JONIZZLE

My time in the Midwest felt like a whirlwind. My first few days shivering in the Chicago cold seem like they happened ages ago, rather than a short ten days. But I guess its because I had the fortune to be placed in an environment conducive to personal growth that makes the start of my trip so distant from the end of my trip. I think its a combination of that, plus the fact that I saw so many friends in so many places that time and space seemed irrelevant. And when you don't sleep and pull two consecutive all nighters...you really do maximize life by living life two days at a time.

The most significant part of my trip was being at the LCC Retreat. More than anything else, it gave me the chance to reflect (always a plus), and through that, I believe I have figured out or restored most of my beliefs in why I am here and what I am to do with my life. In a time when many counterparts of mine are having quarter-life crisis' usually due to the "what am I going to do with my life???" question, I have been ridiculously fortunate to have a clue.

Like TAF 2007, I served as the Coordinator Coordinator at the LCC retreat. In my nightly meetings, aside from general logistics and planning, I also led studies into servant leadership (TAF!)...but based on Scripture, which I've never done before. It was pretty awesome though, for me to be able to read the Bible and see and understand clear descriptions of servant leadership, and Jesus' calling for that to be the way we all live. (It helps me to know that something I believe so much in is backed up by the God that I believe in, ya know?)

On a tangent, some of you may have heard of a book called The Purpose Driven Life. It's big in Christian literary bookstores and blah blah blah...so I read it during college. And I didn't like it at all. When I finished the book and I thought, "thats it?". I had no revelation or mindfreak. And so what I realized this past week was that, my life has already had reason for quite some time. And I learned this purpose by growing up through TAF. A place to learn and execute servant leadership.

And so, if you are a TAF camper, or an LCC Youth Group member, I really hope you can take a step back and think of how fortunate you are to be part of an organization focused on servant leadership. Just, really, be grateful and embrace it, execute it as well, and most importantly, pass it on. (btw, have you ever actually thought about how BALLER the TAF Mission and Vision statements are???)

Just imagine if everyone lived to serve everyone else, and everyone served you in return, only to make you want to serve everyone even more. Would that not be an amazing world to live in? Full of caring and compassion and love from our hearts, defeating selfishness and jealousy. Unfortunately right now in this world, that model does not always work because people can still be selfish or inconsiderate. But how can we get people to change? Well most of us are limited to those around us, to the relationships we already carry. But we can serve each other in close quarters, one by one, hoping that as we impact one friend, family member, or stranger, they will go on to impact another, and pretty soon everyone is positively impacting everyone else. And our goal will be met.

I think that is a big reason why I chose to work in mass media (ie: film), because I view this as THE medium to communicate with the world. I get the idea of servant leadership on the relational level, but someone needs to do it through methods of mass communication to reach mass audiences. Hopefully, this is a place where I can help. My goal is to make media that matters, and still serving TAF and the LCC and whoever else is in my life as I continue to grow up.

Cheers everyone, and I hope you've had a wonderful start to 2008.


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For my own posterity and for you to read if really bored, a log of my activities:

Alex and Bryan picked me up. We went to Best Buy. Brunch with Erin & Michelle S. on Christmas Eve. Train down to Springfield, Christmas Eve dinner with Mom and Cheryl. Christmas morning, pack back up to head back to Chicago with Tyler. See Katie briefly. Have another brunch with Brian and Tyler before leaving the city. Arrive at Michelle K's house. Play a lot of Wii, meet the rest of her family, especially a crazy three-year old named Joey. On the 26th, get picked up by Christina Chou. Meet fellow LCC Youth Group Winter Retreat 07 servants. Travel up to Milwaukee. See Roger and old friends and Youth Group kids. Travel up into rural Wisconsin to a snowy retreat center. For the next three days till the 29th, get little sleep, while being a Coordinator Coordinator. Pull an all-nighter on the last night doing slideshow. Retreat ends, head back to Chicago, get dropped off immediately at TAF New Years. See many many people. Too little time for that many people. Continue off to Chinatown. Eat more. Stay in a bubble tea place for many long hours. Go to Bettina's till 6am. Get dropped off at Roger's at 6:30am. Sleep. Wake up at 7am to go back to Milwaukee for church and to see my Korean kids again. Eat cheese curds. Travel back to Chicago, eat Lou Malnati's with Justin, Anna, and Ming. Finally get some sleep at Bryan's. Wake up, hang out with more TAFers, start a movie script, and finish off 2007.