During this meeting with my mentor, we talked about summer plans and how I was unsure about how I would be spending it. I explained how I wanted to work and hopefully gain some experience. I applied to a couple of internship opportunities and still waiting to hear back from some, but the uncertainty about my summer plans stresses me sometimes because I am the type to plan everything out beforehand. I don’t like not having a plan.  But my mentor reassured me that I have nothing to worry about. He said I shouldn’t be so worried about things outside of my control since there is really nothing I can do to change the outcome. He said all I can do now is trust God knowing the plan He has for me is good. We also talked about how this month has been extra busy. I said how it’s especially difficult to trust God in the hectic month of April with final exams approaching and many deadlines I have to meet. This year I’ve been involved in a lot of extracurriculars aside from just my sch...

     For my final meeting with my mentor, we talked about getting involved in the church.  This is something I did a great job of back in Nebraska but since coming to Wheaton I have not really tried very hard to get involved in any churches.  My mentor talked to me about the importance of finding a church starting to serve there. Even if it is just a little, a little is better than nothing he said.       The main church he advised me to get involved with was college church.  There are a few reasons for this.  The first being that I have a lot of family members who went to and still attend college church.  So, that means that I already have a lot of connections at college church. And that would definitely be nice serving along side family.  It would also be super cool if I could help in the youth group because I have multiple cousins who attend the college church youth group.  The next reason, is that my brother, Cal...

Due to the craziness of April, I was only able to talk to my mentor briefly. It's shocking and humbling to know that even the people we look up to as mentor figures go through hard times and even failures. My Mentor was sharing with me how hard school is getting as it gets closer to finals and also how his outlook for this summer does not look so great. During our conversation, we talked about staying motivated and trusting in God in the midst of hard times and failures. My mentor shared with me how he gets close to 5 hours of sleep most nights of the week because of all of the work he has. Although he is my mentor and I am the mentee, my mentor sharing his hardships with me was humbling because I realized that even the people who we think have it all together struggle with their own problems. After he shared, I was also able to share some of the struggles that I’ve been having academically as well. One of the things that we both vocalized was our abilities to stay motivate...

During our most recent conversation, Stan and I talked mainly about what I would be doing for my internship this summer. It was a very informative conversation and very helpful for me to clear some things up to help me better prepare.  Since I don't have a law degree, there will be a lot that I will not be able to get involved in, both for corporate privacy reasons and because of the law firm's policy. Instead, I'll be helping manage the law firm's internal affairs, such as analyzing financial spreadsheets and drawing conclusions as to what directions the firm should take to do things like cut down on travel costs for its lawyers, which clients to take up, etc. I have even been thinking about how I can incorporate aspects of management class, like lean project management strategies to help eliminate wasteful costs. Another one of the firm's big new goals for this year is to move into a new office building, so part of my internship is to lead the re...

I lost connection with one of my other mentors from a while back, but just had a cool opportunity to talk with him. It's crazy that in the past four years, he's gotten married, and now has a baby son. He has totally changed! He was always someone who helped to steer me closer to Christ, and so it was good talking with him. I think we sometimes have a hard time not steering away from God, but it's always good to find our way back home.

When I met with my Mentor a few weeks ago, he gave me an assignment to research the u-ship website for moving jobs. He told me to come up with a short term plan that I can enact within the next year to two years. That U-Ship site is amazing. For a short term goal, I now have a plan to make $6000 asap during the summer through the work that I currently do so that I can invest in getting a U.S. DOT number and adepquate insurance from Gallagher company. I will then, at the end of summer, set up a massive moving job coordinating 30-40 different jobs on the flight path toward either California, Florida, Texas, or Colorado. During the school year, I will set up weekend jobs for short moves that can be done Friday-Sunday. After college, I will then hopefully be debt free and be able to keep doing this work, and to keep expanding. Hopefully I'll eventually be able to hire inmates and do some of the other things that I want to do with this company.

In speaking with my mentor for the final time, we discussed how living with purpose is something that many fail to do, but it is beneficial for a happy, successful life. Especially a this time in life for me, it can feel as if anything that is done is done devoid of purpose or reason. Without immediate feedback, it can seem as if all the effort is leading to absolutely nowhere anytime soon. Perhaps the reason for feeling as if nothing is worth the effort is because of the joy-sucking habit of comparison. My mentor said that purpose is bigger than what you are doing compared to what someone else is doing. A better way looking at it is to see your life compared to what God wants for you. For example, there are things that God makes clear that we are supposed to be doing like loving those around us, helping the poor, and doing all things for the glory of Christ. If God is the only one we are living to please, we lose the hindrance of comparison to other people, and we are set free to grow...

After not seeing each other for a while after Spring Break ended, it was great to spend time with my brother and mentor Nathan at his apartment in the city. The reason we met was actually to help plan a party for our sister with my sister's friends and some of our cousins. My sister, Sarah, is getting married this July and the whole family has been scrambling to figure out all the wedding details and how to organize the venue. While being away at Wheaton, I wasn't too involved with the whole process and missed out on a lot of nights where my family and relatives would get together to plan out the wedding weekend.  While planning, the thought of being the only sibling at the house crept into my mind. Growing up, I have always had my brother or sister with me, which helped us get so close. However, after getting married, my sister will actually be moving away to Arizona. I slowly began to realize that the days where all the siblings could meet and hang out at our parents' ho...

For this final meeting my mentor and I kind of wrapped up the year. We looked at what challenged me this past school year, what made me grow, and what I learned from these challenges and growths. The main topic that frequently resurfaced in our conversation was growing in doing things on my own. For example, as I was searching for internships this summer I had many choices both here and Wheaton and back home. Both of these choices I would most likely have worked along side some of my friends and felt comfortable in this environment. However, as I was talking with my mentor he kept challenging me to branch out and go for something on my own. In doing so, he said this would allow for me to gain some serious growth and self-reliance. This is an aspect of my life that I needed challenging in and felt somewhat insecure about. I did not want to be called out for this inefficiency in my life but I greatly needed it. After being challenged to grow in this area I went out and found a six week ...

This is a busy season for me! I have classes finishing up and we have had many qualifying rounds for the golf team. We have our conference tournament coming up so all of us are trying to qualify for a spot. So after having classes and being exhausted from golf it is hard to get homework done. I want to relax in my dorm room after a long day but that’s not how the world works. There are many nights where I don’t get enough sleep because golf practice and team dinner go until 7 or 730 and then I have homework to do. This can be tolling. Recently I have been keeping up with my mentor (Ben) and he’s keeping me calm during these times.   We talk about how busy we are and how are finals are going to be difficult. My brother has been a calming presence this year. I took public speaking this quad and I’m not naturally a public speaker. I have never been good at public speaking and I have a long way to go to be good. I talk to my brother about how I’m nervous for a spe...

In my most recent conversation with my mentor, I learned the importance of relying on God’s guidance instead of my own.   My mentor pointed out the fact that God wants me to give my future to him.   I expressed my fear of the future and my concern as to whether I am in the right major/heading the right direction in life.   My mentor pointed me to Proverbs 3:5-6, which declares “ Trust in the  Lord  with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight. ”   Living out this truth found in the Word of God is so vital to my flourishing as a Christian.   I tend to want to take my life in my own hands, but I feel God calling me to give it all to Him instead of trying to take everything into my own hands and perform for His approval.    My mentor reminded me that God is making me into the beautiful creation He planned on me being from the beginni...

Given that my mentor, Mike, is a general manager of a minor league baseball team, it was hard to get a few minutes to talk to him. We are almost a month into the baseball season right now, and things are quite busy for him. Therefore, we were only able to email last week, but we were still able to catch up. Unfortunately, it’s been a frustrating year thus far for Mike’s team, as well as most of the teams in the Midwest League. The weather has been completely terrible over the past few weeks, and that has had a bad effect on attendance for games. Also, lots of games have been postponed, which is obviously not ideal. In the minor leagues, lots of a team’s revenue comes through ticket sales, and when the game time temperature is 30 degrees, not many people are going to come to games. So, teams have to wait it out until the weather gets better and try not to lose too much money. Although this is tough, like anything else, there are lessons to be learned from it. As muc...

Blog Post #2 I am grateful for the opportunity to have had another impactful conversation with someone who knows me so well--- my Dad.   We talked about ways I can improve as a leader and he identified some ways I can improve over the summer to maximize my leadership potential.   He stressed the importance of getting to know the people you are leading.   If you get to know their needs and genuinely care about them, he said, they would be willing to do things for you that they don’t want to do.   For example, if I care about the things an individual on my team is going through, such as struggling with school or deeper issues, they will feel a meaningful connection to me.   To truly inspire others, you must have empathy for them, and you must also be willing to go out of your way to love them.   You need to be willing to die to your selfishness, and my Dad pointed out the fact that respecting them by being on time and developing a rhyt...