Having moved in my son, Isaiah, to his college dorm room not more than 2 weeks ago, I got to thinking about a lot of things, most of which are not what this entry will be about, because I still don’t know quite what to make of the experience entirely—the mixed feelings of sadness, pride, sharp new worries, feeling old, etc. But one of the things I thought about was how lame at life I used to be when I was his age. I had a hard time with school. I did OK in the subjects somehow, but all the paperwork, the administrative details, the many things you had to do by a certain date by going to a certain office at Sproul…these were hard for me. Often, important papers, like the syllabus for Chem 8 that had important dates in it, ended up at the bottom of my backpack, all crumpled up. I would write letters–pages of longhand–to my friends, but never send them because I’d keep forgetting to buy stamps. The thought that I could actually balance my checking account was so overwhelmingly unreal to me that when I met my wife, and realized that she actually did this, even remembering to deduct the monthly service charge so that she had it balanced down to the cent, I was utterly amazed.
I would get parking tickets which I’d put somewhere in my car only to forget about them. The City of Berkeley sent threatening letters with some mention of a warrant for my arrest, but most of these letters went to my previous addresses–I moved almost every semester. I got it all paid only because they had a parking ticket amnesty program in which criminals like me could come in and pay only the face value of the original tickets. When I actually did this by going down to the city clerk’s office, it was as if I’d climbed Mt. Whitney. I was so proud of myself.
But somehow, I ended up practicing law, in which attention to detail and the efficient, precise moving of perfect, mistake-free documents according to unforgiving deadlines are just the basic requirements of the job, and I did OK at it. So, I was reassured as I dropped off Isaiah, who is so much like me in so many uncanny ways. And then, I realized that one of my greatest challenges in college, the losing of important papers, has simply been obviated by the web–syllabus, financial aid information, registration, bill paying … all of it’s now on the web. Amazing. So I think he’ll do fine.
Lame at Life
Published September 15, 2008 Uncategorized 7 CommentsTags: gracepoint fellowship church berk
Hi Pastor Ed,
There’s also a chance that an attention-to-detail gene in Isaiah might be triggered active during college. I remember learning from my biochem class that there are some proteins which are triggered by other factors. For example, I remember when I was dating Susanna 17 years ago, I wanted to impress her and my diligence gene got triggered all of the sudden!
Joong
I’m just like that, too! So here’s some advice for freshmen: Always take 2 copies of everything. =)
Yeah I was pretty lame at life when I first came in as a freshman. I realized this when I experienced the negative freshman 15 that first semester, because I would wake up so late everyday that not only would I miss breakfast, but lunch as well.
This realization only became clearer when I moved into an apartment and realized that mommy wasn’t around to clean and cook anymore… Boy am I thankful for my time of living at Dana House, Pastor Manny and Sunny’s, and more recently, with Eugene and Cynthia during my stay in Taiwan. They patiently taught me how to appreciate the necessity of developing basic domestic skills, and now I’m somewhat useful in helping my mother around the house.
Maybe by the time I send my son off to college, they’ll have websites that do that kind of thing for you too…
hmm, i’m still lame at life. but i manage to survive somehow! definitely, the web has done wonders for me – enabling me to pay parking tickets online when i’ve misplaced the 2nd notice for the 10th time. i’m relieved that my propensity for losing papers is not necessarily indicative of what the rest of my life will be like, though it does add unwelcomed stress. =)
it’s amazing how you made it to law school and then became a pastor! truly, God uses 5 loaves and 2 fish!
Thank you for sharing. This makes me feel a little less guilty that I”m still lame at life, although I can’t say I’m a freshman in college anymore…
well, i’m really glad to know that you now became computer literate along the way! I enjoy seeing your tablet-PC drawings that you use to supplement the main points of your messages… very helpful for a visual learner like me. There are some adults in the corporate world I know who still have anxiety about navigating through computer files, sending documents to print on shared networks, and using the Internet to do research. Thanks for uploading this reflection!