Thanks for a good time ’09… You have a lot to live up to Twenty Ten

Without a new “High School Musical” movie debuting on the Disney channel or in theaters one may think 2009 would have been a year doomed to mediocrity. Thankfully for me ’09 was a very good year… I want to list just a few “Lessons Learned” in 2009:

The first few months of the year I spent a good amount of time planning and preparing for my last summer with efy. As with every year efy was a blast. This summer was special for many reasons, the team, the counselors, the youth, the numerous miracles and so many other things made me feel very good about how my career with efy ended. It’s slightly weird to no longer be an active part of efy. Over the last five years I have put a large amount of my time and effort in hopes of helping to improve the program and those who would be a part of that program. Now I’m left with a lot of brightly colored polo’s that I will never have the desire to wear in public and that I don’t have the heart to throw away… So what is one of the lessons I learned from efy this summer? Oft times I’ve questioned if I can be the type of person that can throw his whole heart into things such as relationships, friendships, a career, etc. My time with efy has clearly illustrated that I can throw my whole heart into those things… It’s just a matter of finding the right fit.


With the passing of Michael Jackson this summer I heard and read many individuals on news programs, the internet and radio stations explain that Michaels passing is a reminder of how fragile life really is, and what really matters most in our lives. In my mind his passing more clearly depicted how fickle people can be. For the past 10 years or so I remember Michael being less talked about for his music career and more for his changing appearance, legal and financial trouble. He had been often mocked by people who would later be singing his praises after his passing. So what’s the lesson? Even if you are the butt of every joke and constantly being mocked today… it’s possible that one day people will be going crazy for you, even crying over you. (And if you are like Michael you might have a seemingly disproportionately large number of Asian individuals crying over you.)

Getting ready for my final year at Utah State Dru Brown and I decided to live in the same apartment… We found a place that already had two other guys in there; we signed the paper work and planned to move in at the start of the school year. On the day we were moving in we found out that our apartment manager had moved Dru and me to a totally different apartment with two individuals we had never met. Understandably I was a little ticked at the situation… it wasn’t what I had agreed to or prepared for, and certainly the manager had to be breaking some law by changing our contract without any forewarning. Yet as the semester progressed I began to have fun and enjoy this group of roommates just as much, if not more than any I have had. (And if you know how old I am you understand that I have had a lot of roommates.) Therefore what? Even when you have every right to be ticked that things didn’t play out as the contract you signed said they would… It might be for the best.

So those are three little lessons from ’09… And what lessons does 2010 hold? I’m not sure but I’m excited to find out…