Pre-Arrival and Arrival

I’d like to preface this blog with the fact that I am doing the first several weeks (about the first month) after the events have happened, so I am bound to forget things that I may put in later. I don’t know how I will go about doing this; I just pray that God will help me remember most things. Additionally, I will be splitting the first couple of weeks into separate entries to try to help prod my memory. So no promises that they will all come out relatively around the same time. Absolutely none. Another note, this blog will talk a lot about my walk with God. Now a lot of you are probably rolling your eyes thinking, "Oh boy, Tim's gone off the deep end and lost his marbles." However I challenge you to read through my experience with an open mind, and take what I have to say as truth. I have thought about Christianity for days upon days upon weeks upon months, and
combined with the education that I've been getting here, I've determined that this is a belief that is more than worth my time. Why? Let's leave that for a different post. Can I get to the content I wanted to get to now?

So my journey started a few weeks before thanksgiving. I was in my first semester at the College of William and Mary, and I was thinking that I would be a computer science major, get a job in the growing field, and end up all right. But I felt like the work I was doing was pointless, and that I was missing something. So I figured that I needed a semester off, or drop out of school. I thought maybe I could be a competitive Call of Duty (a very popular video game) player, or a professional ultimate player. I had the mindset that nothing is impossible if you not just think, but convince yourself that you're the best. That combined with the hours I put into the game (I estimate that I've clocked somewhere around 600 hours. Not exactly a number to be proud of), I got pretty good, and with the right people could have been one of, if not the best. 

So when I proposed to my mom that I take a semester off (as I was most certainly going to fail multiple classes, actually I still don't know if I passed any of my classes, never bothered to check the grades), I was thinking that I'd stay at home, and maybe get a job, but really focus on getting better, and finding teammates. I was prepared to fight her to let me take time off, and talk about how not everyone is meant for the college track (something that I still believe to be true). However, she surprised me by telling me that she totally welcomed the idea of taking a semester off, but there were essentially two choices (from what I remember, I think there was another, but it obviously wasn't really an option for me as I don't remember it). These two choices were to either find a place to stay, and to support myself with a job, or to do a Discipleship Training School (abbreviated as DTS). I started to look for jobs in the area, and really didn't find much. Without at least a B.A., it's almost impossible to find a job that pays more than $30,000 a year. And without much job experience, it shrank my chances of getting a 'good' job even more. I was determined, but so was God. He opened my heart to the DTS, and when Thanksgiving came around, I was pretty excited. I looked for ones that started in January or February, and 'settled' for a base in Maui (Hawaii). 'sigh' what a difficult road ahead. It became pretty awkward trying to concisely explain what I was doing come the spring. "I'm taking a semester off from college, and going to Hawaii..." Yeah for whatever reason it doesn't quite come across right. 

Anyways, I finish the semester (not as strong as I would have liked, but it is what it is), and my mom pulls off an incredible feat. She drove 17 hours straight to come down to Williamsburg, Virginia, from our house in New York, and back to move me out of college and back home. New Years comes around, and my friends throw me my third surprise birthday (albeit two weeks early, as I would not be home for my birthday) in a row. And next thing I know, January 2nd (my departure date) has arrived.

Waking up, 4 am in the morning, eating two waffles. 5:30, I arrive at the airport, and the plane is delayed by about 10 minutes, but apart from that things go smoothly. I arrive in Dallas, Texas around 12:30; about when my boarding time for my next flight started. I ran towards my next flight, and I remember having the terminal on my left, and Subway on my right. After a moment of hesitation, I chose the terminal. I then sat on the plane for about 20 minutes fully regretting my decision. When I landed, I hadn't eaten for about 14 hours. Two staff met me at me the airport. A guy named Vinny, and a woman named Margrethe. It was kind of confusing with jet lag, as all I remember was thinking that Vinny had an incredible mustache, and what was her name? They took me to Walmart, where I got some essentials, and then they took me to the base. 

The base is placed in the jungle, secluded from mostly everything. There are banana, coconut, lemon, and avocado trees all around the property. Sometimes, when the waves are big enough, you can hear them from our base. Speaking of waves, we are not far away from Jaws- one of the biggest waves to break in the world. The base is placed in a town called Haiku, with not much. We generally travel to a little town called Paia for fun, and the beach. But, when we need to get stuff, we generally go to a town called Kahalui for a stop at Costco, Walmart, Savers (thrift shop), or the mall for various items (including kalbi, mmmmm). When I arrived at the base, it was a blur as I shook hands in the dark, introducing myself, and, unfortunately, forgetting a lot of names. I finally got some food, and after sitting on some couches listening to people talk for a while, I went to bed. At long last.