Sunday, May 29, 2005

Exploration bears fruit!

Well, this weekend rapidly is reaching an end, but at least I have a free Monday! Yesterday I went out on an adventure, today my mind went on an adventure...all fun!

Yesterday I was driving back from playing with Macho and Gumbo and right next to my dorm room, where I usually park, was a guy and his son. Usually I slow down and move totally out of the way, but as I got closer, I saw one of those recogizable faces that brings admiration and total respect. It was Abdul Ghaffar, my college mentor who ignited the fire that leads me here today. You see, Abdul is student activities director at UNC Pembroke and also advisor for Student Government, where I was fully involved. Through his leadership, I was inspired to start a service program called, Campaign for Compassion and do many other things that lead me here today! So you can imagine my excitement when I saw him with his son, Walter. It turns out that he was there for a track meet that his daughter was competing in. That's a whole different story, but his daughter is on an olympic laureate trek. She already broke a national AAU record for high jump at 10, but anyways, I went down and hung out with him and we just caught up, of course he bragged about his daughter, talked with his wife and we boomeranged effective practices in service learning and leadership! It was great, and when I thought it couldn't get any better, I met him and his wife's family friend, Tracey Williams who was so nice. Now I would be lying if I said I knew who she was at first, but didnt really know until I came back to my computer to see who she was. Such a nice lady and what a wonderful job to have, giving opportunities to women in basketball! I also met her fiance, who is also very nice and funny!

To think my weekend was going well, was an understatement...today I woke up to dogs licking me caught back up with a childhood friend and read a really good book called "The Life of Pi" by Yann Martel.

Jay, my childhood friend, was my first best friend. When I first moved to North Carolina he was the first to say hi, come over and play and to share my first childhood romance with the neighboorhood girl. It's pretty amazing, but thanks to google's search engine I found his email, emailed him this morning, then he called me mid-day! We caught up and a reunion is in the works. He lives in Oklahoma City, OK so it might a little bit, but to finally reconnect with a friend I haven't seen or heard of in a while means a lot to me. He was also the first friend to move away, and through some of the rough times when my dad fought in the first gulf war, "Desert Shield/Storm" he provided me friendship and support! But as custom with military families, he moved to Missouri and I visited once, but then he moved to Alaska, explaining why it was harder to keep in touch!

The book, "Life of Pi" is fascinating and really provides me some entertainment as well as deep thought on religion and where I stand beliefwise. It's a tale about a boy who is lucky at surviving a shipwreck, only to be stranded on a lifeboat with an orangutan, zebra, hyena, and tiger(Richard Parker)....its about survival, love, and just life. Hearfully punctuated with insight and how to live, it proves to be very worth the read!

Then my father called me, always a pleasure and the best dad anyone could ask for! He is buying me a much needed fridge for my pseudo-apartment...so now i can actually go grocery shopping!

so my weekend is not over yet! I do not know if anymore events could top these past couple of days though, but I will keep you all posted!

Calvin

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