Tuesday, June 23, 2009

Failed Attempts at Coffee

So I woke up this morning feeling very invigorated by the past couple of weeks and by the anticipation for the weeks to come. Lately, I’ve been waking up at 9:00 am to go on a nice run around the neighborhood, coming home to eat some cereal, tanning in the backyard, and enjoying some leisurely reading (The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein is what I’m reading now and it is a very good read). This morning and went for my run and decided to brew some fresh coffee at home and then curl up with my book to restfully enjoy this sunny morning. Much to my dismay, I had forgotten how to brew a good cup of coffee. How many scoops do I put in? How much water should I use? What buttons do I need to press? Plus, we had gotten a new coffee maker and so this added to my confusion. The coffee that did come out was so watery that I gave up on the batch and decided to go with some tea instead.

So now I’ve been sitting here with some Irish Breakfast tea, way stronger than the coffee I had made, and I have been thinking about this month and the next months in general. This past month I finished the hardest academic year of my life so far and my sister graduated from college. SHE GRADUATED!!! It hit me at the actual graduation ceremony and now as I sit here alone drinking my tea with no older sister to bug and no one to boss me around. I kinda miss it. But what’s even scarier is the time in which it happened. It only seemed like the other day when she was driving me to high school in our old, scratched up Volvo with the horrible breaks. We would listen to music in the car and have a dance party even before school started. I miss those days and four years later she is already done with college. To think I am already half way there. Where did the past two years go? Really? In two more years I will be done with college and I will be job hunting just like her.

And now in 14 days I will be in China and helping out there with Compassion for Migrant Children (CMC). What kinds of experiences will I have there and who will I meet? Now that school is behind me I’ve been thinking more and more about this trip and the trip to the Philippines. I’ve been thinking about the flights, the food, the people, the food, the children, the food, my team, the food, the sights, the food, the new experiences, oh… did I mention food? But really, I’ve been thinking about all the things I will be doing or that I will possibly be doing and then that leads me to what should I do to prepare? What should I pack? What should I read to prepare myself? Am I going to grasp some more Mandarin before I head out? What I’m doing right now is worrying and I shouldn’t. I realized that throughout this past year I’ve been preparing with my SPRINT team, Team Awesome Philippines and on my own individual time. And the funny thing is that I still won’t be fully prepared for what China and the Philippines will have in store for me or more importantly what God has in store for me. But that’s okay and I am fine with that. I am more excited for the uncertain and unpredictable moments on these trips than the planned or expected portions of these trips. All of this to say that I’m ready to go and super excited about it. I thank all of my friends for their prayers and support. Hopefully I can keep blogging while I’m in China and I will let all of out there know in some form or another how things are going.

Now I will curl up with my book and think about my sister, China, the Philippines, and failed attempts at coffee.

2 comments:

  1. That's what you get when you drink coffee--Stick to tea!!!--love josh

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  2. yaaay michael! i'm glad you have a blog. have an amazing trip - see you August 20th! :) - sarah baggs

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