Grateful

Lately I have been unable to blog due to my over scheduling and excessive working, football, and school, but have decided to come back to something that I truly enjoy, expressing myself.

A couple years ago, when finishing up my senior year in high school, I was undecided on where I was going to be attending school. I was planning on going to the Air Force Academy to participate in track and field and play football for the Falcons but little did I know then, that God had an entirely different plan for me. I was recruited during the summer before my senior year, thus leading me to a trip to Colorado Springs to visit the school. When I arrived I was in awe of not only the beautiful campus, but of the structure the school had. There was a certain aroma to the place that I knew I could not find anywhere else, and I wanted that. I wanted to be the kid who left his family, went on to do great and successful things, and around 10 years later would come back, grown up with hopefully a wife, a very steady job and continuing to work within the Air Force. That structure seemed like the best way for me to reach the success and goals that I wanted to achieve in life. I felt that with the discipline that I would have learned there, the schooling I would have received and the opportunities presented to me after graduating were of the highest prestige and was best suited for me.

To make a long story short, I was planning on going to the Academy until the day that I officially got cleared and accepted (a week after I had graduated high school). The problem was that there was a file they had received from me and had misplaced for several weeks, thus pushing my acceptance back and unfortunately (I thought for that time) being admitted 10 days after they had given out all of their appointments available for that year.

Lucky for me, God had a different plan. He knew that I did not need to go there and that I needed to be elsewhere.

After I had finished up with the Air Force ordeal, I decided to look elsewhere and to my benefit I was presented a spot on the University of Utah's football team and I accepted. Through football I have learned determination, discipline, and hard work much like I would have at the Academy. I now have a job, at Cafe Trio, where I have met many great people and developed some great relationships that honestly has helped me grow up a little quicker (maturity wise) due to the fact that the average age of employment is around 28 there. Oh, and I am obviously a student at the University of Utah currently going for a degree in sports management and a minor in computer science.

Lastly, God has also done some amazing things by introducing and putting certain people in my life. I thought, going to the Academy, that I was going to be surrounded by Christians and great opportunities to help me grow in my relationship with God, but through the people God has placed around me, I continue to grow here in Salt Lake. I was apart of the creation of Utenited (read below) and now have the opportunity to share my faith with not only fellow Christians, but with non believers at my work and on the team.

To sum this entire blog up, I have come to realize how grateful I am of not only Him, but of everyone that I have learned from, experienced things with, have grown to love:


*I am grateful for my sister, who even though I do not give her enough credit, is an awesome person who cares for me so much. She wants to be apart of my life and help me in any which way she can while most of the time I am too arrogant to accept things from her. Thanks Jess ...

*I am grateful for my parents who would do anything for me faster than Usain Bolt can run a 100m dash. They are willing to give up anything for me and at the same time already have. They accept me for who I am and I am officially grateful to call them my parents and to say, with my heart, that I truly love them. Mom, you are so much fun. You can make a bad day great by the smile you wear on your face and the energy you have. I can see why Dad married you and you are everything I want to see in my wife not only because you are a woman of God, but because of the person you are and the person He has made you to be. I mean, I come home and all you do is spoil me, you want to be around me, spend time with me .... You even stay up in the late hours of the night showing me new stretches to help with my flexibility. I do not mean this in a bad way, but you are almost 50, and I will never be the athlete you are. What an inspiration. Dad, Brian, I will always look up to you as a person of influence and love. Through all the years of you coaching me with sports, you not only helped turn me into the athlete I have become today, but have prepared me for life and to be the man I need to be. I envy your complete honesty and faith in God and strive to be that person every day even though I may not agree with some things you say or do the things I should do.

*I am grateful for David and Gretchen Figge. Not only are these two the hottest couple in Salt Lake, but are also some of the most influential people I will ever know. They both have an amazing heart for God, and for the people that surround them. David is so blunt with me whenever he needs to be and at the same time is there for me and supports me in what I do. Gretchen is full of love and wisdom. She may be very petite in her physique but at the same time may be the strongest and most graceful person at least in my life.

*I am grateful for my brother Jaron. Jaron, why are you so much smarter than me!!??! Even though he may be my younger brother, he intellectually is so far ahead of me but still will not be as good looking as I am ;).

*I am grateful for Miss Micky. Despite our ups and downs in our friendship, I have come to appreciate the person you are and the woman you will become. You have such a drive to get things done and be the best at everything you can; something I see in myself sometimes. The difference is that you strive to be the best at all that you do and I admire that. You have a wonderful heart, great personality, and many talents that God has blessed you with which helps you strive to reach your full potential through Christ. I also see how much you have grown in the past year and the struggles that have come about in your life but always seem to conquer. You may not know this but you help me strive everyday to be the person I need to be and who God wants me to be.

*I am grateful for my close friends from high school and football. Dallas Holbeck is one great friend and at the same time one great human being. Dallas, you know how to have a good time and how to turn any bad situation into a good one. You are upbeat and on your toes looking for the best opportunity present. Jop, Shelby, and Mook unfortunately have to put up with me as their roommate but have also displaced me up front so I do not have the chance to bug them very much. ;)

*Baylor and Ben Robie ... I do not think there are enough words to describe how grateful I am that I have met you and that God has put you into my life. You are both great men of faith and show great maturity and leadership at such young ages. It is my pleasure to have you be apart of my life for the examples you are of young (age) men of great faith.

*Everyone else that I have met and that have affected me here in Utah and throughout my life, especially these last couple of years. I am grateful for you.

One final note to all of this is how grateful I am to God for placing me here in Salt Lake City. If I would have ended up at the Academy I am sure that I would have met some wonderful people and been surrounded by people of great influence, but I am content with the fact that I am in the best place possible for me..... Right where He wants me


Live for Him