Senior Year Box Set

I momentarily felt bad for letting the cat out of the bag on the subject, but Tami seemed happy to get to share her good news with her friends.

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All in all, we had a great senior day. Everyone had a blast, with one exception: Destiny. I got to hear about it thirdhand, but the story said she’d drunk too much and decided that she would be Damion’s first wife.

Being who he was, Damion wasn’t opposed to taking advantage of a girl in an inebriated condition. The two of them had stumbled out to the woods, and I can only imagine what happened. The long and short of it was Destiny puked on him.

Based on the description of the event, she must have drunk a gallon of beer to spew that much vomit. She’d also tried to soak it all up by eating enough pork to feed an army. Poor Damion had to take a shower and avail himself of the laundry facilities.

It was either that, or the Wesleyan girls wouldn’t allow him back on the bus.

On the Tami front, we spent the afternoon just being goofy kids. It reminded me why we’d been friends for such a long time. I never doubted that she was worth the effort to stay in touch with after we graduated. I couldn’t imagine a world without her in my life in some form or another.

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Chapter 25 – Drugs Are Expensive Saturday April 22

We were set to play our last game before next week’s Regionals. That would begin our quest to win eight straight games to win state, something all but impossible to do in baseball. That was why they played best of five- and seven-game series in professional ball. Even the College World Series used a double-elimination format. At some point, Lady Luck would have to play a part in whether we would win it all.

I took Duke on my morning run, ate breakfast with my family, and did some reading for school. I had some time, so I pulled out my life goals. After talking to both my dad and Jeremy, the psychic, I felt I should reaffirm they still made sense and met my needs.

 

Financial Stability

Comfortable Life

Good Education

        Physically Fit

        Solid Moral Foundation

Religion / Faith

Man of Integrity (Man of my word)

No Gossip

Think before saying ‘yes’

Learn to say ‘no’

        Healthy Sex Life

        No Regrets

        Make a Difference

        Be a Great Dad

        Be True to Who I Am

 

As I reviewed them, it was clear that I was doing well with some goals, and with others, not so much. I had the first two taken care of to this point. By this time next year, I would have made three more movies and banked enough that I would be financially secure for the rest of my life. My business interests, which all showed a positive cash flow, only added to my financial position.

If I so desired, I could potentially retire before I reached the age of twenty and not work another day in my life. For me, though, that wouldn’t fly. I couldn’t imagine ever sitting at home or living a life of leisure like many trust-fund kids did. That didn’t fit goal number 6, ‘Make a Difference.’

I skipped over number 2 because, at this point, it was a given. I would keep it as a placeholder for when I got older. Not that being physically fit wasn’t important; I’d already lost a grandfather to heart problems, and my dad had to work through his own cardiac issues. That alone provided motivation enough.

The goal giving me the most trouble was number 3. Starting at the top, I hadn’t done much with the first component, ‘Religion / Faith.’ I’d been hit-or-miss on going to church, but that was only part of it. As they say, going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than standing in a garage makes you a car. Faith is the key, but ‘faith’ is one of those words that people have a hard time understanding. I’d been told by some that faith in a religious context wasn’t anything other than superstition.

That comment made me reflect on the true meaning of faith. The dictionary definition was ‘unquestioning belief that does not require proof or evidence.’ For me, the short answer was faith meant taking God at His word.

I didn’t think God wanted us to blindly follow religious teachings or dogma with an unquestioning belief that did not require proof or evidence, as the dictionary said. Faith meant accepting God’s word (His promises and His warnings) as fact and acting accordingly.

For me, it was a roadmap for living. I didn’t have to believe everything written in the Bible for it to fit into my life. People got hung up on taking the stories in the Bible too literally. We had to remember that the Bible had been written by men, and which of us was perfect?