Oakley – Internship Day 1: Getting to know one another

So! I am excited and am so much so that I’m not going to worry about going on tangents, having possibly terrible grammar and a few misspelled words. No, I’m just going to type at my hearts content until I think I’ve shared enough of how wonderful God’s love is in my life and in the life of others and how glad I am for the opportunities He has given me. The moment we live now is what’s important, not the past, not the future; right now I’m writing to share with you how relevant that has been recently along with many other great things I am learning while here at Summit Ministries.

Now I’m going to attempt to share everything that has happened so far as chronological as possible but bare with me if I stray a little with a thought or two. My mind tends to wander, but as they say, not all who wander are lost and I can say for certain that one of the great things about Summit so far is that it nearly feels right at home. Though, I will be missing home very much along with my beautiful family and many dear siblings. My hope at least is there will be enough for me to keep me occupied to not worry about it so much. And, of course, I know we will keep in touch.

The Flight:

Forgive me for not having very many pictures posted. . . I took a few with my iPod Touch but trust me. . . If I had taken a moment to pull out my camera to grab a few shots, I might have missed my flight it was that close and tight of a schedule. Normally, I’d prefer a slow and steady pace but this time around it was actually rather nice as I don’t normally enjoy long waits with nothing to do. Later the night before I finished all my packing and I must say I think I might have over done it. But! Better to have more than enough and not need it than the other way around. Next morning was a very early start at about 5:30 in the morning. I made a few last minute checks on my baggage, did what I could with my computer before shutting completely down, and soon my brother and I were off to the airport.

I normally am not a morning person. The one thing that always makes it worth it, especially the drive to Houston, is the morning sky. So majestic and colorful! I always like to think of the morning and night-time skies as one of God’s many canvas that He paints on and it’s always a pleasure to witness its beauty. To make it a little more exciting, the drive I mean, we listened to Vangelis’ original soundtrack to Blade Runner. It’s one of my favorite films for a lot of reasons, one of them being the music. The dramatic synthesized tones of strings, sax, and keyboard are both futuristic and stimulating as much as they are nostalgic and soothing. And it’s perfect when driving through a city scape. Anyway, I highly recommend the music. As I’m a lover of music, I may make a lot of recommendations from time to time so bare with me as I try to get out of this tangent.

We finally arrived to the airport with my Oakley Backpack, Single-strap-over-the-shoulder camera bag, and my 64 pound piece of luggage. Of course, I had no idea it weighed that much until after I had it weighed at the front and I hesitate to share my surprise of the size and digress to even mention the price tag. . . After checking in my bags, I soon headed for the security clearance with boarding pass and ID in hand. After managing to shove all my stuff through the clearance I stepped not through a metal detector of two columns but an entire glass cylinder that made a full rotation back and forth around my person. Some may be a lot more familiar with airport security than I, but being that this was only my second flight in the United states, I found it quite fascinating.

It may had been about a 20 minute wait at gate C-43, but it was a nice time to gather my thoughts and just enjoy the fact that I’d finely be flying again and on my way to see mountains. Of course, I knew I was on my way to Denver first so the two hour flight only ended in a layover to Colorado Springs but things moved very swiftly. One of those things being me because when we landed in Denver, I exited out of Gate B5 and found out that my flight out to Colorado Springs was all the way down to Gate B80. As soon as I got to the gate, there were only five minutes to board! A nice thing because I didn’t really have to wait all that long to be on my way, but at the same time very discomforting for I wouldn’t know what to do if I had missed my flight. This particular flight lasted only about 30 minutes which just blows my mind on how efficient air travel really is. Breaking the physical bounds of our magnificent planet makes it seem very small indeed.

After exiting the plane, I made my way straight for the baggage claim anticipated to meet the Summit Staff and be on my way to the Manitou Springs Campus. I waited for quite some time for the baggage to start rotating out for pickup when I realized after it had finally started that I had seen the same bag with an ‘X’ made out of duct-tape almost five times. That’s when I knew something was wrong. That’s when I realized that my bag didn’t make it with me from Denver.

On my iPod lock screen there are two very calming words in friendly bold letters that say, “Don’t Panic.” Of course, I’m borrowing this from an excellent piece of literature called the Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and if any of you out there that are familiar with it you may also very well know that I cary a towel with me everywhere I go too. These two words always come to mind when strange. abnormal, or the unpredictable arise. So the first thing I did when I noticed that something was wrong was talk to the people working at the baggage claim. After scanning my baggage receipt and looking into the airport’s database, the employee found out that my stuff indeed was left behind in Denver and that they would have it returned to me as soon as possible. She asked for my address but I was unaware at the time of the exact numbers and street name of where Summit was located. I did, however, mention that I was going to be working for Summit and to my surprise she appeared to know exactly what I was talking about. I later found out that she did know what I was talking about because the Summit staff and a few others like myself were coming to her with claims of missing luggage. That was soon after I ran into Julia, Summit’s Staff Nurse, my escort, and new friend. I actually just got a glimpse of the back of her shirt when she walked past me. Realizing that it said, “Summit” right at the back of the neck, I knew she was the one I needed to talk to.

We quickly got to know one another and I discovered that she’s both a registered nurse and photographer. Having the photography in common made me very excited as it’s one of my favorite subjects to talk about. I soon learned that she specializes in wedding photography and has been on a few mission trips documenting events such as Human Trafficking in Tia land. I told her that it was encouraging to know that after I’m finished with school, waiting for the right opportunities, and making the right connections woundn’t be so bad and I too could be very soon off on my own adventures, helping people in need, and using my talents for the benefit of not just myself but also the rest of humanity.

It was a bit of a drive from the airport to Manitou Springs, but the good conversation made the trip near seamless. We finally arrived and I was ready to get started. There were many more introductions to many more wonderful people who I more or less had a lot in common with: one thing was for certain was our love for Christ and ministering to others with our gifts and talents. Everyone also seemed very diverse with unique walks of life, educational mindsets, goals, and pursuits. The rest of the evening comprised of just getting to know one another, getting comfortable, and making oneself at home.

It’s wonderful being here now and I can’t wait to share more stories as I’m sure there will be plenty more to come. Please stay tuned and share with others who may be interested in attending the Summit Summer classes, the Summit Semesters, or just come out and staff. It’s truly been a wonderful experience thus far and I’ve only been here for no more than 48 hours. I’m certain the rest of my stay will be full of adventure and exciting things.

Noblesse oblige,

~Rob