As I think I said before, I started getting more active in church in Junior High and High School. That was the church side of things, but there was also the High School side of things. I would say that up through probably our sophomore year, there was the standard groups and cliques that most schools have. There were people who didn’t get along and those who were popular. The usual stuff really.
Something changed in our Junior and Senior years. I’m not sure what it was. It could just be my own perception of things, but I felt like our class started to get along. I felt that by the time we graduated, there were fewer grudges and conflicts than at any time in the past. This may or may not be because I went to a small school where most of us attended from kindergarten to graduation. Perhaps everyone realized that they may not see these people in the future and there was no point in making life miserable.
Anyhow, that’s kind of all beside the point. I did well in school and was valedictorian with one other student in my class. Believe it or not, we got along well and are still friends to this day. We don’t keep in touch as much as we should, but we still share important things that go on in our lives with one another.
As graduation approached, and I closed one door of my life to start the next I had an important decision to make… where to go to college. I had narrowed it down between two schools. One of them was where some of my friends had attended and I really liked the feel of the school. It would mean living on campus and spending quite a bit of money for the experience. The other choice would mean free tuition (because I was valedictorian) and living at home. I’m the cautious type who over analyzes things, so I picked the free choice.
You’ll see later why this was a good choice. (Hint: I met my wife there.) So what purpose did I discover from all of this. Obviously, I continued to work hard and do well in school and that was really for myself more than anything. It did pay off in the end due to the free tuition. Since I graduated without any school debt, it really gives us a lot of freedom. Unfortunately, I think we take that freedom for granted and tend to stay on the cautious side other than really venturing out and using our resources and talents to do great things. Hence the struggle I am currently in. However, it may be that God aligned things for me to not have any college debt so that I could do great things. There have been certain moments in my life that I knew right then they were directed by God. Then there have been others that when I look back, I can see how God may have been directing things all along.