Moving forward, its my personal goal to create a whacky theme for these blogs but I think for now I am going to just let this space be a space to invite you, the reader, into everything that has brought joy to me in my past month here in the great city of Raleigh, NC.
Hello all far and wide, truly what a time it is to be alive. I am gonna pat myself on the back real quick for that nice, unintentional rhyme. It was not too long ago that I decided I was going to take an unorthodox path out of college and do something called the “Fellows Institute”. There were a few (maybe you’re reading this) who honestly were worried about my sudden impulsiveness to leave where I had been for the past 16 years. I will admit it, I was worried as well. It really didn’t seem that bad until I realized it was going to be an 18 hour drive to migrate from home home to this new home. To me, that meant I was going to be missing a lot of things back home. But alas, I wanted to experience something different and felt as though the Lord was creating a path to go down.
Before I go further into my past month, I would just like to take a moment. For those of you who may not know this about me, I love those whom I get to spend life with outside of my family dearly and see them as family. It has been a great joy while I have had a moment away from these people to realize how true that statement is. Wichita boys and girls back home and my YL people near and far from home, if you’re reading this, please know that you guys are constantly on my mind and in my heart and not a second goes by that I don’t miss having y’all closer.
Anyways, let tune back to me now. I really wanted to place a simile here to paint a picture of this past month but honestly I can’t even form the words to describe it (maybe something will come to me later). This program and the experience it offers can vary depending on what city you end up in. In Raleigh, a few things that are at the center of the experience are:
The Church that is partnered with the program: “Church of the Apostles”, which has an Anglican denomination.
As a fellow, we get to volunteer in church operations in many ways and also get to be a leader for the youth group.
An involvement in a local non-profit organization: “Neighbor to Neighbor”, which gives a fellow an opportunity to mentor and form a relationship with youth who are struggling in school.
A job to work 3, 8-hr days (Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday), that lines up with the fellows degree.
A host family that quite literally has a “whatever is mine, is yours” policy
A mentor figure from the church to be able to form a relationship ship with and maybe learn a thing or two from
A buddy from a previous year to just be a built-in tour guide and friend in the city
A set of teachers to instruct classes and assign homework in order to stimulate the growth of not only spiritual, but emotional, physical, and mental health. They also provide us with further depth of knowledge in what the text of the Bible truly has to offer us.
A community that is constantly praying and fighting for you
Daggum, that’s a pretty long list, huh? Maybe this is dramatic but it quite honestly has felt like the busiest time of my entire life being here. Everyday has something that my time promises to invest in, and it has been a strategic battle to be able to have enough time for the things I love to do and for the people I want to reconnect with and check in on. I am unsure, but maybe that’s what being an adult is really about: having things constantly battle for your time. Those who are older, let me know if you nodded your head aggressively at that as you read it. Through all the busyness though, many things have stood out to me over the past month. “Thank goodness, he is finally gonna start talking about his month". I know that’s probably what you are thinking but please stay with me, I just wanted to give people some background.
My month started with me being the first fellow to arrive aside from the one that already lived in Raleigh. I arrived a little early so it was about a whole week until the other 8 fellows I would spend the next 9 months getting to know showed up. When I showed up, I was greeted by my host parents (The Tisdale’s), and got to receive an initial taste of how awesome these two people were. Julie and Shea Tisdale are two people who love each other very well from an outsiders viewpoint. Their marriage is one that is very authentic, and has been a joy to be around. I think a unique thing about each of them is Julie’s contagious laughter and passion for things, and Shea’s desire to enjoy life for what it is. Spending time with them has had great meaning in my first month here. Another thing I got to experience was the sense of community that flows from the church and the program. Upon my first visit to the church I got to meet mostly everyone that has a hand in running the operations of the church itself. This led to questions of who I had already met and then statements of who I should meet. Later on Sunday, that expanded from church staff to churchgoers. In a church body of over 500 (guesstimate, don’t @ me), everyone kind of knows everyone and everyone kind of loves talking to and meeting everyone else who doesn’t already know everyone. As someone who’s naturally shy but loves conversation, this has been a hallelujah moment and another thing that has brought great joy in the month I have been here.
Moving on to my other things that I have found a great joy in this month, once the other fellows arrived we got to embark on an “orientation retreat” at the director’s (Ashley Crutchfield, she’s the GOAT) lake house. I would just like to get it out of the way right off of the bat, that the two jet skis that Ashely has at her house brought an immeasurable amount of joy to my life. Now that’s out of the bag we can move on to talking about those who I get to spend most of my days with. Although there was some awkward beginnings, the retreat we went on was a time where friendships started to develop and blossom which has also been a source of great meaning this past month. My class is full of people who have good humor, are sports lovers (“go tigers”, as they say in Clemson, but more importantly “Dawg if I got a cut on my arm, I would literally bleed purple and gold”, as my friend Neil says about his Baltimore Ravens), are people who always want to be active, who have a generally amazing concept of “fun”, who have amazing fashion, and who have full hearts for the Lord and His kingdom. Along with my class, there are plenty of other fellows from the previous years of this program that remain in Raleigh, and who have been a treasure to get to spend time with. Shoutout specifically to Richie Rojas who is an absolute goon and enabler of enjoying life. All of these people have been an amazing source of joy over the past month.
Being able to learn while I have spent time here has also been a joyous thing. You can tell that each teacher that has signed up to teach us a thing or two about our faith journey has a deep heart behind what they take an hour and some change to talk to us about each week. Its been something that is a love/hate relationship because of all the reading that has to be done before each class but next time we get a chance to catch up, feel free to ask me about what I have been learning!
Pulling a 180 on this ol thang, I have also had an opportunity to be a teacher to some youth while I have been here. I tutor a 5th grade girl on Mondays in math, and have gotten the opportunity to be a leader/teacher/whatever you wanna call it to guys who attend our church youth group and are in 10th, 11th, and 12th grade. Both are things that were new experiences. Let me tell you, straight up, the girl I tutor absolutely despises math. I mean she HATES it, ask anyone who sits next to us. But all that hate for mathematics aside, it has been a cool experience just to be someone who’s in a position to teach and inspire to the youth, especially to the youth who need a little help catching back up to their current grade level. The other new experience I mentioned was youth group which is wild. Being involved with YL for the past however long, it was a foreign concept to me to have a ratio of leaders to kids be under 1:10. Its literally like 1:2 in this church I get the privilege to lead in. Getting to know kids has been a lot harder as well, but I think I am primed up to not be saying that next blog update. More time = more connection, ya feel me? Both these things in their wackiness and newness have been bringers of joy.
Last but not least, it has been a great joy to be employed. My process took a bit longer than the average fellow and so I missed the first two weeks of work on the schedule since I simply did not have a job yet. In those two weeks I got to help the church do a few odd jobs and pull weeds for that guy Richie I mentioned earlier, it was awful and looking back I really wish I would’ve used gloves. But alas, you live and you learn. You ever wonder who coined that term? That guy or gal should really be getting some coin for that. Anyways, yes I have a fancy schmancy engineering job now and actually got to work my first work week this past week in a “no jeans” office. Talk about a rough policy since I literally only own two pants that aren’t jeans. To be completely honest, as this summer was drawing to an end, engineering was not my favorite thing in the world. If I could restart my college career, I would totally go back and just instantly declare I was going to be a physical therapist. Who knows, maybe I go to med school in the future. For now though I am so burnt out of taking notes for things. Anyways, my point is Engineering can be a really weird time. There’s a certain culture that can spew into a workplace where everyone is just doing whatever they think is right and would never listen to anyone else’s opinions on how to do something differently. Talk about frustrating. Its only been one week but so far the company I work for (Kimley-Horn, look em up), has been nothing but awesome. In a relatively large office space, people have been so refreshingly welcoming and made me feel as though I am valued on the team, even though I literally have to be taught everything I am doing. Again, its only been a week, but so far its brought me great joy to be able to have fun in the office and I am looking forward to the months ahead. Can’t wait to see how I feel in the next blog.
I think that’s everything I wanted to say in this edition of “Were Not in Kansas Anymore”. I apologize for literally writing a novel on this casual Friday but I hope I provided enough valuable text to give you an insight into how my past month has been. Moving forward I promise I will try and make these things shorter, I just have a tendency to ramble on about things. I can assure you though in this one sentence, it has been a great joy to be out here in this wonderful city of Raleigh. Attached below are some pictures I thought would be fun for people to see and maybe help support the preceding sentence in proving its point.
So I actually lied, there was one more thing I wanted to talk about before the pictures of me having fun. Also I swear I have had more fun outside of the one weekend at the lake but I just have forgotten to take more pictures. I will be better in the future. Anyways, I bet you people who actually took the time to read this, (I totally understand if you just skimmed, no worries), are wondering how you could pray for me. What a truly magnificent wondering that is! In consideration of your prayers I would just like to ask for these areas to be prayed for:
Confidence in my ability to mentor to those I have been voluntold to in the area.
Continued enjoyment in my new job and for natural moments to arise in the workplace to talk about the Lord with others. I already had one that was kind of a nice surprise and would love for more to follow.
A welcoming to moments of pause and reflection in all this busyness.
Trust in what He is doing and what He is building.
Eyes to see all the behind the scenes things He is doing and to see all the joy in his creation.
Me and da class. So much love for deez peeps. Also pretty sunset.
Me and the fellow boyos of my class catching the most exotic fish on the market, that is Neil. Also pretty sunset.
Me and my friend Emily pictured with the most incredible, joy-giving, man-made creation of the current era of time.
That is all for now. Thanks for reading.
May He bless your month of October,
- Alec