My_Life

Ah yes, it all began on October 10, 1982 on a muggy Sunday afternoon in Dothon, Alabama...or so I'm told. I was naked then, but felt no shame.

My sisters couldn't have been happier that they had a real life baby doll to play dress up with. As for me, I didn't seem to mind so much. Actually, I don't remember really minding much of anything. I suppose I was sort of laid back about the whole being a baby thing.

Well I didn't let that get in my way. Shortly after learning to walk, I decided I needed to do something more with my life. Which led to me taking my mom's brand new stationwagon for a drive all the way down the driveway and across the road before deciding to park it in the ditch.

Needless to say, my parents weren't quite as proud of my seemingly amazing feat for a 3 year old as I was. From Alabama we were off to South Carolina were I graduated...from Pre-school of course. Ah yes, that was one happy day for the Rogers' clan. I'm told I was the first to ever graduate from pre-school. That might have had something to due with the fact that I was also the only one to ever attend pre-school...go figure. (By the way I'm the little fella on the left...just before I hit my 1/4 inch growth spert.)

I must admit, it was pretty hard to top such an accomplishment, but I toiled on anyway. Before I knew it, I was on to growing mullets and racing cars...the remote control kind unfortunately, but hey you have to start somewhere. After the whole stationwagon incident, my parents didn't trust me with very many keys anyway. Other than racing my remote control car, you could usually find me plotting to build some great tree house...granted I might not have had any wood, nails, or hammer, but that didn't really slow me down too much.

Those were the days. I think my biggest responsibilities consisted of trying to remember to comb my hair and brush my teeth...hey it was harder than it sounds for a seven year old kid. But with lots of patients and perserverance I succeeded in learning how to do all of that plus spell words like cat, hat, and bat...in addition to many, many more.

No one ever told me that when I left elementary school there would never be any going back to nap time, school plays, and most importantly recess. If I would have only known then what I know now, I might have been quite tempted to stick around Hurley Elementary School.

Surprise, surprise...I passed fifth grade and headed off to West Rowan Middle School. Man that place was big. My class size went from around 75 to about 400 students. It was craziness. But luckily I knew one or two of them before I got there.

Home

The middle school years flew by quickly. I think I spent a lot of my time then playing this new instrument I got called the trumpet. It turned out that I was actually really good at it, and since I wasn't quite cut out for the football team I decided to devote my time to music. The music thing ended up working out for me. I played the trumpet through high school, and even got to attend a program called Governor's School one summer thanks to my musical abilities.

Speaking of Governor's School, I met so many very interesting people there. Basically, students were picked to go in an area of their expertise, so there were students there for music, science, french, etc. Needless to say, these were some bright kids that really taught me a lot about life. I met atheists there that could quote more of the Bible than me...big problem. Anyway, I learned a great deal about life, love, and happiness. (Ok well at least two of those three.)

In addition to meeing a lot of future doctors, lawyers, and senators at govie school...I also occupied my time with other things like exploring the great outdoors. Every summer my youthgroup went backpacking on the Appalachain Trail. Now this was no Mount Everest, but try telling that to a 120 lb. teenager hiking 50 lbs. worth of stuff on his own two shoulders. Do the math...it was grueling. But just sitting around the campfire at the end of each day enjoying the company of friends somehow made all of the aches and blisters well worth it.

High school was fun and fast. It seemed that just as I was starting to learn the ropes I had to pick some place to go to college. That was a tough call for me. But somehow I decided on the best place ever to attend college - Arkansas. (Of course there was no sarcasim in that statement.) My teachers all though I was crazy, but for some reason I had to go check out this place in Searcy, AR called Harding University. It turns out that it was evreything I was looking for and more.

Freshman year was probably one of the most fun learning experiences of my life. Nothing in high school can prepare you for your first year of college. Dorm life is in a league of its own. Never had I stayed up so late doing such insanely random things. I probably shouldn't mention any of those things on this site due to the potential for blackmail, but I'll just say they included such items as: huge cardboard swords, water balloon launchers, soap suds, 2 month old milk...I think you get the picture.

Beyond that I learned a lot more about life, love, and happiness. And I also learned a few lessons the slow and hard way. Life isn't just about getting what you want, but sometimes its simply wanting what you already have. I've also learned that some things happen for a reason, and then some things just happen. Sure there will always be some things you wished you might have done a little different, but I guess that's what wisemen mean when they say sometimes you just have to live and learn.

Well I feel I have certainly lived, and I would like to think that I might have even learned a thing or two in my four years of college. But one thing is for sure...as I stand at the brink of the next big step in my life, I realize that I still have so much to live and learn about. And for some reason that is really exciting to me right now.

More to come...