Thanksgiving has to be one of the best holidays of the year.  Not only is there tons of great food to eat, but generally, you are eating it with some of your favorite people in the world.  It's also a much-needed break from school before finals hit, and for football fans like myself, there are usually some great games on.  I have fond memories of Thanksgiving as a child.  Sometimes we would play a little football, and often there was snow on the ground so we could play in the snow if we wanted as well.  We always had a huge meal with my family, and my grandparents and cousins.  Thanksgiving meals are one of those classic meals that are great for mixing foods. I love the mix of stuffing, mashed potatoes, and turkey, even with some cranberries thrown in there.  I also like dark meat better than white. 

Unfortunately, I haven't been with my family since the Thanksgiving of 2004.  My family is all out in Washington, I'm over here in Ohio, and it's just too far to travel all the way home for a relatively short break.  That's not to say that I haven't had some good Thanksgivings over the last four years though.  I particularly remember my Freshman year.  I had no where to go for Thanksgiving, so my cousin Pete and I got put up in a hotel in Springfield.  We didn't leave campus until Thursday though, and let me tell you, that Wednesday night still in the dorms was the lonliest I've ever been Cedarville.  It was bitterly cold out, and there wasn't a soul in sight.  Pete and I had nothing to do, so we got some bikes and rode them around campus.  After one loop our hands were freezing off, so we gave up on that and went back inside.  We got to our hotel the next evening (Thanksgiving Day) and everything was closed.  We ended up getting our dinner from a gas station mini mart because it was the only thing that was open.

I can't say that break wasn't fun though.  We lounged around for 3 or 4 nights in the hotel, and spent our days sleeping and eating and watching movies.  There was no time schedule whatsoever, and there was no one to please and no reason to really even move (we didn't have a car either, so walking in sub-freezing temperatures wasn't too appealing).  There wasn't much company, but Pete and I always have fun together.  I remember one lonely, cold night, we found ourselves wandering down a railroad track, trying to figure out how to get off of it, and hoping a train wouldn't come and mow us down.  We finally emerged through some stickery brush into a Best Buy parking lot to find some complete strangers staring at us.  Life was simple, but the break ended up being a great adventure that I won't soon forget. 

Thanksgivings got progressively better as the years rolled by, and this year will probably be the best yet.  My sophomore year I went up north to Wisconsin with my friend Heidi's farm, and then my junior year I headed down to North Carolina with my brother Tim and my cousins Pete and Aaron to visit some relatives.  This year I'm going up north again, this time to Michigan, with my girl Rach.  We're going to have a great time, and it'll be a far cry from wandering the streets of Springfield. 

Have great  Thanksgivings everyone!!  Remember to spend time reflecting on the things God has given you, even the little blessings that you don't realize.  Remeber too, many will be wandering the streets this weekend, but they won't have anything to come back to.  Keep them in your prayers and be Jesus to them if you can.  Love your families and make sure to tell them that you love them!  It's never too late until it is.

If there's one thing I've learned about Cedarville in the past few weeks, it's that Cedarville is the best place in the world to be a student.  When I came into Cedarville as a freshman, I had no intention of running for any position in SGA.  Often people ask me what experience I had before running for SGA President.  I really didn't have any at all.  I mean, I had done some stuff with the student body in high school, and I chaired SGA's Campus Congress my sophomore year, but I had never been an officer.  I wasn't one of those guys who wanted to be in student government every step of the way, from Freshman class officer on up.  But, as I came to love Cedarville more and more and as I came to love what it standed for, I knew that SGA was something I really wanted to do at Cedarville.  Cedarville students became people that I really wanted to work for and to work with.  It became a joy to me even campaigning, knowing that someday I might have the chance to be president. 

The past few weeks I've had the opportunity to talk to some students from other student government organizations in other schools.  A couple Saturdays ago I talked to a guy from Asbury College, and as we were talking I realized how blessed Cedarville was and how grateful I was to be part of such an awesome student body.  He talked about how they tried to model themselves after Cedarville in some ways, and I can't tell you how neat it was to hear that from the outside.  Then, just this last Friday I got to talk to students from a number of different colleges during some breakout sessions that Baxter Stapleton and I ran for the SOCHE Leadership Conference.  A lot of them were impressed with Cedarville and the way that it was run.

We have a special place here guys.  Never lose sight of that.  When things are rough and when times are tough, think about the blessings that God has given you.  Just to be a student here is incredible.  I've come to love Cedarville more and more in my four years here, and I hope all of you are finding it to be someplace you'll treasure forever too.  Count your blessings...it's always worth it.

Today I am priveleged to announce the beginning of "Dilemma '08: the Race to the Whiteboard."  Recently, I have had very little time to work on my whiteboard demonstrations for chapel.  I know that these are a valuable thing for students, and the time to prepare lately has just been inadequate.  The SGA presidency is too large a task for one man, so I have decided to announce the race for Assistant to the President.  This person will be responsible for assisting me, especially whenever I need to work on my whiteboard demonstrations.  

It should be a fun campaign...may the best man or woman win.

Over Fall Break I went up north to Michigan with my girlfriend, Rachel Mundy.  I loved the whole time, but one of my favorite parts was going to the world's largest Christmas store in Frankenmuth.  It was called Bronner's (check it out here).  The store itself is amazing.  The building is nearly 7.5 acres, and outside the entrance are three 17 foot Santas and a 15 foot snowman.  Inside the store there is basically every type of ornament or Christmas decoration you could think of.  As I was in the store, I kept thinking how much my mom would have loved the store...my mom loves Christmas decorations.  I told Rach as much, and for the next hour we went around the store searching for Christmas ornaments for my mom.  This was a HUGE task because there are ornaments for everything in there...country ornaments, sports ornaments, fishing ornaments, food ornaments, international ornaments, blue ornaments, gold ornaments, summer ornaments, etc.  It was pretty overwhelming.  We finally found some really nice gold ones that my mom will love...actually, Rach found them, and I just agreed they were pretty.  She told me to hold some of them and told me not to clink them together because the glitter would come off.  I failed about 10 times, so I was pretty glad when we finally got them packaged up.  The whole town of Frankenmuth is actually really neat.  It's a German town, if you didn't know, and there are all kinds of cool shops.  My favorites were the popcorn shop (which even has blueberry popcorn) and a candy store where I got peach rings and black licorice. 

The seasons are changing.  SGA is celebrating the change with Harvest '08.  It's going to be a great event, and is going to take place on October 31.  You won't want to miss this party.  There will be all kinds of food, lots of fun events, and good music.  And it's only $3!  We'll be selling tickets soon.  Also, if you get the $3 ticket (and a David Crowder ticket), you can get early entrance into the concert and get the best seats.  If that's not a deal, I don't know what is!  Well, have a great week everyone!