My Sports Story

So today, Damascus Road had a story slam. Simply put, it's like a poetry slam, but with people telling 5 minute stories, with the audience deciding the best story. Also, the DR band played some awesome music before and after. I didn't plan on telling a story because I didn't have a story I wanted to tell that fit with the theme ("By the skin of By The Skin Of Your Teeth: Stories Of Close Calls). When the theme was dropped last minute to get a few more people involved, I got roped in. I prepared this in a few minutes as just a rough draft (although, we couldn't have any notes or anything), but it went very well. People found it entertaining, so w/o further ado, here is my sports story:

I am not an athletic person. Shocking, I know, but this is not the body of a star athlete. I'm sorta slow and my hand eye coordination is...lacking. So of course I love sports and am super competitive.
I have tried and failed to play sports my whole life. My first endeavor was t-ball. Man, I could hit that stationary ball, but then I moved up to baseball. Moving balls are not as easy to hit. I was scared to swing. My dad paid me to swing. My one game ball was because the 10 year old pitcher walked me and scored the winning run.
After baseball, I tried basketball. I made 2 baskets between 2nd and 8th grade. My highlight was hitting a defender in the face w/ the ball trying to pass it.
But next, was football. The one thing athletic fat kids are good at is getting in the way, and football has a position where that's just what you're supposed to do, offensive lineman. Final I found my sport. The o line is a thankless job, but I did have one moment of fame. In a close game, almost to the endzone, our quarterback dropped back to pass, and gunned it over the middle, right into the refs face. Suddenly, the ball's in my arms, the ricochet came right to me. I didn't know what to do but push forward into the endzone. I had scored. The team went ballistic; I was victorious. Sadly, that is not a legal play. The qb cannot pass the ball off the refs face to his offensive lineman, no matter how awesome that is.

And as always, onwards.

Plan C

If you had asked me what I wanted to do with my life, I would have answered, maintain a consistent blog. Clearly I have failed at that, so I have since moved on to plan B, aerospace engineering where I would design awesome things that fly awesomely. At the beginning of the year, I was about 95% set on that, but I figured there was always a chance God could change my plan. Imagine that. Since last fall, that number had slid. God kept pushing me and showing me more of who I was. I've realized that engineering, although a great idea financially, may not fulfill me. This doubt has pushed my certainty to a really frustrating 50%... maybe.

What is taking up that other 50% (maybe)? Teaching. It's the only other thing I have ever considered doing, but I thought I was settled. It was a fun idea, but I'd settled on engineering. Only, that fun idea is becoming the doubt that I could be anywhere near as happy making things fly as imparting the knowledge of how that is even possible on others.

I understand more than ever that what I need to be happy is relationships, people. I love people. I don't care what is happening, but as long as friends are hanging out, I just want to be there. I'll do anything with my friends. I'll do anything for my friends. Same goes for my family. The only reason I ever even considered teaching was because of the phenomenal relationships I had with my teachers in high school. Two in particular I consider to be some of the most important people ever in my life and are integral to the person I am today. I know this need for relationships will be fulfilled by teaching, but I cannot be certain that engineering can do that as well.

So I guess that leaves me at plan C. I cannot change my major and graduate in four years, which I need to do for my scholarship, and I don't necessarily want to. Besides, I still don't even know which I'd rather do. Instead, my plan is to finish my Aerospace Engineering degree with a math minor. Assuming I get a job out of college, I'll work for two years, and by the end, I'll know what I want to do (hopefully). If I settle on engineering, I'll go back to school and get my masters. If I go with teaching, I'll do still that. If I teach, I want to teach high school physics and math, subjects I'll be well versed in from my undergrad. I'll go to a Concordia and do what it takes to become a teacher and get a master's degree. After that, I'd love to teach at my Lutheran HS, but I'll take any one that wants me. I like this plan. It leaves both options open, and I think having those years of engineering experience would be great for me if I decide to teach.

And what if God yet again steps in with something more to say? I guess that's plan D. Onwards.