I had a solid group of friends who were passionate about God and it was great. We had a lot of fun together. There was a small celebration for my 19th birthday, insomnia due to fear of missing out, staying up into the late hours of the night, an acting class, etc.
To end my first year I went to an event called Trek put on through the Christian group. Before making our way to LaCrosse some of my friends also going on the trip slept over at my house. Sitting around in the living room watching TV at night we saw a show called Flipping ships with a commercial about how Snoop Dogg was now called Snoop Lion. I said Snoop and named the first animal that came to mind which happened to be a whale. So when we were actually at the retreat we coined our team with "Snoopwhales" (Snoopwhales flipping ships, and even acquired two inflatable whales as our mascots.) At Trek UW Parkside was paired up with UW Washington County. Being that I had been born and raised in Washington County I excitedly talked to them about Washington County. (In hindsight I am so glad I went on this trip due to the people I met.) Trek included Christian teachings, games against other school teams, canoeing (which I failed tremendously at), ziplining, and a giant swing. Also a hike at in the woods. The trip also included one of my friends cars breaking down after dancing hard to the first listen through of twenty-one-pilots freshly released album, "Blurryface" I also went all the way to Pennsylvania with one of the friends I had made at Parkside for a week for a Christian missions conference (NWMC). Started my first job working with those with Special Needs, and helped planned events for the Christian club for the next school year.
Pictures from Year 1, 2nd semester.
Year 2 : Semester 1
It was a nice change going back to college and knowing people this time. I was also pretty stoked to not have to live in the dorms anymore, and moved into my first apartment on campus. I was originally going to live with one of the girls from the Christian group but she ended up moving home to help out her grandma, so I was assigned a roommate. (Over all my semesters at college I never picked who I would live with.) The guy who had invited me to church originally started a worship group with other strong Christians to meet at his house about once a week before classes. This was probably one of my favorite parts of my college years. We always had really fruitful times, and it was always exciting for me to attend these worship times, even though they were right in the morning. We would also sometimes meet for breakfast or lunch, and formed great friendships with deep talks. I was also in my first wedding for my brother's wedding. I grew even more in my faith and probably hit my peak point as a Christian. I was excited about my faith, and put a lot of energy into it. Reading Scripture, falling in love with God, I was always really excited to go to church. (I hope in the future I can feel this again and exceed it even more). I got baptized at Living Light during all of this.
Then some trouble hit. I grew so much in my faith that I started questioning the way the Christian group on campus had been doing things. What they were doing felt surface level, and contradictory at times. I respected the group even though I was starting not to agree with them on things, because the group had helped me my Freshman year, and I was excited for it to help others as well. I made what I thought would be a simple suggestion to the group and was immediately torn to pieces. I suggested that using specific questions and guidelines for evangelism that we just prayed and shared the word how we felt lead. Instead of saying: "Thank you for the suggestion Alex, however we don't want to do that at this time" they called the new church I had been going to a cult, and that by doing evangelism not by a specific booklet I was shoving Christianity down people's throats which seemed to contradictory to me. The President of the club couldn't believe I had made such a suggestion, and the others stood up for her when she tore me down. Looking back I think it was a misunderstanding that heightened quickly. Nonetheless I decided to resign from the church group leadership after that. It was a toxic situation, and I felt like the main group of leaders had formed like a clique. I strived so hard to be in the inner circle only to realize it wasn't that great. I kept calm and was nice to them while this was all happening and it blew over for the most part, and I still remained friends with the people still in the group. (They weren't bad people, they just handled situations wrong, which everyone does, so I have completely forgiven them since then). One of my close friends from the 1st year of college had quit college to join the Marines so I wasn't able to rely on her as much while on campus, but we still hung out a lot when we were able to get time together.
Year 2: Semester 2
My first roommate had moved out, and I was assigned a new one for the semester. This one was a Chinese exchange student. I remember the first time talking to her I spoke really fast, and she was so confused. Throughout the semester she got better and better with English but I guess I just assumed she would know English well when I met her. She would end up being my favorite roommate that I had throughout my college career, out of five roommates total. (who lived in the same bedroom as me). I had fun showing her new experiences like Lake Michigan, Chicago for a Chinese New Year parade, and Six Flags. I started out this semester advocating in Chicago for kids with Special Needs. It was an extremely cold day and my hands went numb, and we weren't able to stay there as long as we thought but we survived. Most of the semester was time spent with my Chinese roommate, and issues with a boy which I will not go into any further. That summer I moved in with a couple from church. It seemed so crazy, but so is the fact the people at our church act like a family unit. That summer I decided I would attend the School of Worship that Fall. I had toured it during the Spring of my Freshman year and knew I would attend 2 years later after my sophomore year of college. I auditioned badly, but still made it into the program.
Added: I was thinking back and remembered that I totally forgot an important detail of what happened this semester. One of the guys that was in the Christian group on campus (remember the smiley one I thought was a Jesus freak?) We had become really good friends. So much so we would spend most nights talking into the late hours of the night, not wanting to go to sleep. We became so much alike even our mannerisms were starting to match. I figured that we shared a lot of the same interests, hung out a ton, and liked to talk to each other all the time that it was inevitable that we would start dating. A lot of my Facebook friends and family thought so too, when I would post pictures of our adventures online. One day with full courage I asked him if he liked me. I had never been so nervous. He said no, that he didn't see me that way, and it was hard, but I understood, and our friendship stayed strong for a little while until it didn't anymore. I became self-conscious about my looks and questioned how he found a ton of girls to be pretty, but not me, That thought really messed with me for awhile, so I remember explaining this to him after the fact (probably shouldn't have), some people we aren't attracted to and that's okay. He started dropping subtle hints that he was done with our friendship after awhile. It went on for months but I didn't see them. I thought maybe he was dealing with something in his life, and that's why he had become distant from me, so after it had gone on for a bit I confronted him about it. His answer was I thought I was making it obvious that I didn't want to be your friend anymore. I think after this another meeting occurred where I apologized for being self-conscious and saying that he was immature, and he apologized for some things to and we forgave each other. We did end the friendship figuring it would be healthier for us both for now, and that was the end of that.
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