Futures

I wrote this at 2 AM while listening to 90s Jay-Z to keep myself awake so I have no idea how coherent this is or if it makes any sense, but I wanted to get my thoughts out in word form. I decided to write something somewhat substantial along with doing a few short updates due to the fact it's been over ten days since my last post.

Recently, I've been thinking a lot about the future. Few things scare me as much as open-ended answers (I was the absolute worst at doing those essay questions in high school and now). The future is one large essay question with an incredibly open-ended answer. We all have a general idea of what we want to do (most of us, I believe), but the steps to get there are wildly varied, can change at any time, and can be scary.

However, something that's comforted me a lot about my own future (along with Jeremiah 29:11) is the a thought that crossed my mind Thursday afternoon. We were returning from yet another swimming pool visit for summer camp and I realized something: lately, even more than myself, I've been thinking about/praying for/caring a lot about the futures of the kids I work with at Sacred Heart and that I encounter every day.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized my own future anxiety was brought upon by the fact that above all else, I want to positively affect the futures of the kids I encounter through teaching and the job I currently hold. I truly enjoy getting to see and interact with the group at Sacred Heart every day and getting to know a group of thirty or so strange, unique, and challenging middle schoolers this past school year may honestly be the best experience I've had in my entire life.

I can't really put it any other way than this: I love these kids. There are days indeed when I don't exactly look forward to going to my job, but they always do something to make me realize how blessed I am to have a job as awesome as the one I hold and to show me why I'm doing what I'm doing. Regardless of what my future holds, I've been hoping and praying that this feeling is one of foreshadowing, whether my future entails a teaching job in Knoxville or somewhere else. These recent developments have also helped reassure and comfort me in knowing that God has placed me at UT as an English major with an education minor as part of His plan for me and that worrying about myself kinda defeats the purpose of thinking of God as all-knowing, supreme, and loving. I suppose the main message of this is that I love what I'm doing and it's helping me to worry less about my own future and focus more on others, an idea I want to continue to apply to other areas of my life.

Serious time over for now, more or less. Here are a few updates:

• I talked recently about how my love for film has been rekindled. For the first time in a while I've begun to really enjoy taking two hours out of my day to watch a movie of some sort. With this, I found an instant contender for my favorite film of all-time: Rushmore, which I am embarrassed to admit I just watched for the first time. Wes Anderson is a personal favorite and this is his best work (yes, even better than Moonrise Kingdom). Max Fischer is also my leading contender for a true throwback Halloween 2013 outfit.
• I refuse to comment on Kanye West's new album. Instead, I will comment on the fact his child is named North West. Two things: 1. Northwest Airlines was only the sixth-largest airline when it existed (I know this solely because we used to fly NWA to Detroit). Come on, 'Ye. 2. I'm really hoping North is the middle name with Pacific being the first. Seattle needs more respect.
• The mixtape JL and I have been working in is nearing completion. We're confident it will be released before July 1. (We can't make Jay-Z compete with us, you know.) I don't remember if I mentioned it last time but it's titled A Day in the Life. We're trying to recreate this for the cover art.
• Songs of the week - five of them!
• People Get Ready, "Windy Cindy"
• The Mowgli's, "San Francisco"
• Pharrell, "Happy" (for the second straight week!)
• Cayucas, "High School Lover"
• Lord Huron, "She Lit A Fire"
• Two more good stories from summer camp in quick succession: 1. I got pushed into a swimming pool by a middle schooler last week. It wasn't too bad. Also, it was a bucket list item, so yeah. 2. These happened and they were AWESOME.
• I have three weeks left in the house known as Neverland. In terms of unique experiences, I'm never going to see something like it again. It's been fun.

Ain't no love in the heart of the city,

Will

June

I am terrible at introductions, which is to say I tried to write the first sentence of this post around twenty times and then quit. Therefore, you have this, plus a short story about how terrible I am at introductions. I'm sorry. Anyway, it's been nearly three weeks since I last posted on here, and I need to be more responsible/more consistent with how I post on here. Also, a lot of cool things happened in the last three weeks that maybe deserve to be written about, or not.

• Catholic school summer camp is the coolest thing ever. My coworkers are incredible people (especially the ones I've just met since camp started) and the kids are way too much fun to be around. I have a cool story or two to share, starting with:
• Bryson, this shy, quiet, and awesome little kindergarten kid who has large glasses and may or may not be Will in training. On the second day of summer camp, we went to a rollerskating rink (the first time I've been in such a thing since middle school, and yes, it was terrifying), and while essentially everyone had rollerskated at some point in the recent past, Bryson never had. He gave it a shot on his own but fell down pretty quickly and grew discouraged. After prodding him (for thirty minutes...literally me at five years old), he finally agreed to go around the rink with me a few times, as long as I held his hand and made sure he didn't fall. We did this for over an hour, and after we finished, he hugged me and said "that was fun." My boss told me that when he left that day, he told his mom that he loved rollerskating. This was the best moment of my May. God is blessing me in incredible ways through this job and it's amazing.
• The day before, I was assigned to watch the kindergarten class and I met this sweet little kindergarten girl named Isabelle. She was terrified to meet anyone and spent most of the first hour of the time we knew each other asking me when she could be with her sister (a first grader) again. She started to cry, and while I'm usually pretty terrible at the whole "consoling" thing, the varied and spectacularly embarrassing stories of my youth seem to connect well with people at work. I told her about how I walked into the girl's bathroom my first day of first grade at a new school and we laughed about that and other stories for quite some time. She has several friends now at camp and she gives me hugs most days. Again, my job is awesome.
• We went bowling last week and I was verbally abused by four second-grade girls, one of whom I have dubbed Sassy Sarah. (She has given me the name Weird Will. It fits.)
• Last summer camp story: I came up one day short of five full months into 2013 before I had to buy sunscreen. Yes, I'm embarrassed.
• If you follow me on Twitter, you've probably seen an uptick in movie-related tweets as of late. That's because thanks to the following wonderful people (hat tips to Hunter, Matt M, and friends), I have seen around twenty movies in the last ten or so days. Therefore, I present to you one of my finest achievements that isn't an achievement at all, Will's Official List of Decent or Better Movies Seen Recently:
• "Elephant" (2003) - 10/10
• "Stand By Me" (1986) - 9/10
• "Badlands" (1973) - 8/10
• "Raising Arizona" (1987) - 8/10
• "The Departed" (2006) - 9/10
• "Once Upon a Time in the West" (1968) - 10/10
• "Machete" (2010) - 6/10
• "Fargo" (1996) - 9/10
• "Good Will Hunting" (1997) - 9/10
• "Almost Famous" (2000) - 9/10
• Dishonorable Mention: "The Purge" (2013) - 0.5/10 

• The only redeeming quality of "The Purge", other than an absolutely hilarious scene late in the movie, is the fact that of all places featured in the opening scene which shows different shots of crimes around the country during the "purge", the one and only Murfreesboro, Tennessee is featured. This is less than two minutes into the movie. Unfortunately, 83 minutes of pure suck follows.
• Some of you may know that my friend, JL, and I, are making a summer rap mixtape. I have been asked two questions about it very frequently. The answers are yes, it is very real, and with any luck, it will be out by the end of June.
• 1 Peter is incredible. I read it for the first time after senior year of high school and it hit hard then, but I'm revisiting it now and it's still just as great of a read and study.
• This is your song of the summer.
• Tennessee Lady Vols softball forever.

Our first single is called "Am I Black Now?",

Will