Monday Afternoon on the West Coast

It's Monday afternoon & I am sipping on a White Espresso Mocha outside on Park Blvd in San Diego.

There are no school assignments to be working on.
No job to be rushing off to.
No alarms set.

My degree for Intercultural Studies with a concentration in Urban Studies will be delivered in the mail in the next week or so.
Pretty anti climactic if you ask me.

After four years of blood, sweat, and tears.
Days spent in the library (or not at the library)
The less than glamorous grades & the grades I was more than shocked to pull off.
None of it matters now.
And I knew this day would come... I think I knew it a lot more than my classmates if I'm being honest.
I was never a great student, so I didn't hold it against myself that I didn't have cords when I crossed the stage.
That is cool for some people, just not me.
My cords looked like handshakes with drug dealers, finally understanding what Jesus meant when he said love your enemy, and growing up enough to know that the first boy doesn't have to be your boy.

I am an adventurer.
I am an experiential learner.
I need to walk through the fire & rain myself, not just read about it or hear about it in a lecture.

I won't always be on Park Blvd. sipping on a White Espresso Mocha with no schedule or place to be any particular time.

Very soon I will be in meetings.
I will essentially be in the real world classroom... the one I have loved, lost, and learned the most in thus far.
I will be the teacher and the student at the same time.
The to do list will look more like paying off loans, shaking important peoples hands, and placing everything a the feet of Jesus... and some grant writers.

A sweet San Diego friend of mine told me something I will hold onto for a long time in this line of work, and life in general. "If young people like you don't make mistakes, they aren't doing anything at all. So you better make mistakes."

I don't want to be like the Scribe who very flippantly told Jesus he would follow him no matter what, without thinking of what that truly meant.

But I do want to follow Him, no matter what. And I want to be at a place in my life where, even if that means I make a mistake, people reject me, or I feel alone some days on this journey, I know it is well worth it.

Now to soak up some West Coast Sunshine!