Ever since I began to have real jobs and internships I have been scared to death of one thing: sleeping through something important. I’m terrified of this because I am one of those people who could sleep through just about anything short of an atomic explosion. Case and point: the other night while staying at a college in West Virginia the fire alarm went off at about 3 AM without warning, I was the last one of the entire dorm room to even realize what was happening, and the only reason I got up then was because people were moving about frantically trying to figure out what was going on.

This past Wednesday my fears came to a head. After a long first 3 and a half days of camp I was ripe and ready for a good long nap, so after coming home from a trip over to Asheville to get supplies for my breakout session, I headed upstairs and jumped into my bunk. In my delirium of exhaustion I missed the whole waking up aspect of the napping experience. Needless to say I was supposed to begin teaching class at 2:30, at 3:04 Andy Berry (one of the camp directors) burst into my room announcing that my class had started 30 minutes ago.

I hastily walked down the mountain to the place we were supposed to be meeting. On my way there though I discovered that the counselors had begun on their own and had done just what I would have had them do. They had actually done a far better job of teaching the class than I had done. Upon hearing this news from Jacob Satterfield, one of the counselors of a group I was supposed to be teaching, I was disappointed, mostly in myself.

Why was I disappointed in myself? Because I had made a realization (but it is a really valuable tidbit I think to understand) life goes on without you. For all the effort I would like to put into thinking that things couldn’t happen without me, they do.

So heres the qoute:

“Life happens. It will continue on with or without you. So inject yourself into your life, and quit watching it unfold before you. Do it until you just can’t do it anymore. Don’t sleep through it, not in a literal or a metaphorical way, take atvantage of every moment, because it is only that- a moment. It will never happen again.”
- AJ Calhoun