This is me re-orienting myself to the blogs

Here I am one year later, back on the blog. A year ago I was learning in Oxford what it meant to have an identity of your own and crossing the bridge of procedural knowledge into constructed knowledge (props to Dr. Kluthe and Dr. Martinek). Now here I sit today with this new found knowledge of who I am, how I got here, and why I am going where I am going, and a whole new lesson has developed. This past year away from the blog I have learned an entirely interrelated and yet very different lesson on community. Now I could weasel my way out of my lack of blogging by saying that this lesson on community kept me away from the computer and in an intricate web of social event after social event, and though it would not be far from the truth, it would leave out the many other factors including no internet access, lack of inspiration, and, plainly, sheer laziness that also played into it.

So here I am on what I consider the down hill part of my lesson in community ready to share. I moved out of the dorms last January and into a one bedroom apartment with a friend, Kate, while three of our best guy friends moved in four doors down. After three years in a private room in McCormick, I was in for a huge rollercoaster ride. First you need to know who the players are, hence the picture. We have (from the top in clockwise order)Timmy, Eddie, me, Kate, and Josh. First Sunday in the new apartments everyone agrees to carpooling for church. Before Kate and I are even awake, we hear banging on the door, it opens and there is Eddie bringing us breakfast in exchange for hair gel. From this point on a series of events unfolded that would challenge us and bring us far too close together. Our community operates on a few principles:

1. The Lord gives and He takes away, this has led to a no complaining or guilting policy.

2. What is mine is yours. We have communal cars, money, food, and every everything found in the living room or kitchen.

3. Love others and treat them as you would want to be treated. This policy has had its up and downs. The boys tend to take people in from the streets, no questions asked. Let's just say this hasn't always worked out, but we have learned a lot from it.

So those are the guiding principles of what we have been working towards. I have to say, I am pretty impressed where we have come though. When I came into this living arrangement, I thought that we would surely help each other out and have fun, but now it has become something far greater than that. When cars are broke (which they have all been at some point so far) we all chip in to fix them, when there is no food we pool our resources (and if that doesn't work we call Mrs. Udell our Joplin mom), if someone is in trouble everyone drops everything to help. Sure there are times when we all fall short of what someone expected from us, but the five of us have a bond now that is not only centered on our faith but a true love for each other.

Now our community is growing! We have nine new community members that moved in this year and six that lived there already and joined the ranks. Last night we had an option of four meals for dinner and were able to not only take of each other but other friends that were just visiting. I am so impressed with the way that this has turned out. It started out as a small group and has grown to a larger group and now that group has the resources and connections to reach out to others. It has taught me so much on the value of community and how important it is to the growth of an individual. Not only must we have an awareness of who we are and how we developed into that person, but we must know how to use that within our communities and to build communities. Each person within the community I live in now has a special talent that they have discovered while working together and we have learned to accept each others gifts and each of us use them to accomplish our goals. Working together to develop your talents brings a far greater richness than sitting at home trying to figure out what you are good at. When you fail, people are there to pick you up and encourage you and even point you in a direction they see you excel in that you may never have noticed. So as I step down from my soap box, I have this to say about community. Get into one. Do not sit through college without finding a group which you identify with and can grown in. We are all scholars and therefore have academic goals and priorities, but do not wait until graduation to begin to use the things you have and will learn. Jump in now and test the waters. You might be nervous what you are jumping into, you might get exhausted treading, and heck you might even drown ( I have done it all). BUT if you let the fear of any of these things hold you back you will never learn to swim.