Life's Lessons

The cat is out of the bag. For the past several days I’ve had many phone calls, many instant messages, many discussions etc about the way things are in this old world. Particularly with the work aspect of life. Before I give you todays story, let me give you some background info….

The year was 1999, I was a junior at TTU working toward my MIS degree. Sam and I had been dating for about 100 years, and the question was about to be popped anytime. Each year TTU has a job fair. It is as boring as it sounds, no bearded lady, no cotton candy just a bunch of booths with brochures about company’s and some dude in a suit trying to sell you on their organization. At the time my good friend Amy and I were pretty attached at the hip. We had every computer class together; we had it where we were on the same group project teams etc. So we had many lunches together, and day to day things together, so this job fair was no different. We headed off to this job fair together. (Ironically her future husband was an art major so he and sam had classes together. We are still good friends but mostly she and sam communicate about kids and being moms our conversations are mostly about the old days) Anyway as we toured this job fair there was a booth for the fortune 500 company of Kimberly Clark. They were offering summer internships so we were like what the heck would be great experience lets do it. We both created resumes based off the Microsoft word template like every other college student. They reviewed them and then decided to interview several folks. After the dust had all settled i was offered a position. This was a pretty big deal for me since only 8 were chosen from TTU. There were a few MIS folks, maybe a marketing person, maybe a couple of computer science people. I can’t remember what areas we each came from.

Flash forward a few months, Sam and I were engaged. One week after spring semester found me packing up to move to Knoxville for the summer. I lived in a rat hole of an apartment, but it was cheap (relatively speaking) I was able to save a lot of money for the big wedding day. Weekdays found me working, weeknights found me stuffing invitations in my recliner, and weekends found me at home with family and doing normal FBC sound duty etc (no screen existed then). The summer went well, and the basic rule of thumb was “do a good job and you’ll be a shoe in for a job”. Well August came, sam and I swapped rings and then started our senior year at TTU. Yeap we were married in college for all that didn’t realize that.

Sam and I were happy as larks in our 400 square foot apartment, and were working toward graduation. Anyone that has been through the MIS program knows that the last couple of projects are pretty demanding so I spent about as much time with Amy as I did with sam. Amy would come over to our apartment as we worked on projects, sam would hit the sack and amy and I would keep working. There was only about 5 feet between the computer and the bed so we basically were all still chatting and sam would finally drift off to sleep. One day during the year I got my letter from Kimberly Clark offering me a job. The money was pretty substantial for a new college kid. Well to be honest it is more than TTU or UT has either one offered me. The deal was something like this. Sam and I knew we wanted to stay in Sparta. Family is here, church is here, you name it and it was here. Kimberly Clark gave me the choice to accept tentatively and if something came up before May 1 I was welcome to stay with whomever the local option was. Sam and I discussed this for a couple days. I felt like if we said lets take Kimberly Clark and maybe find something before May 1 then basically we were saying “God we trust you to give us something local, but just in case we are wrong then we’ll keep our options open” So we made the difficult decision to turn down a great job and rely full on God to give us something local. Not sure if you’ve looked for a computer job in Sparta before, but they ain’t too plentiful. We turned down the position, January went by then march the may 1 date. Then june and july, and then august. It appeared no job was going to turn up. Then at the last moment I got a phone call about a position opening up in Sparta with the UT extension service. I had applied for it months ago and never heard a word back. I had never heard of them but I was willing to give it a whirl. It turned out that Sam and I both started brand new jobs on the same day. September 1st. She was a brand new teacher, and I was an IT guy for UT. So what happened during this down time? Probably one of the most memorable summers of my life. I spent the time learning to wait on God’s plan. I spent it with my brother and my grandpa on the farm. Working in the hay was hot, dry and sometimes boring. But I can remember story’s and lunches and moments with my brother and especially papa that can never be replaced. We chose to take a job that was not driven by money but around our family and that has been a theme ever since in our family.

Flash forward to present times… Many of you are aware of all the changes in my life recently. If not then just scroll down and read. Tim is gone, there is no changing that. Jeremy is gone from UT, there is no changing that. My situation on the other hand is always subject to change. I have spent the past couple of weeks learning TTU systems and people. I met some wonderful folks at TTU. But with each passing day I knew deep down that this spot was not right for me. There are certain challenges at tech that will not be mentioned in this blog. All I can say is I have resigned from TTU, and through a very long process have been welcomed back to UT. Some might say you should have just stayed to start with! Well I disagree. This has been a hard transition with all the paper work on both sides, but the end result is quite amazing. There is no doubt in my mind I had gotten content and in a rut before. I have been given the opportunity to go back to the job that was so divinely appointed in the first place. I have a much greater since of purpose and appreciation than I would have ever had if I had just stayed. Is this all stuff I knew? Sure. But sometimes you just have to loose something before you realize how good things were. I am looking forward to getting back into the swing of UT life. Is it without problems? Heavens no! But neither is any other place in this fallen land. I have always been proud of mine and sams contentment in all sitations. But it never hurts to have a refresher course. So that’s where we are, after all this blog, if your still with me. I’ll be back at UT on Monday. Thanks for wasting this much time on the blog!