What a Long Strange Trip It's Been

Today marks the last day of school for me at Auburn University.  This Sunday I will walk across the stage and receive my diploma and graduate from Auburn with a Bachelor’s of Civil Engineering.  This marks the end of my 6 years at Auburn.  Over these past 6 years I have seen some highs and some lows in a variety of different ways.

Auburn Football:

I have had the opportunity to enjoy 6 football seasons at Auburn.  Over those 6 years I have seen almost everything you can imagine in college football from the highest of highs to the lowest of lows.  I have seen the end of the Tuberville era when Auburn beat Alabama for 6 straight years.  Following that was Tuberville quitting in the middle of the season and the following year the unexpected and controversial hiring of Gene Chizik.  Then within a couple years the winning of the 2010 BCS National Championship.  Then within two years, during my last football season as a student, the worst football season that Auburn has ever experienced and the firing of Gene and hiring of Gus Malzahn.  Then got the chance to experience the final ever Toomers Oak Trees rolling, it was a san time but also a showing of how the Auburn Family will always stick together and stay strong.

 

CYO:

After my experience with YL, I felt the need to serve the youth in a way that let loose the uniqueness of my Catholic faith.  After a trip to FOCUS Regional Conference in 2011 in Nashville I started to help out with the Catholic Youth Organization at St. Michael’s.  Over the past 2 ½ years of serving CYO has been the most fulfilling thing that I have done at Auburn.  I have the opportunity to serve with some of the best and holiest people that I have ever known and learned more about my faith by serving these high school and middle school students than I would have ever imagined.

 

CSO:

It took me a while to get involved with CSO and part of me regrets not getting involved earlier but the last few years have been some of the best I have experienced.  I have met and befriended some of the holiest people ever.  I have had the opportunity to serve on Pan Y Vino team for two years and have loved serving the Catholic Student community in that way.

 

After 6 years at Auburn University I have done a lot, seen a lot, and experienced a lot.  I have met so many great people and experienced so many unique opportunities.  I hope that I have left behind as much as this town has given me.  I will miss it but I have made it a goal to come down to at least one Auburn Football game each year.  I wish good luck to the future of CSO, Pan Y Vino, CYO, and all the students at Auburn.

I Will Always Remember:

CSO/Bread&Beer/TBBS/PYV/HTeam/CYO/CoreTeam/ACYC2013/
FatherFrattheRappingPriest/TND/SaintDrogo/SaintMike'sFightNight/
Scatterball/Club630/TheDogHouse/FOCUS/2Kings2:23-24/KofC/

God Bless Auburn and War Eagle!!!

 

ACYC 2013 - Orange Beach

This past weekend I got a chance to go to ACYC in Orange Beach.

It was such a wonderful experience to see the lives of over 300 high school students become more "WIDE OPEN" to the love of Christ.  It was heart warming to hear the amazing experiences that so many of them had at adoration on Saturday night and to see their lives change right before my eyes.

But the one thing that always gets me when you go to a High School retreat as opposed to when you go to a College retreat is the liveliness of these young people and what it takes to get their hearts warmed up:

First of all there was a great music team who knew how to just speak to the soul of a high schooler with a passion for music and a gift that they used to the fullest.
Second there was the crazy and holy seminarians of the Archdiocese of Mobile who showed these young people who might be discerning the priesthood or religious life what really goes on in the life of a seminarian and how much fun they have while at the same time striving for holiness and the vocation of the priesthood.
Then there was Father Frat the Rapping Priest, Father Victor Ingalls.  No words can describe what he has done for CYO at Auburn over these past 8 months, the first 8 of his priesthood.  He has been such a blessing and only time will tell what further surprises he has in store for us and for the rest of the world.
Finally there is the sisters and religious brothers speaking, praying, and giving advice to young people as well as playing football, frisbee, and volleyball on the beach Saturday.  It is so powerful to hear the different ways in which people find their way in life especially from Nuns and Priests.  It is even more important for these young people who are in one of the hardest places in their lives in deciding what they want to do next and to hear that it will take time, but that will only happen if you are "WIDE OPEN" to God's will and from their experiences to help these kids to open up is going to be something special that i look forward to seeing and hearing about over the next few months.

See a recap of ACYC by clicking HERE!!!

 

St. Aloysius Gonzaga, Pray For Us!!!!

Great/Good/New Birthday Weekend

This past birthday weekend has been a mix of great news, good times, and new experiences.

The Great News:  This weekend I found out that I passed the FE, The Fundamentals of Engineering Exam.  This was a long, strenuous, and tough test that I took earlier in the spring.  It was an 8 hour exam from 8 to noon in the morning and 1 to 5 in the afternoon.  This test also took place during one of the toughest emotional weeks of my life and coming up to it I thought I was not prepared at all, even though walking out of it I felt very good, I was still nervous about my results.  But the results were good and now I can look forward to getting my Professional Engineers License in the future.

The Good Times:  This weekend was also a great time to get away from Auburn with a couple of my friends, Carlos and Hanson, and go up to the lake with my family.  The lake has been a sort of heaven on earth for me during my lifetime.  It has been one of the few places on earth that I have been able to find peace and really relax and enjoy life for a while.  This weekend was great to see family and enjoy boating, tubing, drinking, and just relaxing with great family and friends.  I could not ask for a greater family to be a part of and am so blessed to have the friends that i have and many thanks for all the birthday wishes.

The New Experiences:  This weekend was also filled with a couple of new experiences.  The first of which was that this year was the first year EVER that my twin sister, Megan, and I did not celebrate, blow out candles/open presents, our birthday together and it was a weird feeling and I missed her not being there more than she probably knows.  Also, this was the first birthday that I did not get to enjoy in the presence of Doc.  You know we miss him and you know we love him and I know that all day he was looking down on me and Megan and watching over and praying for us right there beside Uncle Mike and G.G..

Overall is was a good Birthday and 23 years of life has taught me that there will be good times and there will be bad times, tough at times it might feel like the bad outweighs the good.....

"Life is an Adventure, Live It and Love It"

[ John 16:33 ]

My Cake of Choice: Angel Food with Chocolate Icing, made every year by Grammie

Ronald W. "DOC" Dunbar: 1935-2012

Doc and Me at the Grand Canyon

From the Obituary: (Ron Dunbar Obituary AJC)

Doc was my Mother's Father.  He was a gentle and loving man who filled his life fully with his Faith, Family, Friends, and Fun.  He and I enjoyed going shooting anytime that I was in town from college and even had a chance to go the Saturday before Easter this year, less than 3 weeks before he died.

I also got a chance to come home last Saturday and see him, within a week of his passing.  I got a chance to talk to him for a good 20 minutes about random life things.  It was amazing and such a blessing to know that even up to the moment of his death his mind was one hundred percent there and he could talk to and hold a conversation with anyone and everyone.  When it was time to leave I said goodbye to him and shook his hand.  I did not know that that would be the last time I would see or speak to him, but I think somehow he knew because the handshake that he gave me was the strongest handshake that I think I have ever gotten from him.

It was an honor to be his grandson.  He was a man among men and epitomized what a true Catholic Man, Husband, Father, and Grandfather should be.  I hope that I can live up to be a close to the same great man that he was and he will be missed, but always loved and remembered.

“To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and to endure the betrayal of false friends. To appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, or a redeemed social condition; to know that even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.”   ― Ralph Waldo Emerson

Jimmy V Week

This week is deemed Jimmy V Week by ESPN.  It is the kickoff for the start of the NCAA Men's Basketball season and this week has fetured some very highly ranked teams facing off against eachother.

Jim Valvano has been for me one of the most infuentional people in my life.  No i never did know him personally, but through all the things that he did in his life and all the troubles that he had to endure has been so inspirational.

Jim Valvano was the head basketball coach for the North Carolina State University Wolfpack for the decade of the 1980's and the head coach for the National Champion NCSU Wolfpack in 1983.  In the early 1990's he was diagnosed with an untreatable cancer.  He was awarded the Arthur Ashe Award for Courage at the ESPY's in March of 1993 and died from his cancer less than 2 months later.  Below is the link to his speech from his reception of that award and one of the most inspiratoinal speeches that i have ever heard and one that i send to anyone who has family who has been touched by cancer to help them get through the tough times.

Jimmy V ESPY Speech