..Tam.Odom..

I have been going like crazy over the past two weeks trying to make sure that I have everything ready for the beginning of school which started this week! Of course, I am involved in many of the aspects of New Student Orientation. This year I was in charge of the 2-hour Orientation production so that’s had been stressful pulling it all together, but it actually turned out to be pretty awesome. I might try to work on some kind of preview clip of the show soon.

What has happened in the past two weeks:

• Meet some new friends who will be working at CSU this year with me.
• Worked a lot!
• Went shopping for some new clothes with my birthday money!
• Definitely saw GI Joe with Lee and Clint…ooooohhh Channing Tatum!
• Did a couple of photoshoots (two previous posts) for Kait & Justin and Baxley.
• Had lunch with my mentor, Lynette! (That’s a rare occasion for us!)
• Got to spend some time with Savannah after she returned from Honduras.
• Spoke to all of the Rez Life staff about PLACE
• Went on the Charleston Thriller boat ride today with Katie and Savvy. You gotta check it out some time!
• My roommate, PT (aka Party Time), is back in the APT with me!
• Survived Orientation!

Sounds like a lot of fun, huh? Well, for the most part it has been! These are the times when someone wired like me can get bogged down in life. You want to make sure that you have everything done just perfectly so you over exert yourself to the point of exhaustion and in-effectiveness. You also tend to dwell on things that aren’t reality or possibly exaggerate the things that are somewhat real. What does this mean?

First thing that comes to mind would be this guy who I recently tried befriend. At the beginning it seemed to be a fun time to have a guy to hang out with. Quickly it turned to a microscopic crush, but knowing that my heart could not handle any more games like I had been through in the past I decided I was going to slowly approach it. After inviting him to come along to some of the events that I was attending and being shut down I decided to back away again. Mind you I had like four people who were reminding me to be careful and a couple of them just didn’t have a good feeling about this guy from the get-go! I did heed their advice, but I was in a weird place where I still wanted to play the game. Turns out the game was just dumb. After inviting him to an event on-campus where we both work I got a response from this guy telling me I acted better than him because I went out and did things, and that I was too intent on changing him. So needless to say… I am done with that one. I don’t have any fight in me to try to rekindle anything there. Is this wrong? I choose to think that I am not giving up on him as a person, but it is my responsibility to guard my heart from any discouragement or evil doing because it is the well-spring of life. If I would continue on fighting that lost cause I would become even more drained and would walk into the wilderness. Do you think this is one of those cases where I might have exaggerated the situation?

I have also been a little overwhelmed with the fact that so often I apologize or become a wimp when it comes to boldly proclaiming that I am called to do ministry for the Lord and that I am happy with doing that! I find myself tip-toeing around the TRUTH. But WHY? Is it because I don’t want to be confronted with conflict of beliefs? Is it because I am lazy? Do I just want to be accepted by all people? Do I really understand why I am doing it? What did I think it was going to be like? These are some of the questions that pass through my head as I am talking to people that don’t know me and I am trying to make a lasting impression. Don’t they know who I am? I love the serve and to give and to organize and to shoot pictures and to influence people and to love and to help and….well you get the point, right? I am hoping to find some more community with some of the people I am now working with because I want to walk boldly on and off-campus to tell people I am called to be a servant of the Lord. I believe this community will answer what Hebrews 10:24 says, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds.”

Any who – that’s been some of the major things running through my head these past couple of weeks. I’m trying to get my life back into the daily routine of writing. I will try to post a Top Ten Thursday later today.