Ok I couldn't spare you too much longer from my random witticisms. but this week I actually had to use it on myself! One of my good friends invited me to a farewell concert of one of his favorite bands. Judd and Maggie, if you were wondering, after 7 years of success in the music industry has decided to pack up and move on. and I know you're probably thinking...ok many groups have done this (think of the spice girls). but this was a brother and sister duo, the fact of the matter is that I was invited to a farewell concert of a group I have never heard of...and I was generally enthused to get away from campus and just hang out with one of my bros. besides that, when he told me it was at Mount St. Mary's, he would drive, and it was FREE...I was even more stoked (#summerbudgetproblems).
you see Mount St. Mary's University was on my original list of seven schools that I had planned to apply to my senior year of high school. since it was all the way in the boonies of Maryland (Emmitsburg to be exact), I knew my parents would not be enthused to drive to a place in which we already saw an hour video about in the comforts of our own family room. so this was my chance to scope out this awesome place, that I could have wound up at...adventure! needless to say the 4 hour journey there was an adventure in itself. when I arrived at the campus, I was amazed at the sheer beauty and magnitude of such a campus. thinking to myself "where in the world is the nearest bathroom?" in the summer this campus seemed pretty vacant, so it was great time to explore the campus and blend in as true "mountaineers". I was able to see the whole campus, their chapel, residence hall, seminary, student center, cemetery and shrine. (yes you read right, this campus is so large it had its own cemetery). this campus was spectacular so green and complete with a rosary walk. if you don't know what that night be...imagine all the decades of the rosary depicted in the fashion of the stations of the cross in a long walkway in the woods. I just kept thinking to myself "boy! wouldn't it be great to go to a place like this?" imagine this great campus complete with classical looking buildings, spread across the "Mount". WOW! so it was time to find lunch...and what do you know the cafeteria was closed until later in the day so we venture out (10 minute drive) into the town to get a bite to eat...all inclusive with a McDonald's, Subway, and a charming Italian restaurant...that's all! I must admit not at all what i expected of their college town...but I guess you make do with what you got. to make an incredibly long story short, we get back and the concert was great, I would call it indie, christian music...right up my alley! ;) but I kept thinking to myself, this is their last concert....I bet they're thinking it would not end like this or maybe they're regretting the decisions they made in the past that would amount to this last moment...then it hit me
its too late for shoulda, coulda, woulda! here I am wallowing in the fact that I could have come to this school and had an AMAZING experience, but then I wouldn't be who I am today. honestly, I probably wouldn't be in the seminary, studied my French, had my experiences in NYC, Madrid, Fatima, or Montreal, I wouldn't have made the friends I have or met the people I know and love. things happen in our lives for a reason. sure I regret decisions I have made and the some of the crazy things I've done, but who doesn't. life is meant to be experienced. the past is the past. I don't think things just happen by chance...their is a DIVINE plan for it all. imagine the last 10 years, months, days...where would you be if you changed just a smidge of detail or a conversation or a major decision like choosing one college over another. how life would be different! I don't know where I would be now, if I would be a "mountaineer" and frankly I am glad I made the decision I have. and I think in life we have to accept the cards we have been dealt with and keep moving on. you have to leave your past to the mercy of God and leave your future for the providence of God. "yesterday is history, tomorrow is a mystery, today is a gift...that's why they call it the present!" LIVE in the NOW, because you only have ONE LIFE TO LIVE!
oh btw Judd is leaving to become a Dominican Friar and Maggie is expecting her first child!
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