Alex's Blog

Starting my sophomore year of school feels like coming up for air, or anything else that's entirely familiar but still exhilarating and almost needed. I walk down the sidewalks here, and I'm seeing the same people I knew last year, walking the same streets, in the same town, in the same way, but something is definitely new, and I suppose since nothing else has changed much, I'm the variable.

This summer, I took a job as an intern for this Memphis-based company called OneEight, led by a guy named Steve. Basically we talked about four things for three months: Who is God? How do we worship Him? What is the Gospel? and What is church? Obviously, we answered those questions pretty quickly (like in ten minutes), so we played kickball and Call of Duty for the next three months.

But actually, we talked about those three questions for a while, and did some service work in the meantime so that our heads wouldn't explode from thinking so much. We got to teach English to the coolest and most beautiful kids ever. Apparently Memphis has a huge refugee population, and the kids we were teaching/running around with were from a country named Burundi in Eastern Africa, right below Rwanda. That was a lot of fun. We also got to go participate in a ministry called SOS there, in Memphis, building houses. Our home owner's name is Mrs. Mary, and she took us all to Shoney's at the end of the week, which was tasty. She and our crew leader, Emily, had to put up with all of my jokes all week. They are both strong people.

At the end of the summer, we went to Turkey to see some people over there. Istanbul is huge, by the way. That trip, the people who were with me, and this summer, have changed my life forever. I want to thank David, Ryan, Pace, Steve, Ashley, Katie, Elise, and Heather for loving God and impacting me. Also, I would like to say congratulations to Adam and Heather on their engagement. It's not very often that two of your best friends get engaged to each other, so congratulations.

If you want to know more about my summer, check out the MissionLeader website at www.missionleader.com. That was my other job for the summer.

So now I'm back at school, and trying to transition back into the academic world. I'm taking Organic Chemistry and Cellular Biology among other things this semester, which is oddly exciting to me. Organic is supposed to be pretty rough, so I'm excited to see if I have what it takes to be a pre-med student here at UT. Honestly, it's great to be back. As I was driving back into Knoxville, as soon as the skyline came into site, I couldn't help but smile ear to ear thinking about all of the things I can do this year, all of the people I can meet and get to know, all the ways my life will probably change, and all of the moments from this semester that will pass into memory to remind me for the rest of my life of the time I'm about to have.

I have to give my friend Elise credit, even though I would like to take it, for a few of the photos: the one where Pace and I are sitting on the bench at Yeditepe looking out over the city and the one where I'm picking up the kid. Some random lady took the one in the Hagia Sophia with the four of us guys. Thanks to you, too, random lady. My picture is of the Blue Mosque in Istanbul. The fact that I'm wearing the same shirt in every picture is mere coincidence, I promise.

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