Homecoming and so much more

This weekend was homecoming here on campus. This was the first year I've actually been around for this weekend. Usually I am at home for my high school homecoming or I was in Pittsburgh last year first semester. So, I finally got to experience some good Bluffton homecoming fun. Despite the fact that the football team lost pretty badly, it was a good time going out to the game and having almost the entire bleachers full of fans and students. The dance that night was a pretty good time too. They had it in a different location this year which we were all really skeptical of at first, but it turned out to work really well. I really like that dances here at Bluffton are fun for the simple fact that no one takes them very seriously (but then again, maybe that's just my perception of things). People just go to have fun. It's not about dressing up and taking "dates" and going to dinner beforehand. It's just a fun thing to do on Saturday night.

Besides it being homecoming this weekend was probably one of the best I've spent here at Bluffton. There's a good chance that it is all because I didn't really have any homework to worry about so I didn't have anything looming over my head the whole time. Friday night a couple guys on my floor and I hung out and played video games for hours. Then Saturday after the football game we decided to go on a bike ride. We were going along taking turns deciding which direction to go and we ended up down some country roads surrounded by fields. I told them that we should all go to a Corn Maze sometime this fall, and then about three miles later, bam!, a corn maze. We spent probably a good hour and a half wandering around the maze. It would have only taken us under an hour, but we were determined to get all the stamps hidden throughout the maze. We came back and had some pizza before the dance. The perfect end to a great weekend.

And now this week is Spiritual Life Week where they have a bunch of different activities to explore faith and spirituality and just have some fun. This evening was the Fall Festival where different organizations have booths with games and there was a raffle. I didn't really want any of the prizes but I just wanted to win something, so for every prize I could win I found someone and told them that if I won I would give it to them. Lo and behold I won the grand prize and got to give away a bicycle to one of my friends who wanted one. Part of me really wanted to go back on my offer because I instantly started to think about all the things I could do with an extra bike. But then I realized what I was doing and how I was just filling my life with stuff that I don't need. I rode the bike around once and told my friend that it was all his. I feel really good about this. I want to be a giver more often. I want to stop trying to fill my own life with stuff and start allowing others to fill my life with their presence. Now I have one more person to go on bike rides with.

Here's to a life filled with presence.


"And the crowds asked him (John), 'What then should we do?' In reply he said to them, 'Whoever has two coats must share with anyone who has none; and whoever has food must do lifewise.' " Luke 3:10-11