My Story: Life Before Tragedy (Part 2)

One of the things I do while I work for personal and professional development is listen to encouraging words while I work.   I listened to a message preached by Louie Giglio (I had to listen to it multiple times because I’d catch myself getting busy and not paying attention).  In the message he discussed a name for God – El Roi – “The God who sees me“.  I truly believe that through my life God sees me and he has been with me during my life.  His presence has been very apparent during my health struggles.

A few weeks ago we went through a lesson in a bible study where we listed moments in our lives that were key.  I listed some that I could remember and since then have had more time to think on the list and added to it.  It sure makes me thankful to look back at these moments.  In the coming paragraphs (plus the ones on faith before this) I will try to write on these key moments as I remember them.

I have lived a very outdoor centered life.  I am your typical “redneck” south Arkansas born and lived life guy.  Most of my memories are of times spent or at least centered on life outside.  I’ve hunted and fished with my family and friends as much as possible.  Now it is fall and I am trying to get back to a more outdoor lifestyle.  This afternoon I went to the woods for a bit.  Walking out of the woods and back to my truck I tripped on a cypress knee.  If you have ever been in a forest with cypress trees you know the hazard of cypress knees.  Cypress knees are part of the root system of cypress trees, they grow upward for the trees to grow in areas which flood.  While it hurt it felt good to be back to some normalcy.

Quickly in my childhood I learned that athletics were not my thing.  Those of you that know me are saying “WHAT!”  “How can this short country boy from south Arkansas not be an athlete?” I know, I know, it’s shocking.  I played about three years of baseball like most kids but it became no fun to me as the seriousness increased.  I was the typical kid chasing bugs and playing in clover in the outfield.  After some serious discussions with my parents we decided I would not do that anymore.  In seventh grade we had to do athletics in school.  We were required at my school to either do football or basketball.  I chose to participate in basketball because tackle football was just too rough for me.  Have I mentioned I am a very short guy so basketball was definitely not for me either.  I will never forget after a seventh grade basketball game I was sitting in the stands with my parents eating some candy and choking.  My dad said something funny, I laughed and sucked the candy right down and choked.  Thankfully my dad was taking a first aid class for work at the time and sitting next to us was a good friend who was a nurse.  My dad yelled for our friend then grabbed me and did the Heimlich to stop the choking.  Thankfully, after he did the Heimlich my airways cleared of the candy and I was fine.  After being checked out by our friend, the nurse, I was back to it.  I was not good at basketball and usually was in the last rotation to be put in the game.    After that seventh grade season I decided not to do that again because as I say basketball was not for me.

I’m not very musical either.  In sixth grade we could join the band.  I played the saxophone.   My school would loan students an instrument to play.  The saxophone I was given was a very old saxophone and the case it was in was very heavy that had leather trim hanging off, it looked rough.  Carrying that thing around was very tough on me.  A couple times of year we would do a test where we would compete against others who played the same instrument.  This was called the chair test.  I was always the last chair in our saxophone section.  It was not because I wasn’t working on becoming a better saxophone player that I was placed in the last chair.  One of my band directors had a requirement that we practice so much time at home each week and it must be documented and I would do that practice time.  My grandmother played the piano and tried to teach me but I never picked that up either.  After I got out of the band another requirement in our school was band or choir so I joined the choir.  Singing is not my gift either so I served as a page turner for our choir director at her piano.  In our school there were multiple page turners so I wasn’t the only one who couldn’t carry a tune as it is said in a sack.

Like I said I’ve always been an outdoorsman.  Since athletics and music were not my thing I joined the FFA Forestry team in the ninth grade.  Hey doing outdoor type stuff with friends sounded perfect to me.  It was in doing this that I learned I needed glasses.  I just could not see the leaves on a tree.  We traveled all over the country competing in forestry career development events (CDEs).  In these events we would participate in competitions such as tree ID, tree measurement, and compass and pacing.  One of my favorite competitions each year was in my hometown. It was a competition between my school and one of the other schools in the county. I can still do some tree id and try to pass it along to my kids.  During these competitions I became very good friends with our team first as well as competitors from other schools, many of whom I would see later in college.  My FFA advisor and agriculture teacher was a very influential person in my life and to this day he will often take time to check on me.  I cannot say how much he has meant to me.

During my time as an FFA forestry competitor I was awarded some scholarships and even won first place individual in the national FFA competition up in Louisville, Kentucky.  These scholarships had to be used in a natural resource type school and degree program.  At the end of my high school career I was very torn on what I should pursue next.  On one hand I was a very technical person as computers became more a part of my life.  When an issue with a computer would come up I was able to fix it.  On the other hand I had these few scholarships that had to be used in a natural resource school and degree program plus the outdoors were such a huge part of my life.  During this struggle my mom was visiting with my neighbor about my confusion.  My neighbor had just graduated with a degree in forestry management from the University Of Arkansas at Monticello (UAM).  My neighbor told my mom that UAM had a degree plan called GIS (I can still barely spell it).  GIS (Geographic Information Systems) is a very technical field.  Most maps you see are produced by a GIS educated person. Map making or cartography is just a portion of GIS.  Location and data analysis are another big part of GIS.  Since GIS was technical and in the school of Forestry it checked the boxes of my scholarship requirements of being used in a natural resource based program so I enrolled in GIS at UAM.  I am thankful this is the path I went on.  When not at work I am able to pursue my love for the outdoors and when on the “clock” I can use technology.

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