Day 2

Day the second brought relatively few major surprises. I had class all day, and I guess the only surprise that came out of that is that I managed to remain awake and [more or less] focused throughout all of them. I never fall asleep, but today I didn't even feel sleepy, which is quite the feat for the 8:00 AM, one hour twenty minute class.

This evening I had dinner with my best friend, and though not surprising, it's always so wonderful when we get to spend time together to just talk.

After dinner I trekked over to Ytterboe lounge for Thursday Night Bible Study, where I had the opportunity for the second time this week to use EasyWorship to show lyric slides during worship. There were only a couple minor surprises during this, mostly in the form of unexpected typos (which, really, isn't bad, given the nature of Thursday Night's last minute song selection–I didn't get the set list until 45 minutes before the start of the show), but it went well overall, so for now the plan is that I'll probably run slides every week, at least until someone else gets trained in on it. It's a good feeling to know that, not only will I get to use my talents each week, but I'll get to use them for something useful that's truly being appreciated.

Oh, I suppose there was one noteworthy surprise during Thursday Night: my laptop came unplugged when someone moved a couch over the floor outlet, so I unknowingly was running the show from battery. It lasted fine, but for a longer presentation there might have been issues.

It seems more appropriate today to reflect on a key phrase I read in chapter 2, page 28: "This story doesn't have an ending yet, but it almost never had a beginning. It was a split second away from never happening at all. These thoughts humble me." Terry wrote this in reference to a his conversation with a man he met while bicycling; I'll leave the details for the book to tell, but the moral is that something extraordinary came as a result of Terry's decision to pedal slower and talk with the man rather than simply blow past him on the road. And it makes me wonder, how many opportunities have I blown past? How many people have I not gotten to know because I thought I should be in such a hurry, or I was too intimidated to take a risk and talk to them, perhaps because I thought "I'm not good enough, I have nothing to say that they'd care about hearing".

When I think about it, that very nearly happened with my best friend. Freshman year, we were sitting at nearby tables in the Caf, and I sort of wanted to go over to talk to her, but I didn't know her well at all, and I thought I'd just look like a creepy fool. Eventually we caught each other's eye and she straightforwardly asked me "well are you going to come sit with me or not?" Of course I went over, and from that night a beautiful best-friendship was born. I can't imagine how life would be if Ashley hadn't taken that risk.

And so my resolution has solidified itself in me: I don't want to miss those new stories when they come passing by. It's so awfully stereotypical, you know, that whole, "take life by the horns" metaphor, but it's apt here. I want to take a healthier, non-worrisome approach to life: if I want to compliment someone I don't know on a job well done, if I meet someone new and want to get to know them better, if I want to skip doing my homework one night so I can spend that time with friends instead, I want to just be able to do it without caring if other people think it's weird. And I want to look forward to the surprises God has in store for me on the way.

Whether I'm actually able to follow through on this, who knows? But what a great ideal to aim for. I have no idea how long I'll live, might as well use these spurts of unreservedness to make the most of it.