Hello everyone, and welcome back.
I'm writing this during the afternoon, and we're all hard at work. About a dozen of my fellows are in the other room, sorting the logistics of the competition which is barreling down on us so quickly. We chose the final thirty-two students, and now we're assigning trainers and planning the final day which we're all looking forward to.
This week has been amazing.
It started off on Sunday Morning. Mandala has gotten very involved with the choir at Sandhills Presbyterian Church, and so at half past eight that morning, Laura, Elizabeth, Anna Harvey, Chris, Seth, and I all piled into one of the vans and left for practice. We've been doing this for a few weeks now, and we all enjoy it very much. We love this chance to apply what we've learned about music in a very real way, every week.
Caleb has been serving the church as well. For the past three weeks, he's been teaching Sunday school, educating the people of Sandhills in music and beauty, and why it all matters. He's been very open with us in class about what he has learned while teaching us, and it's been great to see him speaking to a large room, and knowing that we've helped him get there. He is our teacher, but he's an integral part of our fellowship, and we're glad we can be a part of his life outside of Mandala.
The rest of our week was pretty standard. Again, when it comes to physics, Mrs. Bortins has given us a lot of autonomy. Musically, our days have been a little more intense. We only have two more months until the concert, so we're all working hard to make sure we've learned everything and learned it well. The music counsel spent Thursday afternoon trying to find a better venue than our church, but I believe the consensus is that Sandhills is the best place for us to perform. We want our concert to be the best it can possibly be, so we're all working our hardest on it.
While the week was fairly normal, our weekend was definitely the highlight of the semester so far. We had another guest come to speak to us. His name was James Dutton, and we invited him because he is one of the privileged few who has slipped away from earth's gravity and joined Yuri Gagarin in space. He's spent his whole life in pursuit of this one goal, and a few years ago, he finally blasted off to spend ten days on the International Space Station. He had some of the best stories I've heard in a very long time. In the time I spent with him, I was impressed most with his character and his faith. The Lord has done great things with and through him, and he was just so encouraging to be around.
We covered a multitude of subjects in class. He talked about what exactly goes into a launch and explained the physics behind successfully docking with the ISS. He also talked about the past and future of NASA and of space travel in general. For devotions on Friday and Saturday, we had Pastor Skogen and his wife respectively, and they both shared very important lessons with us. Mr. Dutton wasn't afraid to continue the discussions those spawned into his class time. The weather was perfect that Friday afternoon, and so most of us headed to the soccer field where we played a solid hour and a half of ultimate Frisbee. Mr. Dutton and his ten year old son played hard and well, and we all enjoyed it.
Mr. Dutton's visit was overshadowed slightly by the wedding between April Yachanin and Robert Bortins. If you remember, April was one of the chaperones in Italy. The Bortins graciously invited all of us to the wedding and spread invitations to the reception and the rehearsal dinner between all of us. The rehearsal was on Friday, and those of us who would go to the reception stayed behind and had dinner with our guest. He had some great stories to share. After dinner, we casually swing danced, and we even got Mr. Dutton and his son to join us for a few dances.
The wedding the next day was absolutely wonderful. The chapel was elegant and beautiful, the ceremony was rich, simple, and just the right length, the bride was stunning, and the groom was a picture of manliness. After the ceremony, we parted ways, and while Mr. Dutton was welcome at the reception, he chose to go to Cracker Barrel with the ones who weren't invited. Apparently it was a great night.
While they were eating pancakes and probably making terrible space puns, (they were a running theme) Anna, Anna, Brooke, Seth, Samuel, and I wandered the town until we found the reception. Mrs. Bortins invited us over the others because she knew we would appreciate the dancing more than anyone else. Well, once the cake was cut and the dancing really started, we took control of the dance floor and had a wonderful time. Elizabeth somehow found her way to the reception halfway through the night and she surprised us with some pretty enthusiastic dancing for the rest of the night. Mrs. Bortins was beautiful and funny and happy to be dancing at her son's wedding, and we all loved her.
We danced and danced and finally returned home at midnight, happy and blissful. It was a night to remember. When we rose early for church the next morning, our guest was gone, the wedding was over, and life was back to normal, but everything was colored with an attitude of joy for what was one of the best weekends of our year together. We were blessed to be able to share it with another guest: Seth's younger sister, Paige. She goes home tomorrow, to everyone's chagrin. Nobody likes to see a Vanderway leave.
So that was our week. Something is always amazing us here, and I know normal life after Mandala is going to be so strange.
Until next time,
Barnabas
Tuesday, March 4, 2014
Saturday, February 22, 2014
Dusting the Keyboard
Hello again, friends and readers; I believe I owe you an apology. It's been months since I last wrote, and I don't have an excuse. All I can say is, sometimes life feels overwhelming, and I don't handle it well. Life here at Mandala hasn't gotten any more manageable, but as the school year comes to an end, this blog has been weighing on my conscience. I can't let the story trail off here without conclusion or completion. I'll be writing until the end of the year, and I hope you enjoy reading it.
The last time I wrote, we were preparing to perform the Fall concert and wrap up our first semester. Well, the concert was a success. I don't know exactly how well we did, (the video I've seen of the show was less than stellar) but we had an amazing time, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. We did learn quite a bit in planning and performing which should make our final celebration worth coming our for. I know we're all excited about it.
The concert was fun, but despite our enjoyment, we were all ready for a break from school. Thanksgiving was like a cup of hot chocolate and an open fireplace after hours of shoveling snow. It was delightful. By the time the short week was up, we were all ready to close out December quickly and well. This brief time between holidays was unusual. We felt like we were in a state of limbo. Mr. Skogen and Mrs. Bortins used the time to explore new schedules and methods of teaching. It was short and sweet, and Christmas came, and we spent many delighted days with our families.
We returned to find change. I was one of the first ones home to the villas and I enjoyed watching my fellows return, one after the other, until we had almost our full fellowship. When we started school on Monday, Mrs. Bortins announced to us that Gracsyn was moving on from the fellowship to pursue other things. A few days later, she left under a hail of goodbyes.
Gracsyn's departure was the biggest change, but by far not the only one. Our teachers implemented a new weekly schedule. We start the day with an extra half-hour of devotions and run until half-past noon, when our day is done. Tuesdays and Thursdays are now entirely music, while Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are still devoted to Physics. (Wednesday afternoons are spent in entrepreneur class) While we all started off at the same level in physics, a few people pushed far ahead, and some lagged behind. The class is no longer unified enough for Mrs. Bortins to teach to all of us at once, so the fellowship has taken hold. We group ourselves pretty well, staying with the people who can help us, and Mrs. Bortins roams between us on her many busy errands, stopping to teach us whenever we ask the slightest question.
While music and physics certainly take up our time and attention, our service project has been very engaging. I'm sure you all are very aware of our progress with National Number Knockout. We've all made sure of that. I'll just say that some of the fellows here have been working non-stop on N2K, promoting, planning, and developing the game we hope to launch soon. The last few days have been especially hectic as we watched a collective seven hours of scouting videos. I actually really enjoyed it. It was delightful to see so many people from so many states so excited about something we think is so important. I got to practice my math skills against some ridiculously good nine-year-olds, and it's all made me look forward to the competition even more than I already was.
Austin and Jake have been much less involved in N2K than anyone else. They're not slacking off, however. Instead of the competition, they've been hard at work developing apps for the iPhone. Nobody else was motivated enough to start their own business as originally planned, and we've been mostly working on N2K as our alternative.
There's plenty to keep us busy, however, without the help of this competition. Mr. Skogen has been introducing plenty of new songs, by artists from Handel to Billy Joel, and we have to spend time on them outside of class if we ever want to learn them. The people who jumped ahead in physics didn't do so just because they're smarter than the rest of us, but because they've been using their evenings for extra study. There will be no shortage of activities to keep us busy here until the end of the year, that's for sure.
In a nutshell, that was past two months of Mandala Madness. There is one last thing, and not a happy thing. Zach Leitzel has left, moving on to start his career like Gracsyn has. We're reminded of Tolkein's Fellowship, the tightly knit group which found itself pulled in too many directions to stay together, and which eventually ripped itself apart. But like that fellowship, we know that our paths will cross again. Our time together, especially in devotions, has revealed and shaped our existing desire for the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, and I'm sure we'll be united in that until it comes to its necessary conclusion.
That's all for today. It's good to be back. I'll make sure I keep posting updates until Mandala is finally finished.
Until next time,
Barnabas Holleran
The last time I wrote, we were preparing to perform the Fall concert and wrap up our first semester. Well, the concert was a success. I don't know exactly how well we did, (the video I've seen of the show was less than stellar) but we had an amazing time, and the audience seemed to enjoy it. We did learn quite a bit in planning and performing which should make our final celebration worth coming our for. I know we're all excited about it.
The concert was fun, but despite our enjoyment, we were all ready for a break from school. Thanksgiving was like a cup of hot chocolate and an open fireplace after hours of shoveling snow. It was delightful. By the time the short week was up, we were all ready to close out December quickly and well. This brief time between holidays was unusual. We felt like we were in a state of limbo. Mr. Skogen and Mrs. Bortins used the time to explore new schedules and methods of teaching. It was short and sweet, and Christmas came, and we spent many delighted days with our families.
We returned to find change. I was one of the first ones home to the villas and I enjoyed watching my fellows return, one after the other, until we had almost our full fellowship. When we started school on Monday, Mrs. Bortins announced to us that Gracsyn was moving on from the fellowship to pursue other things. A few days later, she left under a hail of goodbyes.
Gracsyn's departure was the biggest change, but by far not the only one. Our teachers implemented a new weekly schedule. We start the day with an extra half-hour of devotions and run until half-past noon, when our day is done. Tuesdays and Thursdays are now entirely music, while Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays are still devoted to Physics. (Wednesday afternoons are spent in entrepreneur class) While we all started off at the same level in physics, a few people pushed far ahead, and some lagged behind. The class is no longer unified enough for Mrs. Bortins to teach to all of us at once, so the fellowship has taken hold. We group ourselves pretty well, staying with the people who can help us, and Mrs. Bortins roams between us on her many busy errands, stopping to teach us whenever we ask the slightest question.
While music and physics certainly take up our time and attention, our service project has been very engaging. I'm sure you all are very aware of our progress with National Number Knockout. We've all made sure of that. I'll just say that some of the fellows here have been working non-stop on N2K, promoting, planning, and developing the game we hope to launch soon. The last few days have been especially hectic as we watched a collective seven hours of scouting videos. I actually really enjoyed it. It was delightful to see so many people from so many states so excited about something we think is so important. I got to practice my math skills against some ridiculously good nine-year-olds, and it's all made me look forward to the competition even more than I already was.
Austin and Jake have been much less involved in N2K than anyone else. They're not slacking off, however. Instead of the competition, they've been hard at work developing apps for the iPhone. Nobody else was motivated enough to start their own business as originally planned, and we've been mostly working on N2K as our alternative.
There's plenty to keep us busy, however, without the help of this competition. Mr. Skogen has been introducing plenty of new songs, by artists from Handel to Billy Joel, and we have to spend time on them outside of class if we ever want to learn them. The people who jumped ahead in physics didn't do so just because they're smarter than the rest of us, but because they've been using their evenings for extra study. There will be no shortage of activities to keep us busy here until the end of the year, that's for sure.
In a nutshell, that was past two months of Mandala Madness. There is one last thing, and not a happy thing. Zach Leitzel has left, moving on to start his career like Gracsyn has. We're reminded of Tolkein's Fellowship, the tightly knit group which found itself pulled in too many directions to stay together, and which eventually ripped itself apart. But like that fellowship, we know that our paths will cross again. Our time together, especially in devotions, has revealed and shaped our existing desire for the pursuit of truth, beauty, and goodness, and I'm sure we'll be united in that until it comes to its necessary conclusion.
That's all for today. It's good to be back. I'll make sure I keep posting updates until Mandala is finally finished.
Until next time,
Barnabas Holleran
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