migration

I had this teacher in high school. My brother had him when he was in high school, I had a lot of friends who had taken his class during their junior year, and I had heard a lot of things about him. I heard he was an incredibly hard teacher, but that he was also well worth having as a teacher. He was one of those teachers who constantly challenged his students, sometimes to the point of scaring them, but his aim was to grow the student. And 95% of the time, that's exactly what he did.

As I was sharing parts of my life with a friend yesterday, I remembered a lecture my teacher gave me my senior year in high school. We were at this conference where we were each to represent some sort of organization or coalition, and discuss with other students what changes we wanted made to the constitution to further support our cause. I believe I was assigned the Sierra Club, which meant I had to do research on the Sierra Club, and find out what constitutional amendments their organization would focus on, which ones they would want to change, or what they might want to add. We were then to participate in a round table discussion with other coalitions in an effort to revise the constitution. I emphasize the word "participate" because it was vital to the assignment... And of course, I did not participate. I simply sat there, and allowed the discussion to go on around me. I knew my organization, and I had ideas... but I wasn't really devoted to the assignment, and so I just sat there and didn't participate.

I remember during lunch time, my teacher pulled my partner and I aside and gave us a stern lecture. He started out by drawing a stick figure with a circle around it. He said, "This is you... and this circle? That's your comfort zone." Then, he drew like 6 circles around the first one and said, "See these... This is where everyone else is." and went on to say something about how that's where life existed, outside of our comfort zone. He then drew multiple arrows saying, "See these... these arrows? That indicates zone migration. It means you move out of your comfort zone, and into the zone where everything is going on." He kept saying that phrase, "Zone Migration." Obviously, to this day, it has stuck with me...

The photo you see above is a random photo I thought of taking one night. My friend and I were in a goofy mood, and took all these weird black and white photos. The feet in the picture are my feet, and in light of the story I just told, I find it rather funny.

This weekend, my brain was on overdrive with many different thoughts. I had conversations with many of my close friends about everything from dating to environmentalism. I felt so unbelievably challenged in so many ways. Saturday, I participated with some friends of mine in a "river clean-up" for Earth Day. While down there, it was so crazy to see just how much garbage was plaguing one river, and the effects that it was having on the wildlife inhabiting the area. I was convinced more than ever that Christians should be leading the way in preserving the creation God has given us. I also attended a church yesterday where for the first time in a really long time, I felt like they were not only talking about being a part in their local community, but actually moving towards it. I felt like they have a genuine passion for people in their community, and it was so encouraging to my heart to know there's a church like that...

The most interesting part of the weekend was the realization I came to about myself. I realized that I have so many thoughts about what I want to see happen in the world... So often I think about issues like poverty, environmentalism, education, disease, and I THINK about how I want to see change. Notice here an emphasis on the word THINK. Like my story about the round-table discussion I was a part of in high school that demanded my participation, so does this. We will not see people's needs be met by THINKING about how to help them. We will not see the earth cleaned up, preserving animal and plant life by THINKING about how to change our habits. We will not see changes made in the education system by THINKING about how to do it. And the sick will not get any healthier or feel any more loved if we simply THINK about it. All of these things require action. They require MY action. They require me to move from the circle that says, "You are here" and move to a place of action. It requires zone migration.

These can be pretty overwhelming thoughts though... There are so many things out there that need attention, so many good organizations that need help, so many habits that need to be broken. Where to start? Well, I decided yesterday that I wanted to make 2 very specific decision as far as my habits are concerned. Instead of eliminating all of my bad habits, I would eliminate 2 - I'm going to start slow. I also decided that instead of getting gung-ho about a lot of organizations, that I would give a little bit of time here and there to a couple different causes until I find out where I'll be after graduation. Once I'm settled there, I hope to volunteer my time on a more regular basis. But for now, I will help out where I can - give to different drives going on, volunteer a couple hours of my time here or there, etc.

All I know is I have been about thoughts and words for too long... It's time for some action.