Year in Review

What was a few of the things that made 2019 memorable for you? Let me know in the comments below! 2019 has been one of the best yet most challenging years in my life. I traveled to so many places, met some of the most amazing people I have ever met, and grew in my relationship to God in so many ways! Over the course of this post I will go through a month by month snapshot and share with you some of the things that made this year AMAZING!

January

January marked the start of my 4th semester of college and the last semester of my Sophomore year. This didn't hit me till it was over, but college moves so fast! On the 2nd I filled in on the bench for Jesse and it was the coolest job and feeling in the world. I  handed Trav his board and would get the media timeout stats...among other things. This was the first time I saw into the numerous things that goes into a game day of basketball or sports in general at the college level. I knew before from watching, but this was slightly different. The other big news was I get to travel with the team for most of the games this semester! This month we went to University of Idaho, Eastern Washington, and Northern Colorado. We got to travel in a chartered plane from Spokane to Greeley and man it was amazing, they gave us full sized candy bars....its the small things in life! At the end of the month some friends and I got the smart idea to go to Weir Hot Springs even though there was snow on the ground and the path was a borderline death trap. Getting there was fine..ish but we didn't leave till it was getting dark. On the way back I was sure that one of us would leave with at least a wound that needed stitches, but we made it out safely with just a few rips in our clothes. As far as classes go I am taking a few fun classes, but the hardest is for sure going to be Anatomy and Physiology 1....The thought of this being the last semester of my Sophomore year is still just a shock! 

February 

February was another month of blessings. I was able to travel to Weber St. and Idaho St. where we claimed the regular season championship for the 2nd year in a row! Over half of my fundraising money for my missions trip to Africa was raised and I can not tell you how much that meant to me! In my class called Peer Health Education through the Curry Health Center on campus I was able to help plan my first Peer Reaching Out event called Creative Joy! We made essential oil play dough, had humane society dogs, coloring, and free massages! It was a blast to plan and it also showed me some cool things that I could incorporate into my classroom. I ended this month with a trip back to watch my brother play basketball for the last time, with my aunt and uncle. It was awesome to see him play and it made me remember how fun it was to play with him back in our hometown gym. 

March

March was full of fun crazy events! It started off with my mom visiting me in Missoula to help me study for my upcoming anatomy exams! It was so nice to have her here to quiz me, help with little ways to remember names, but also to just hang out! It is moments like that that I will remember far into my adult life. Then I passed my Tour Council. I joined advocates in the fall of last year and in the spring you take a class to prepare you for the ins and outs of what you do as a UM Advocate! You train for tours, learn about every program on campus, and also grow in your friendships within the group. This all leads up to your Tour Council where you give a tour to the coordinators and the adviser's and they grill you with questions. I was so excited when I received my "Montana" name tag and could finally give tours. The next week was our PRO's class retreat to a hotsprings. I really enjoyed getting to know different people, relax in an amazing hotsprings, and also learn more about the health field and what we can do for each other! This weekend was cut a few hours short because my cousin Rilee made it to the State Championship game in basketball and you know I would not miss that! We went to Belgrade (Dad's Alma Mater) and got to hang out with family and friends I hadn't seen in awhile. They ended up getting 2nd but it was awesome to see her play one last time in high school! We drove back to Missoula the next morning just in time for the net cutting ceremony for Griz Basketball! I was blessed to be a part of Back to Back regular season Champions. The late nights, travel, long days, and extra work helping the guys in the gym paid off! We were headed to Boise for the Big Sky championships! We were the number 1 seed and because you only get a certain amount of gym time, we were tasked with making a court in the hotel meeting room. This was a super fun memory as we pulled out the blue painters tape and made ourselves a court, I even added the UM logo! After 2 games we were in the championship, and my family came to watch with me. We had lots of dutch bros, fries, and rode around downtown on lime scooters way to much, but this week was a blast. We were down at half to EWU but came back in the second half to win our second consecutive BIG SKY CHAMPIONSHIP, we were Dancing once again! The best memory was filling up Gatorade cups with water in the locker-room and having the players and coaches come in and us throw them in the air getting soaked from head to toe. We got back to Missoula after traveling through the night, just in time for a nap and then the selection show. Sitting at the selection show next to President Bodnar and his wife and kids was so much fun even if we drew Michigan for the second year in a row! Tomorrow we were off once again, but this time to Des Moines, Iowa. We ended up losing, but the perks and atmosphere of March Madness is incredible. I loved our seats right behind the basket and the facilitators said we had the best band and mascot they have ever seen! So proud to be a Griz! When we got off of the plane in Missoula, I went home got in the car and headed to Kooskia. We were having our second family spring break trip to the Oregon coast with the cousins! Oregon was full of memories and stories. From searching for glass balls at 6 a.m., to late night walks on the beach, to fires and smore's while the sun sets, to getting sprayed with water at devils punch bowl. We laughed and even swam in the freezing cold ocean. The long trips and only 8 days spent in Missoula this month is something I still don't know how I accomplished. I saw so many new places and spent much needed time with the family! 

April

April was such a fun month! I got to spend two weeks with a group from Central America, go on Advocate Retreat, and did an adult Easter egg hunt thanks to my wonderful aunt! At the beginning of the month a group of 26 people from Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador came for 14 days in Montana. I was able to spend most of those days with them, when I wasn't in class. I got to give my first group tour to them and that was a very special moment! I was able to show them the football field, the athletics facilities, campus, and we even hiked the M and had a snowball fight! Being there for their first time seeing snow was a blast....and of course you have to throw it around if its your first time...right?? When we got to the top it was constant pictures and poses with the different flags. They were in awe of the view. I was freezing because I forgot a jacket, but they wanted to stay for sunset even though it was cloudy out. So we stayed up there for about another hour talking about Missoula, life, our families, etc. It was a great time and we were so happy to get back to the resident halls and warm up! After two weeks with them and me hanging out till almost midnight every night I was tired, but so sad to see them go! I made so many good friends and now need to make a trip to Honduras soon. While they were here I went up to Flathead Biological Research Station with my fellow Advocates for our yearly spring retreat! It was so much fun to get to know everyone a little more, learn about advocates and the group more, and just hang out and share our favorite stories of the seniors! It is amazing all of the amazing places God has placed right here in our own backyard, and I have only spent just a few days actually seeing what is right behind me! Later this month, I went up to Aunt Becky's place and she made an adult Easter egg hunt for us. I have never felt like a kid more than in that moment! I was running around, jumping up to find eggs, and crawling on the ground cause I wanted those gift cards for a coffee! So many fun memories and friendships made this month!

May

May was a month of things I never thought I would see happen. My brother somehow graduated high school, Allexis graduated Pre-school, and I wore a bee costume and danced around campus! Yeah that did happen. A local event that happens every may to raise money for local non-profits has their mascot Polly the Pollinator, who spreads joy and helps to raise $500,000 in one week. My friend worked for them and they needed someone to be on campus in the suit for a few hours and I thought why not? It was fun to see people's faces especially my friends that didn't know it was me, and it was for a great cause! My semester ended at the beginning of the month and I really needed a job, and luckily started at the admissions office and it is the best job I have ever had! Working with friendly people, answering phones, and helping people apply for college is something I never thought of, but love doing so much! I took a few days off just in time for Trayse's graduation and man I never thought I would actually see him walk, I mean at least not on time ;). It was so fun to watch him graduate and hang out with family! We turned right around though and went to Montana to watch Rilee graduate and hang with more family! Earlier this month Allexis had a little graduation ceremony from Pre-School and her pictures were adorable! I ended the month with a very nice night hike up to the M on a clear Missoula night! This place I get to call home is so pretty, and I cant imagine living anywhere else!

June

June marked the first month of me living with the best roomies I have ever had! It was so fun to decorate a house, build and plant a garden, and host BBQ's and movie nights! I finally felt like a real adult making real choices ahah. I also have been putting a lot of extra hours in at Home Depot as a cashier. I joined the Orange Life but only for about a month and a half. I am working 14 hour days most of the week splitting between Admissions and Home depot. It is a lot, but at the end of the day I love working and filling my day with things that I enjoy!  I am now fully funded thanks to my T-shirt fundraiser and I am putting together everything for my trip. I can't believe that this is actually happening! It has been a long journey to fundraise all of the money, but my support system is unlike any other! In any given day, I have no idea who I will talk to, meet, give a tour to, or check out, but I do know that I want them to leave with a smile and having a little bit of a better day then before I said Hello! Time to water the Strawberry's and pack my bags... this next adventure is going to be crazy!

July

This month literally started with a bang! I went to the 4th of July show with Renn and Becky in Florence and it was really good! I was able to get some good pictures as well. I then went home packed my last few things and enjoyed the last night in Montana for over a month! The next morning I went to work for a few hours and then said my goodbyes to everyone before going to the airport! It still is crazy to me how this next month happened. God is truly amazing! I spent a few days in Fort Wayne by myself before my team arrived. I saw a few super cool rose gardens, the Fort staged like the 1800's and even ran into an adult kickball game! I was overjoyed when I saw this and honestly wanted to join but continued on my walk. I was thrilled every night, because I got to go out into the rose garden and dance around with the fireflies! They are the coolest thing ever and I had to video call my family and show them what they were missing! When my team arrived I instantly knew that this would be some of the best friends I will ever make! We got to grow in our team building skills, learn about God's work within this organization, and where we fit in where we are going. We sang songs as loud as we could, danced together, and I even put on a show of me signing and dancing to the pitch perfect riff off on our bus ride up to Chicago! We were already getting crazy and having fun and the trip barely started. We flew from Chicago to Dubai, Dubai to Johannesburg, South Africa stayed one night there, and then flew to Windhoek, Namibia.  To highlight a few of the things we did while we were there will be hard, but I am going to try. On our drives we saw zebra, giraffes, warthogs, lions, kudu, ostrich, springbok, gemsbok, and we even went to the biggest seal reserve in the world. It was crazy to just look out and see all of these amazing animals. We spent our mornings learning about their culture, and the afternoons talking with locals and the merchants at the marketplace. A few afternoons we took trip to ride camels through the desert, climb dune 7 (the largest dune in the world), and we even went up the skeleton coast to see a few shipwrecks! Talking with the people was hard at first, because they don't just open up to people and it is very hard to gain their trust. After a week I was able to lead a market wide bible study with my team and even talked to the guys about treating women with respect and the meaning of marriage. It was amazing to see God work through me in that setting, I was so scared, but he kept me strong and mighty. We also got to meet the Himba women and learn about their culture and way of life and for the first time in 5 years they taught us how to dance. I say us but the chief picked me out of the group, probably because I am an awkward tall white boy, and we had a little dance off. After we went at it for a little bit the rest of the group slowly joined and I can confidently saw...he won the dance battle. Every time we would see the Himba women in town they would start clapping again and I would do a quick dance for them and we would all start laughing! Then we went up to Opuwo, and worked in the Christian school for two weeks and a few days got to do a few outreaches with the nomadic tribes out in their villages. I will never forget driving in and out of dried up river beds, around trees, through clouds of dust, and after miles and miles of nothing, here a tribe pops up. The way they live and their way of life is so different than anything I could have thought of, and it is so hard to explain. We were waiting for the rest of the tribe to come sit and talk, they have no sense of time so whenever is convenient for them is when they come, and we had dirt and dust and in 5 min they were teaching us games to play with the little rocks. They were so good and thought it was so funny when we messed up. Because of the two year drought all of the men and women and children that were strong enough to carry water and didn't have an infant were gone finding water. Praying and talking with them and seeing how they teach their kids how to talk and learn was a surreal experience. Before we left we played some games with the kids and then they sang for us and I was in tears they sounded so good! Hidden gems of the world and I was blessed enough to be there and meat them! Teaching my class was so much fun and it made me really want to go into either full time mission work or international education. Those kids were so smart and they thrived when I asked them to explain what they were doing or questions about their dreams and life. By the end of the two week I was able to teach a whole lesson for them, lead them in morning devotions, and talk to them about my walk with God. They couldn't grasp the fact that I went so far to just spend a few weeks with them. The day we left was super sad and those kids are always going to be a part of my thoughts and day to day actions. The last few days we spent camping at a refuge camp for escaped animals from the national park. In our camp area we had 3 lions, 4 cheetahs, 4 leopards, 2 rhinos, and a few hyenas. Sleeping a few hundred yards from them and hearing them roar sent chills down my spine, even though I felt "safe." Seeing all of the African animals minus a hippo on this trip was so cool! We saw elephants just a few feet from our car and they were completely wild! On my flights home I wanted to be super intentional and live in the moment no matter what I was doing. I met a professor from Namibia that was going on her first vacation ever and we shared about our faith, talked to a women moving from South Africa to New Zealand and she wants me to marry her daughter, and we met a pastor from Kenya. We lose so many cool conversations from just putting in our headphones and going to the next place we are going. Since this trip, my daily struggle but also goal is to live in the moment more, talk to people even when I don't think the conversation will go anywhere, and really be open to learn new things. The last full day we were in Swakop, a few of us went skydiving! It was the craziest yet coolest experience of my life. Free falling for thirty seconds at 10,000 feet in the air was surprisingly peaceful, yet severely hard for me because I had no control. Once I accepted that and fully trusted the whole experience it was like I was in a movie, or looking at the prettiest painting I have ever seen. The desert mixed with the ocean view was almost fake looking, I was in awe. I couldn't stop looking down at this picture perfect scene, and then the parachute went up and we started our peaceful back and forth journey back to land! For 5 min. life went from scary, to fast, to peaceful, to slow and then back to reality. I cant believe I got to experience so much in a month's time!

August

I talked about the end of my trip in the last paragraph even though it technically ended on the 8th of August, but this month was also super fun! After saying goodbye to my best friends that I went through so much with in Africa, trying to keep it together I got on my flight back to Spokane! I was content flying home after I realized how much I had grown and although I had to say "Goodbye" to all of these people I had just made so many memories with, I had those memories to look back on. I now can look forward to growing more and making more memories with those I meet and hopefully I will see all of these people again to make more memories! Coming back into normal life was weird, and having a schedule again sucked, yet I enjoyed taking the African mindset into my American life and living just a little different! Making time to have extra conversations and hang out with those I love regardless of the to-do list I "have" to get done. We had a few awesome fires and conversations in my backyard right before orientation week started! I could not have asked for a better week to kick start my life back into college. I got the best Big Sky experience group where we worked with Grizzly marketing to plan things for our student section. After those three days I got another amazing group and we became great friends. I had HIGH energy all week, but it wasn't hard to do because I was stoked each day to hang out and have fun at the University I love! My groups thought I was crazy, but who cares right? After a few float trips, campfires, and trips to the local shops downtown I was ready for my Jr. Year!

September

This was the first month of Griz football and my Jr year! With the Big Sky Experience and my group wanting to continue meeting it made the games extra special to attend! I was in a crop top, shirtless with a painted chest and face, in red white and blue, and cheering louder than I ever had before! It was super fun to see the students hyped up again and staying for the 3rd quarter. We worked on getting 60 pizzas for those students that stayed. I also got to be in a random photo shoot for a friend with my car and of course I loved that. This was the start of me getting a lot of publicity, mostly on the big screen at the games cause of me and the crazy friends I met for Orientation! We even had a packed student section for the opening volleyball game! This year is going to be fun!

October

October was such a memorable month. It started with me being named Homecoming Ambassador for the year! I was so shocked and blessed to represent myself and this university for the whole week and remainder of the year! I started by helping with the hello walk and writing all of the words I looked in Africa for Good Morning or Hello, like Wa Penduka nawa. We then helped at the Distinguished Alumni Event and the Homecoming rally where my family was able to come hang out! I even got to go watch Faith play golf for the first time ever! Riding in an old car for the Homecoming Parade and getting to celebrate 50 years of Advocates was also super special. I was able to meet and have coffee before the game with some very nice older Alumni that shared stories of their time here at the University and I was laughing at all of the changes. Then it was time for the game. We were recognized on the field before the game, then met Eric Sprunk and watched the three skydivers land on the field, one with a giant American Flag! The Stadium was rocking with energy and it was so amazing to represent Griz Nation and the student body! The following weekend we had Advocate retreat where we rewrote our Mission statement, camped out in Schrieber, and had a fun time hanging out! The following weekend we went on GCF retreat up at camp utmost! It was an amazing time to reset and grow in my relationship with friends that I hadn't been able to hang out with in a long time. We got second at the lip sync battle, stayed up till 3 a.m. singing karaoke and worship music, and even got a fire in before we left. This month I remembered to keep friends close, don't stress about material things like grades or exams, and pray for everything in life! Basketball has been exhausting and slowly burning me out and instead of praying about it, I just shut out other areas of life, which I quickly realized was not the right thing to do! 

November

Wow the month I have been looking forward to my entire life has finally arrived. On the 9th I turned 21 and it really is something that was fun, but not even close to the hype I always looked forward too. I had a great day hanging out at the game with friends, then having a just dance and code names party at my house, before going out with two of my best friends ever! I thank them so much for the amazing time they gave me, and now we can raise a glass for special celebrations! We also helped the church building fund by getting our Christmas Card picture taken and I am thrilled with it! I think our weird crazy fun roommates, but also awkward personalities were captured perfectly. We also had a parents night out were I helped in the nursery and I got a bit too comfy and almost took a nap instead of watching the kids! Right before we were going to go home for Thanksgiving we hosted an Advocate Bob Ross sip and paint night and it turned out to be so much fun! Mine was definitely a bit off from Bob Ross's but the company and fun times was so worth it! Who knew that painting could actually be fun ;) Ending the month with an Advocate Friends-giving and trying my hand at the turkey was so much fun! Who would have thought that this group of friends would be my second family and such a huge part of my day to day life! Love them all so much! 

December
The final month of the year! Wow, I cant believe that I have been blessed with so many things this year! I finished my first semester of my Jr. Year, decided to step away from managing basketball, got a new job as Advocate Coordinator, Decorated cookies at the Food Zoo cook off, and now look forward to another year of changes, stories, trips, and new scenery! This year I am thankful for roommates that are always there for me and care about my day and pick me up when they can tell I need it. I am thankful for new friendships, and growing those that I already had. I am thankful for new beginnings and new challenges that help me grow as a person and leader. I am thankful for an amazing job where everyday I can't wait to go to work and spend it with the most friendly and loving people that I have ever met. I am thankful for my family and siblings always making me laugh, while at the same time making me shake my head in shame. I am thankful for my support system and having so many people in my corner no matter what! I can not believe that each day I am blessed with such amazing people and friends. Here is to 2020 and another year of breakthrough moments, new challenges, and amazing opportunities to make each day better than the day before!

In conclusion this year has taught me a lot and I have traveled to a lot of places but here are my takeaways:

• Make time to call friends and family each week, get coffee or have lunch with someone, and don't be afraid to talk about anything! 
• Trust God and I am going to say it again Trust God because even when you don't like the answers he gives you, they are what is going to help you grow and live a happier life
• Have the hard conversations with friends and family, they deserve to know how you feel 
• Go explore! There is so much out there, even right in your own backyard, and you need to see all of the amazing things God created! 
• Get uncomfortable! Do something you think is crazy, start a new hobby, go skydiving, eat way to much dessert! Life is more fun that way!
• Join a new group, take a new role, or start your own get together! Spending time with people is the best thing you can do! Whether that is a monthly painting night, a weekly dinner, or a time where a bunch of people just meet for lunch, that is what you will remember!
• Be okay with not knowing what to do ALL the time, reaching out for help or asking questions is the only way you can grow and learn new things!
• I have the best support system and friends and need to appreciate them more!
• Lastly, don't worry or stress about time, just use the moment you are in to do what you want to do or what needs to be done. Life is better when you live in the moment and not try and control the moment. 

Thanks for reading and let me know what you have learned this year!