I have a flight in a little over six and a half hours back to Austin after spending nearly two weeks in Sacramento, probably the longest stretch of time I’ll spend back with my family for a while. I haven’t really been in California but for a few days here and there since the summer of 2004. I’ve spent the last two New Years in Austin and the last three summers in Dallas or Seattle. This point was brought home especially hard when I got to hang out with a group of guys I hadn’t seen in probably 4 years, despite them being some of my closest friends in High School, especially junior year.
For the past few years I’ve thought of Austin as home, but when asked for a permanent mailing address I’ve pretty unfailingly said Shelato Way in Carmichael, CA. My phone company and my airline still send all their junk mail here, as does UT when I do well enough in school. I’ve made my own financial decisions since leaving for college, but until now there was always a steady stream of funds flowing east into my account.
The training wheels are off now.
My family will be there for me, and I’ve been legally bound to any stupid decision I could make for over 4 years now, but there does seem to be something strangely final about this next flight to Texas. I have every reason to expect success, perhaps past the point of humility, and yet if there’s been one theme to my life of late it has been excessive worry.
“But seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to you. So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.” Matthew 6:33-34. Oh, guess I should be packing then.
Despite numerous attempts to drop out, a few last semester scares regarding various timelines and the lure of the private sector, I am now finished with every test, paper, project and requirement that the great state of Texas and her flagship university threw at me.
As I walked the cold streets back to my apartment images and feelings from the last four years began to run through my mind and I figured I should write them down in no particular, though vaguely chronological order
- The long walk back to Jester the first January
- Watching Jake sprint from the police (who were on the other side of Waller Creek)
- Bryan Plantes calling me out for language at broomball
- Catching that raccoon in north campus
- IPAP ‘05
- Watching Vince run in the TD. Celebrating on Guadalupe.
- Knocking out the Walterses with a straight flush
- The smell of the oaks on Speedway when it rains
- Shooting my first dove at Josh’s ranch
- Doing a surprising number of things while still asleep and late for discipleship @ Einstein’s
- Smoking pipe on Austin’s back porch
- Compiling my first kernel with Al in Dan/Dylan’s apartment
- Camping out for the Wii
- Literally hanging out with Doug at the old office
- Sailing
- Wandering out of Painter and checking my watch to figure out if the sun was rising or setting (thank you Dr. Berger)
- The lawn incident (probably the most embarrassing on the list)
- 375 Cases
- The Blue Collar Bachelor tour
I’m 3 hours from the last final I’ll ever take as an undergrad. It is for Distributed Computing. This is one of the slides I’m studying and will be tested on:
There is an entire slide preceding this one whose sole purpose is defining the symbols on this slide. I think it takes almost all 4 years of the Computer Science training I’ve received just to be able to even begin comprehending this slide (It’s a method of solving consensus among nodes who each have failure detectors, good cocktail party conversation).
In other news, probably a 70% chance of me losing it at Mark’s wedding.