2012 in Review

525,600 minutes - how do you measure a year?

In Joy - Incredible moments occurred from literally the beginning of 2012 to the end as I got to spend time with friends I had not seen regularly during much of 2011.  The random things we do like driving all of the way to Springfield to go to a small zoo and creation museum I will always remember fondly.  In addition, I met so many new great people over the summer when I interned for Project Transformation.  Although I was exhausted by the end of just about everyday, I knew my time had been well spent as I saw the joy in all of the children's faces as they opened their gift from us and the many donors who helped us buy three new books for each kid.          

In Strife -  Bitter disagreement over the future of our country marked much of 2012 due to the presidential election.  As had been said before by many other people, the 2012 election quickly turned not into a policy debate, but into rampant character assassinations allowed the election to turn into a popularity contest where the electorate wasn't voting for specific ideas or platforms but on who they liked better.  It's sad that in the world of politics today, the widely held belief is that the ends justifies the means as this allows a successful businessman and governor to be called a tax cheat, a racist, and a murderer.  May the new year bring a more meaningful debate on the substantial issues that matter and reconciliation between those who were in disagreement with one another.

In Sorrow - On one of my first mornings home for Christmas break, I had the TV turned to Fox News as they were just beginning to report on a possible shooting at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut.  As I continued to watch for the next couple of hours, the death toll continued to increase. This confirmed my belief that although we live in a culture of violence, it is greatly intensified by such availability of guns like the high capacity assault rifles used in the shooting.  As we mourn the loss of over 20 young children, I hope that others begin to realize that the second amendment does not guarantee the right for all people to have all types of guns.

Finally, we can measure the year in love.  I hope that all who took the time to read this experienced love in some way or another this past year and that 2013 will be once again a year filled with love.

Sincerely,
Jeremy Ryan Page

Final Days of Fall

It seems that every month just goes by faster and faster.  October and November were no different.

The changing colors of the leaves around campus set the stage for what was an amazing October.  My friends put on a fake 21st birthday party for me since many of us were gone last fall.  Reminiscent of my birthday celebration two years ago, a red velvet cake was baked for me topped with candles.  Soon after that, I went home for the first time this semester for fall break.  While I was home I got to go to the State Fair of Texas with my family where I of course consumed as many different fried foods as possible ranging from fried PB&J to fried cheesecake and also got one of the final glimpses of Big Tex before it burned down a few days later.  Also while I was home, I got to tour the newly constructed Lewisville High School.  Although still mildly in shock about my high school being torn down, it was good to see new facilities being built that will serve future generations of Fighting Farmers.  Soon after I got back to Fayetteville, it was time for my real birthday, my last one I will celebrate as an undergrad, and I was 22 for 22 in having another great birthday.

In what seemed like a blink of the eye, October had ended and it was November already.  The first weekend I went to Norfolk with my family to go to my dad's last Change of Command ceremony.  After almost 30 years of service to the Navy, he is now done with his final command post and will officially retire in the spring.  While in Virginia, I got to visit William and Mary Law School which is one of my top picks.  It was a gorgeous campus and I could easily see myself going there next fall.  November also brought about my church's Veteran's Day Concert that I performed in.  Despite Thanksgiving Break blindsiding me and many others because it fell so early this year,  I was able to go back home and spend time with the family. Although I will never forget last year's Mexican-themed Thanksgiving I celebrated with friends in London, it was nice to have a real Thanksgiving with my family.  Over Thanksgiving Break, I had some time to submit my first wave of law school applications to the following schools: Duke, UT, Houston, USC, UCLA, Georgia, William and Mary, and Arkansas.  I still have a few more that I'm trying to finish up and I will submit those shortly.

This fall I saw both great beginnings and beautiful endings. Wrapping things up here in Fayetteville and trying to set a new path for next fall has brought its own stresses, but successful planning now should allow me to reap benefits in the future.  Although I know I have seen my last fall here in Northwest Arkansas, a great winter and spring awaits.  

And There Went September

I can't believe that September went by so quickly and it is now October.  So many things happened over the past month and I was unable to write about everything so here I'll just summarize some of the highlights of the past month.

The Romney 47% Tapes: A couple of weeks ago, a liberal website published secretly and illegally recorded videotapes of Mitt Romney saying some unflattering things about 47% of Americans.  While I think it was unfortunate that he said those statements, I think he does have a point that the Democrats (and somewhat the Republicans) prosper the most by making their constituents feel like victims whether through economic or market forces or through government action.  By perpetuating myths about victimization, both political parties take away from the people who are actually victims of hatred and bigotry due to their ethnicity or sexual orientation.  Creating false victim statuses for people groups who do not deserve them does nothing to cure the inequality that we see today in America.

The Collapse of the Razorback Football Team: Much has been written and said about this topic as I and just about every other Hog fan in Arkansas and around the country are beyond disappointed in how the season is playing out.  I could say that our football team should be embarrassed or ashamed of how they have performed so far, but I'm sure the already are.  It's truly unfortunate that such a disaster has ensued because Jeff Long showed integrity and made the right decision in firing former head coach Bobby Petrino.  It has become obvious that John L Smith was not the right coach to replace Petrino, but there is much blame to go around.  I think it's okay for a fan to be critical as there are many college football programs where criticism is strictly forbidden which causes them to live in a fantasyland where they think their football team is the best in the nation when in actuality they're typically only mediocre at best.  Although it might be okay to criticize the efforts of the football team and the athletic department, we should never allow that criticism to become demeaning or mean-spirited as that will do nothing to turn around the season and will only spread ill-will among the Razorback Nation. 

As I march towards graduation, there is still much to do as I am still in the midst of law school applications, grad school applications, and much more.  Life continues to go on here in Fayetteville as I experience more lasts whether it be my last Bikes, Blues, and BBQ or the beginning of my last fall here, and I'm enjoying my time here as much as I can.

A New School Year

And so senior year has begun.  Classes are in full swing and I think I've finally gotten my Student Ambassador script down about how great the "You of A" is as I begin my second week of tours.

It doesn't seem that long ago that I drove up to Arkansas to move in before Early Week for marching band, nor does it seem like it was almost ten years ago that I made my first trip to Fayetteville when my brother took his first tour of campus.  It was on that first drive to Arkansas that I not only noticed the beauty of the mountainous Ozarks, but also all of the highway construction that lasted literally from Lewisville to Fayetteville.  Whether it was the expansion of SH 121 into a toll road or the repaving of I-40 and US 69 that run through Oklahoma (which I swear to God that they had been repaving the same part of US 69 ever since Eric started going here), my entire trek was filled with road construction.  Although it would at times provide some sort of excitement through the monotony that is driving through Oklahoma, most of the time it was just a pain that made an already long drive even longer.  

As the years went on though, more and more of these roads would be completed. SH 121 (Now Sam Rayburn Tollway) was finished my sophomore year and on my drive up a few weeks ago all of the other construction projects through Oklahoma and Arkansas were also complete.  These long term projects have finally come to a close as my own long term project, graduating from college, starts to come to a close.  It's too early for me to start moving the metaphorical construction cones and warning signs as I still have one more year left, but as I do prepare myself for the long goodbye that is Senior Year, I do hope that it's filled with many unforgettable moments and few regrets.  

Jeremy Ryan Page           

A Look Back

A few weeks ago, I went to Six Flags and a few of my fellow interns convinced me to go onto the Superman: Tower of Power ride which looking back is analogous to my summer at Project Transformation.  Before I got onto the ride, I had concerns about whether it would be a good idea or not for me to do this.  I wasn't sure if it was the best use of my time as there were so many other rides I might have liked better or maybe would have been a better fit for me.  Although I had these fears, I still moved forward in line knowing deep down that I should do it.  Instead of starting out slow, the ride almost immediately blasts you 300 feet into the air.  This shocking push was reminiscent of the first weeks of PT where I along with the other interns were bombarded with 12 hour days of training where we learned everything from how to complete component sheets to how to treat spiders up children's noses.

Although my eyes were closed out of fear during the ascent, once we reached the stop and paused, I could see the beauty of Dallas and Fort Worth like I've never seen before.  That great feeling I experienced at the top of the Superman ride I felt so many times during the summer.  Whether it was trash can pranks, interpretive dancing to Colors of the Wind, membership in the Finer Things Club, the sleepover with the St. Mark's Sharks ("THIS IS IT!"), the PB&J clique at Adventure Week, or just the special moments I experienced everyday at Chapel Hill with the best team ever was what made this summer so great.

After you go through a couple of free falls, you realize that the ride is about to be finished a lot sooner than you think it should be.  You realize that although the beginning seemed so long, the ride was brief.  When you get off, you look up and realize where you were those past few minutes and understand for the first time the heights you achieved.  Project Transformation was not without its free falls, but looking back it was such a spectacular summer that stretched me in so many ways and allowed me to reach new heights.

Lots of changes happened this summer that reminded me that even though I was in the PT bubble, life was still going on elsewhere in the world.  Whether it be a pastor transition, TV shows ending, a high school  getting demolished, or new relationships formed, I realize that these are but the first of many changes that  will happen in the upcoming year as I enter into my last year of college.

-Jeremy Ryan Page

Not Much Longer To Go

These past two weeks have been a whirlwind of activity with so much happening as the final weeks of Project Transformation start to happen.  Week 6 at Chapel Hill, we did Disney Week!  It was a low-key week, but everyday was a fun theme that related to a different Disney movie (although doing an interpretive dance to Colors of the Wind ended up not making the cut).  On Monday, the theme was Jungle Book and we did lots of jungle themed activities.  The theme for Tuesday was The Lion King and we did African safari themed activities and we got to watch a movie in its entirety in the afternoon, and the kids even got to enjoy a bag of freshly popped pocorn .  I had not seen The Lion King in a while, but watching again reaffirmed my position that it's one of the best Disney movies ever.  On Wednesday, we did Aladdin theme and they got to make magic carpets and do other fun activities.  On Thursday, to end the week, we did a Pixar theme and after (another) scheduling problem, we got to watch The Incredibles in the afternoon.  During Week 6 at Chapel Hill, our reading volunteers came from arch-nemesis Trietsch UMC of Flower Mound so I decided to entertain myself (and annoy my team) by wearing a FUMC Lewisville shirt every day that week just so they knew which church had an intern there and which didn't.

In a complete turnaround from week 6, week 7 at Chapel Hill was action packed with a really exciting theme: Olympics/Around the World.  Every day we talked about a different continent and a sport that's popular there with Monday being about Europe and basketball (that one was a stretch), Tuesday being about Asia and Taekwondo, and Wednesday was about South America and soccer. Also on Tuesday, we had a visit from the Fire Department of Farmers Branch and so the kids were really excited about that.  And to cap it all off, we had Family Fun Night on Thursday.  It was a great night and similar to how the Olympics spotlight talent from great athletes from all over the world, we put on a talent show to spotlight the kids from Chapel Hill.  Lots of families came and I was quite impressed that these kids could have so much talent at such a young age.

Outside of programming, I have been doing lots of stuff to keep me from getting bored.  Last Saturday, I went to Six Flags Over Texas with a bunch of people from PT.  It was a great day with great weather (for most of the day) and it wasn't too crowded.  I overcame my fears of riding Superman (with a little help from Hannah Escalante) and finally did it.  I held onto dear life the entire time as well as closed my eyes for some of it, but all in all it really wasn't that bad.  The next day on Sunday, I went back to Six Flags Over Jesus aka Highland Park UMC.  After the worship service, I got a tour of the facilities that included fun facts about the 14,000 members and the 36 million dollar expansion.  Unlike last time I went to Highland Park UMC, I didn't almost get hit by a Porsche in the parking lot, so I'm going to call it a good day.

Although there's only one more week of programming and then Adventure Week, there's still so much left to do.  It will be a crazy couple of weeks, but I know it'll be definitely worth it!

Week 5 at Project Transformation!

I can't believe that it's already July, time just goes by so quickly here at PT!  I wasn't really as exhausted this week as I have been in the past, maybe because I'm finally getting used to the schedule, but more than likely it's because we had a nice holiday during the middle of the week.


This week's theme at Chapel Hill was Time Travel!  We built this amazing time machine and every day we had fun characters from the past come out of it and explain what era they were from.  On Monday, it was prehistoric day.  They made paper plate dinosaurs in arts and crafts and went on a dinosaur literacy dig that afternoon among other fun activities.  On Tuesday, we did Medieval plus some Founding Fathers to try to incorporate Independence Day into the week.  We got a visit from the Statue of Liberty and Betsy Ross that morning and then they built castles in arts and crafts.  That afternoon, we had all of the kids sign a Declaration of Independence and then we all sang patriotic songs together.  The girls then had a tea party and the boys did finger jousting.  We had Wednesday off for the holiday and then on Thursday we did the 60s, 70s, and 80s.  The kids made tie-dye in arts and crafts and later on made boom boxes in the afternoon.

Outside of camp, I had lots to do to keep me busy!  On Monday, I got my LSAT score.  Although it wasn't quite what I was hoping for, I find that very few people will have sympathy for me for getting a 163.  Tuesday night we had off, and so I got to go with some friends to JumpStreet in Plano.  Who would have though a giant warehouse of trampolines would be so much fun?  On Wednesday, I went home and my family went sailing on our sailboat in Lake Grapevine and later that evening we were able to watch the Flower Mound fireworks show from Parkway Elementary which is right next to my house.  Thursday night was the Coffee House here at PT and I was able to see some amazing performances from my fellow interns.  This weekend I will be seeing Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat at the new Wyly Theatre in the Arts District. Also, I will be speaking on Sunday at my home church in Lewisville so I'm excited by that as well.  Next week, there should be once again lots to keep my busy and of course I will keep everyone updated by this blog.