Face Reality

"It's been one of those days
and everybody's on it everybody's on it

here comes the rain
the boys and the girls are coming inside
walking past the gate if i hurry i can get home in time
i love my house

it's been one of those days
and everybody's on it everybody's on it"

~ ATHLETE - One of Those Days ~

That sounds rather harsh, but no worries, nothing horrible will be unfolding in the post below. I've just been thinking an awful lot in the past two days about where I'm at and where I'm headed.

For the last 8 months of my life everything has been building towards a single date: May 11th. We accomplished the unthinkable... we opened a brand new store while keeping another store running at full force. It's been an amazing experience. (I'll post more about all that later on... hopefully there will also be pictures :D) I have little doubt in my mind that I found the job I was always meant to have. I look at all the random hobbies, skills, classes that made up the 23 years preceding and can see how they all came into play during these last months. This move has called on all my skills personally and professionally. (Am I really old enough to have "professional" skills?)

I feel as though God lead me down a road as twisted and hilly as the turn off you take to get to Sugar Bottom's Disc Golf course. And looking back I now see how both the failures and triumphs have gotten me here. Wow. Who am I to have been so blessed in this way and at such a young age.

For the majority of my "adult" life I've had one consistent prayer that is always included amongst all the others:

"Lord give me the knowledge to see the path you're laying out for me,
The stregth to walk down it,
And the faith to put one foot in front of the other on the days I've lost my way"

And let me tell you..... He made good. I knocked and the door was opened. I asked and He provided.

So if there's any advice I can offer to you, all my friends out there graduating or just looking ahead... trust Him. Follow Him down the road that feels right even when you can't read the map.

This brings me to the second half of my post, where to now?

Now that the store opening has come and passed it's time to start looking forward again. Talking to my boss it sounds like I'm going to be transferred to another store within the next month or so. This is sort of bittersweet, having just put everything I've got into this new store and knowing now that I'll be leaving it. I'm surprisingly ok with it though. I'm ready for that next adventure, that new challenge. I've proven that I can do the first half of the job. Now I have to prove that I can do the "people half." Now I want to show them I can be a leader and a coach and a good manager.

So here I sit on my front porch in the rain letting my mind wander...

This is the first real summer rain. Where the air is humid all day and then when the clouds break the rain is warm but the breeze has a bit of a chill to it.

I miss my dog. I miss bringing her our onto this porch in the rain. She'd sit by the ledge with her nose in the air discovering all the new scents brought alive by a fresh rain.

It's time to leave my parent's house. It's been great and I'm so thankful they let me come back and I haven't had to struggle to pay rent and bills. But now it's finally time I move on.

I promised two years ago to fix the chair I'm sitting on and still haven't done it. It's an Adirondack style chair I built in high school wood shop class. I took the class as a senior because unlike most of my friends who packed their schedule with AP this and honors that in order to get into the best school, I was accepted into Iowa by the beginning of October and wanted to relax and enjoy my senior year. I knew the wood shop teacher from the brief time he was at the middle school and then again when he would lend a hand for theater productions. I was his "handy Thiel person." So senior year Matt and I were in his class with all the usual wood shop trouble makers and he basically let us build whatever we wanted. It was great.

I should make Angie another mix cd. I wonder if she's gotten the last ones I sent to her.

I need a real vacation. And someone to go with me on this trip. I want to take an actual trip. Maybe another country? Highest on the list is probably Asia. Maybe Japan, or Thailand or China for the Olympics? Europe would probably be easier though. Maybe I can arrange to meet Angie somewhere on her next leave. It would have been nice if I'd had the time to get to Spain.

Not only is it time to leave my parents house, but probably also Illinois. I need a new city. When my boss and I talk about my transfer I'll have to pick his brain about where he thinks the best opportunities are.

That's all. The wind has definitely shifted to being cold and the shorts and t-shirt which felt like almost too much when I came out here are now not doing enough to keep out the chill. Sorry about the lack of structure towards the end. I just haven't posted anything in so long and I figured it was as good a way as any to share some of the random thoguhts I've been having lately.

I'll try and get pictures up of this new store I keep mentioning. It's seriously so great I want you all to come visit it. Maybe that 120 hour, 11 straight days leading up to doors open was worth it after all :D