball with the girls and horribly sprained my ankle and shawn and callie had to carry me one time. i had it on when i went skiing for the first time and when i went to boston and had the time of my life. i was wearing it when i graduated high school and knew that, like i just said, my life was going to change forever.

i was wearing it when i moved into jester and had no idea what was going to happen when my parents made the turn onto mlk and i was left by myself. i was wearing it when I dominated my first semester of college (3.2?) i was wearing it when i went to polar bear and was here that i found the people that i would be living with, hanging out with and loving with for the next three years. i was wearing it when i went skiing for the second time with younglife and that was amazing! i was wearing it when i got hired at camp ozark and had no idea what was going to happen. i was wearing it when my truck broke down in murchinson, texas and God totally rocked my world. i was wearing it when i went to camp ozark for a month and had the time of my life and figured out that camp is probably the second greatest place on earth for me.

i was wearing it my sophomore year when i tried out for the vball team and didn't make it (sad). i was wearing it my entire sophomore year. nothing really exciting happened sophomore year. i was wearing it when I had the greatest new years in college (we went to lucy's lakehouse and had a blast!) i was wearing it at my last early november concert in houston and that was AWESOME. i was wearing it when i decided that i was going to stay in austin for the summer (by myself) and work at westwood (worst decision ever). i wore it the entire summer at westwood, asking myself why i was there and not in mount ida, arkansas. oh well, westwood wasn't that bad, i enjoyed it i guess the majority of the time.

i was wearing it when i tried out for the volleyball team and made it! whoop! yeah junior year! i was wearing it when i started getting invited to a bunch of sorority parties and started having a lot more fun. i was wearing it when i went to michigan and then i took it off, but put it right back on! i was wearing it when i got declared MIA in MIS and was crushed. i was also wearing it late tuesday night/early wednesday morning when i effing dominated zoo tycoon and had like eighty fist pumps. (you have no idea how much that game sucked but I got my B in MIS without having to do the stupid business fair). i was wearing it when i dominated the first three seasons of lost over break! i was wearing it when i went camping with carly, chad, durant, cotton, nick brandt and phil before we went back to school (this was the best camping experience i had ever had!) i was wearing it when our vball team pretty much collapsed from the inside and i was pissed. not really but yeah. i was wearing it when i went skiing for the third time with janice, cotton, ali, russell, jeremy and devin in colorado and it was so much fun! i was wearing it when i got this small inkling inside my head that it would be cool if i went back to camp. i was wearing it when amanda neugebauer texted me asking if anyone in my house needed a sublease. i was wearing it when i left memorial on a thursday morning headed to camp for orientation and decided that it would be my home for the next three months. i was wearing it that entire three months, they ended up being the best three months of my life.

i was wearing it when i turned 21 and senior year rolled around. i was wearing it on october 11, 2008 when we beat oklahoma at the cotton bowl, maybe the single most awesome event of my college career. this brings us to today. i'm still wearing it and still rocking strong. who knows what will happen in the future! i only hope and pray that this bracelet sees many more days and years and many more awesome things happen in my life. i'm now done and this has been the longest post ever.

thanks and i love you for reading. merry christmas!
luke 2:10-11