Vein of Gold

  

Aloooha!

Woo! First blog post of the new year. I meant to do this last week... And the week before that, but uh... I guess all that new-year-new-me (or maybe new-year-new-homework-load...?) hype got the best of me. But it's cool. Things have calmed down and I'm feelin' good about... Well, just about everything right now. What better time to jot a few thoughts down, eh?

So! First off. Winter break 2k15: three of the best weeks of my life. After taking a step back, reflecting on everything that happened the last semester, evaluating my goals, values, and ambitions, looking optimistically toward the future, and going on a few adventures on the side, I felt rejuvenated. And hey... When you have the chance to do all that 2,993 miles away from home, all the better, right?

There's something absolutely magical about the Hawaiian islands. It's something more than just the warm weather, the rainbows, the trade winds, or the ocean. It's the spirit of Aloha. People are good and kind to each other simply for the sake of being good and kind to each other. It's similar to something I saw in Africa... Ubuntu. I heard Ubuntu described as the idea that "I am because of you," or "people are not people without other people." It's beautiful. Imagine... Everyone in the world recognizing that their own well-being depends on the well-being of others. Even if just one person, one "animated, empathetic action" at a time, could realize this, the world would be a better place. A world like that is a dream, really, which is actually a great lead into what I wanted to brush on next...

This past weekend, I had the chance to go down to St. George with Braiden Childs and Shandon Esplin -- two of my very best friends from mission. The Singh family, one of the families Braiden and I both served around, were in town visiting their daughter's family. With this being their first time to the States, Braiden's family offered to show them some of southern Utah's natural wonders. ("Family" count in the last two sentences: 4.) What with it being January and all, boating at Powell and hiking the Grand Canyon were out of the question, so we ended up taking a drive up to Zion and Bryce Canyon. Man... The red rocks covered in snow were a beautiful sight not just to our South African friends, but to us as well. Getting to catch up with the Singhs, their lives, and the happenings in the Stanger branch in such an environment? Wonderful. Pure joy. 

One of the best parts of the trip was the time in the car chatting with Braiden and his dad, Kevin. The four hours or so we spent in the car were filled with deep conversations about everything from politics, to dating, to... Life. I can't remember exactly how, but somehow we ended up on the topic of college. I think we had been talking about Bernie's free college platform or whatever. Kevin pointed out that in some ways, college is already free. Whether that's through scholarships, Pell grants, federal financial aid, or wherever else funding may come from, there are not only people out there that are willing, but people that want to invest in your future. Take just a moment to appreciate that. There are people that are excited for you to follow your heart and find success in a time in your life when you have the complete freedom to do so. In light of that, wouldn't you want to take advantage of as many of those opportunities as you possibly could?

As the conversation went on, we started talking about our ambitions. If anything, Kevin reinforced something I've been slowly realizing the past couple years -- following your passions will make you much happier than forcing yourself to do things you don't enjoy simply because you believe they'll make you "successful." I think we discover ourselves one small moment at a time, and as we were driving through the middle of Utah, Kevin described those moments as "veins of gold," using the national parks we were visiting as examples. Every once in a while, we'd see something on the drive that was simply breathtaking -- a vein of gold. The veins were brief. If we weren't watching for them, we'd miss them. If we were racing through the park too fast, they'd be out of our sight sooner than we'd see them. It's interesting how similar life is. Our veins of gold can be the things that make us happy for a brief time, but more often they're the things that bring us satisfaction and fulfillment. When we find those veins, we can't take them for granted. They may be people, ideas, or moments, and it's up to our each of us individually to make sure they stick around. 

Over the years, I've learned to trust my feelings. I've learned that the things that bring me joy are the things I want to do the rest of my life. I've learned the people I'm happiest around -- the people that inspire me to be the best person I can be -- are the people I want to surround myself with. I don't know exactly what I want to be when I grow up, but I have a much better idea now than I used to. I think I've learned all this because, whether I've been aware of it or not, I've been following those veins of gold. It may sound... Naive, perhaps, coming from a junior in college, but I feel like the sooner each of us can learn to follow our passions, the sooner we'll be able to find satisfaction in life. 

Find your veins of gold. Recognize them. Go after them. Work for them. When you have other people and organizations that want to invest in your following them, let them. When your education becomes more than just the next step to take in life -- when it becomes an opportunity to chase your dreams and aspirations -- it becomes much more rich and meaningful.

Yoh... All of this makes me excited for the future. It's like 2:09 AM though, and I'm shooting to be at work at 8, sooo... Probably should wrap up here for now. I think I had more to say, but I guess that'll come another day.

Much love and aloha my friends.

Dizzy