A story

I read a cool book while on fall break. It’s by Donald Miller. I am convinced that I’d be for-real friends with him because we think so much alike. It’s called “A million miles in a thousand years.” It’s basically about story. Not the kind you read, but the kind that you tell by the way you live your life. It got me thinking…what kind of story is my life telling? And what kind of story do I want my life to tell when I’m at the end of it. I can surely tell you that I don’t want my story to be about a kid who becomes a dentist, serves his country for a few years, then settles down to make lots of money, buys nice houses, nice cars, and has a great, comfortable Christian life.

I don’t really want any of that. I don’t want my story being about accumulating lots of things, and then dying with nothing. If anything, I want mine to be the opposite.

“I want to live and die for bigger things. I’m tired of fighting for just me, this ain’t my American dream. Red, white, blue, and green, this ain’t my American dream.”

–American Dream, Switchfoot

I guess you could call “it building up treasures in heaven,” or something of the such. I want the story of my life to be about other people and other things: loving, helping, caring, giving, etc. I honestly have no idea what it looks like, but I know that to be part of a story, I have to be headed on the right journey. I obviously can’t help people one day if I don’t start now; I can’t love people one day if I don’t love people now; I can’t give one day if I’m not giving now.

So I guess that’s what God is showing me right now. I’m learning to truly love for the first time, and mean it. I’m learning to give and not feel guilty or greedy for doing/not doing so.

2 weeks ago, I finished my first quarter of dental school. I don’t think words can accurately describe the experience I’ve had. I’m in love actually. It is quite possibly 3-4 times harder than undergrad at ASU. All I really do is study, or think about studying. School consumes at least 6 days a week. Tests are on Tuesday mornings, so Tuesday nights are my one “free” night of the week. I rediscovered a church/college group that I’d been to before, and started going back to it. I found a group of people that I just love. It’s been difficult for me to really love things in my life, but I’ve totally gone crazy for these people. They are hilarious…and real people. I don’t find many “real” people. Maybe at summer camp (<3 wildwood), but not anywhere else. It’s good to know I’m not alone. And for some reason, they all seem to like me. I have no idea why. I must have them fooled.

I’ve finally learned something about what I’m going to be working the rest of my life. Teeth are so much cooler than I thought they would be, and so much more difficult. A general consensus would agree that millimeters are a very small measurement. I had a professor say, “the rest of your life will be lived in tenths of millimeters.” Exciting right!?!? I’m doing better in school than I thought I would. I knew it would be hard, but it was about twice as hard as I thought it would be. I guess that’s grad school for you.

Needless to say, these last 2 weeks of break have been amazing! The first day off, I drove to my beloved California and spent a week there. I got to spend precious time with my grandparents and cousins. I don’t think I’ll ever find a funnier group of people than my grandparents. Honestly, I was almost in tears for most of the time spent with them. I went a week without facebook while I was there, which is TOTALLY not me. I lost the desire to be on it so much though, which will hopefully carry on through the next 2 quarters ;)

The last week of break has been spent at home with my family and friends. It’s been great. We’ve had a sweet rock band party, hookah and fires, ice-skating, and sleeping. The sleeping was just me…I’ve done a lot of sleeping, but I’m storing up for the lack of it that I’ll be having the next 7 months. Oh well. I’m tired of typing. I hope you found something that made you smile, or at least made your heart smile. Have a good day/night/life.

-kevin