Michelle's Graduation!

This weekend I had the opportunity to see my little sister graduate from college. It was amazing to see the culmination of the last four years of her life. The weekend was full of family, friends, laughs, and smoke?

We flew in to Burbank and then drove north to Santa Barbara. We knew that there was a wild fire in Santa Barbara (the second one in 6 months) but we had no idea what to expect.

This is what we saw from the freeway coming into SB.

Our fist night we went to Michelle’s track and field banquet, it was a little long but fun.

Little did we know it was going to be dinner and a show.

The next day we woke up covered in a thin layer of ash that had come in through the windows overnight. After breakfast

we went for a walk on the wharf …

Then headed to the beach,

where Michelle and I compared skin color

I’ll let you be the judge about which looks better.

Friday night was Michelle’s baccalaureate, which had to be moved from Westmont to Santa Barbara City College because the campus had to be evacuated. It was a beautiful service in a beautiful setting.

Saturday morning was commencement, it was so incredible to watch Michelle walk across the stage, and she was so beautiful!

After the ceremony we went to a potluck with Michelle’s friends

and then went out to a nice dinner with the family.
Sunday morning Michelle, dad, and I woke up early to watch the sunrise,

it was too foggy to really see anything, however we did not complain about the fog because it helped so much with the firefighting efforts.

We went to church and then out to lunch, after lunch we went to the beach again for a little bit and then it was time to go.

But not before a quick stop in Summerland in which Michelle showed off her amazing avocado picking ability.

It was such a great trip and having gotten the chance to take Michelle to college for her freshman year and then to get to be there for her graduation was something that I will always keep close to my heart. I’m now home missing my sister with lots of memories, some great pictures and a wicked sunburn.

My sister goes to school at Westmont College in Santa Barbara, CA and her school was affected by the "Tea Fire" that started Thursday night. Yesterday was a tough day but everyone is ok and the fire is now out.

This is a view from the air of Montecito, the small town where the fire did the most damage.

This is what’s left of the Psychology building, one of the oldest buildings on campus.

And what’s left of the Physics building.

The Future

I started back a school this week and my first assignment was to write an essay on where I see myself when I'm finished with my program. While for most people this might be easy and maybe fun, for me it was really hard. I spend most of my days trying not to think about the future, something that I used to do all the time, and have been being trying to train myself out of that kind of thinking. I can get lost in the future, and will stop living in the now. Dreaming about what people will say, how they will react, and where I will be, and then I'm inevitably let down because no one can ever live up to my dreams. I struggle anytime someone asked me to look in to the future because I would just rather not.