The Waltonian

This spring break, I returned to Singapore for a short visit. Last summer my family moved there permanently. I had the opportunity to live with them last summer and now to visit them again. While I have a direct purpose to this traveling, aka to smoother my twin 4-year-old brothers with kisses, love, and gifts, I was struck while preparing to travel on how journey and travel impact our lives especially in this stage of life as a college student. In every stage of my journey, I am refined as a human and become more ‘myself.’

The travel to the destination reminds me that we are all on a journey. As a child, I traveled quite a bit domestically. I remember always dreading the long lines and waiting and worst of all, the security at airports. However, as I travel now, I am painfully aware of those around me. Every human- from the TSA agent to the new born that will doubtless sit next to me-is traveling somewhere; whether their destinations be the same as mine, our paths have crossed in an intrinsic way. I could choose to deplore the actual journey and complain about the lines and time it takes but I would be painfully vicious in this approach. Just as everyone I encounter while traveling is physically going someplace, they are spiritually on a journey as well. As I chat with a fellow passenger, I cannot but notice that this is another human with struggles and questions that I have; we are all trying to figure this life thing out. The question then becomes one of response- how do I respond to the opportunity to meet someone who is on a journey? Reader, how do you respond to those that are on a journey? With hospitality and joy? Or with hostility and alienation? This is a question I need to ask myself every day, as we are all on a journey, but it becomes apparent when it is actualized with physical travel.

When I get to my destination, I must question who I really am. Singapore has a completely different political and social structure. This gives space for me to ask- what makes me myself? Is it the food I eat? The government I submit to? The way I spend my days/my job? I would argue that this is the most important lesson travel equips us with. We are more than the sum of our actions. We are not our jobs, our government, or even our daily habits. When we travel, all of these factors are shifted and we still exist as ourselves. I would even say that when these factors are shifted, it is revealed to us who we are at our core. This is a question especially powerful and pertinent in the student stage of life. As students, I am actively given the opportunity to explore who I am. This compounds the power of travel. Many real adults, those caught up in the perpetual cycle and hum drum of bills and jobs, are immune to the power of travel. Journey is vacation, an escape from the toils of life. While travel is leisure, it is not an escape. Travel makes us more ourselves by removing the factors we think define our lives.

When I return from my destination, I am cannot remain unchanged. I have learned new things, both about the place I traveled to and about who I am. I must reflect on the culture and society that I entered into on my travels. I must ask what is the good and how has this journey redefined my understanding of the good, because it most definitely will. What is on the hearts of the people I have met and the city I have explored. I must recognize that I have been changed and discovered who I am. How does my new-found knowledge influence my daily life? On this particular trip, I am grateful to have my friend, Karen Hughes, to be joining me. This is someone I can process these changes with. Even so, I have found that sharing my stories with others has helped me process the time I have experienced. One of my close friends asked me after this summer, “what do Singaporeans care about? What is on their hearts?” This question has haunted me as I had not been aware of it enough to answer. However, after sharing stories and antidotes, we could answer the question together. The power of stories after a journey is indispensable.

Travel changes us. With the risk of being cliché I would say we never return from a trip. Sure, we come back to the same geographical point on the planet, but we never really come back to the same life. We cannot come back to the same life as we are changed in an integral way. We have stepped into the enigma of travel. We have attempted to unlock the enigma of other cultures and in the process have realized the enigma of our being.

Do you know those typical shows about the group of friends who live in nice places where nothing much goes on? The Seinfeld derivatives. Or the hospital with the employees hooking up? Or even the crime dramas? The End of the F***ing World is not like any of the shows that exist today. Starring the talented Jessica Barden and Alex Lawther, the Netflix Original is based off of the comic by the same name by Charles Forsman.

This is why you need to watch this show:

1.It’s real and messy.

Most modern TV shows are difficult to relate to. This show, while I pray the story line never happens to me, is relatable. It reflects the messiness and hardship of life. The content of the show is at times disturbing and not suitable for all viewers. In particular, there are scenes of violence, abuse, and other sensitive topics. Keeping those warnings in mind, the viewer can appreciate the intensity of the show, which invokes compassion and makes the viewer feel that they are watching something real. If I am being brutally honest, it reminds me of when I was twelve and I realized my mother was wrong. It was like a world was crashing around me. Who could I trust if none were infallible? That’s the basis of this show. All have flaws and all are wrong. I could not blindly trust or completely sympathize with one person. I had to desire to see the whole world through the eyes of the different people rather than focus on one character’s perspective.

2. It’s reflective.

After watching this show, I had to re-evaluate my life. This is the mark of a good show. You cannot be content or unchanged after watching The End of the F***ing World. How do I view other people? How do I think of friends and family? What is moral in life? How would I react in the main character’s, Alyssa’s, situation? What is the dynamic going on with James? This show presents a complex and poignant message that demands conversation and reflection.

3. It’s a slight imitation of Romeo and Juliet that Shakespeare would applaud.

I believe that the imagination behind The End of the F***ing World might be the first to truly understand Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Since Shakespeare was literally a genius, do we really think he thought true love developed at first sight between some thirteen-year-olds? I don’t. There is obviously something wrong with this picture. The End of the F***ing World presents an in-depth depiction of love. The dynamic of this teenage love story is interesting and real. It’s dynamic and honest. Sappy, overdone? No way. Instead it is true to life. It’s messy. It deals with issues of sacrifice and love and family ties.

Admittedly, my friends and I binged this in one night, so I promise you won’t need motivation after the first episode. I encourage you to watch this show with a friend and reflect upon it. Talk to one another about the difficulties in life that this show presents and consider asking questions like: does there exist a situation in life with no right answer? What is so important about the main characters being flawed? What do these characters teach us about love?

Sources: Vulture.com

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As a math major, I have a certain affinity for numbers. So when asked to reflect on this year’s volleyball season, I approached the topic in a very calculated way. First, let’s be clear when this season started. It did not start on the first game day or the first day of practice. This season was much longer in the making. It actually started on November 18, 2016. On that day, the 2016 volleyball team just lost in the Elite Eight at the NCAA National Tournament. From that moment, it has all been about returning to the tournament. I distinctly remember one of the seniors coming up to each individual and saying “this is your team now.” She was right. This is our team, and we had to refocus and work hard to return to tournament. That was 360 days ago. After approximately 10,200 touches on the volleyball, 17,900 times jumping, what is equivalent to playing 15.8 days straight of volleyball, we made our goal. On Nov. 4th, we won our tenth consecutive conference championship and qualified for the NCAA tournament.

This past Friday, Nov. 10th, we played Carnegie Mellon. According to the numbers, we should have been demolished. Carnegie Mellon is top ten ranked and previously beat us in three steps. However, I can proudly say the numbers were wrong and we fought hard with them for every point. After two close losses, we came back and won sets three and four. In the last set, Carnegie Mellon pulled ahead and won 15-7. A well fought match to bring a season of battles and wins to a close.

This season consisted of 20 wins and 13 losses and 2,658 points won. 270 workouts have been done by each player, that’s 108,000 reps! We have had milestones- the seniors have reached 100 wins, Coach Birtwistle has reached 700 career wins, Miranda Kauffman (Honorable Mention MAC Freedom) has reached over 1000 career digs, Morgan Kline has reached 2,000 career assists, Caroline Shelby (MAC Freedom Rookie of the year, First Team MAC Freedom, First Team All-Mid-Atlantic Region) had 452 kills, and Michelle Paulsen (First Team MAC Freedom, First Team All-Mid-Atlantic Region) has passed 425 career blocks.

This year has been full of triumphs and notable accomplishments. Out of all the numbers, there is really only one that matters: 146. 146 is what we call ‘our number’; it is the sum of our individual jersey numbers. This number transcends the individual accomplishments. Every game we write ‘EUVB 146’ on the coflex on our wrists to remind us: this game is so much more than an individual success. This is a long standing tradition done by EUVB since Coach Birtwistle has taken over. We play not only for each other and for the love of the game, but for the whole EUVB family– for everyone that has come before and everyone that is still to come.

Although this season has come to an end, EUVB 146 has not. EUVB 146 has made a deep impact on every player and has been impacted by every player to come before. In a very real way, EUVB 146 will live on. While we mourn the completion of the seniors’ careers, that is the only thing we mourn. The next season has already started, though it has really been 20 years of EUVB in the making.

This past Christmas I decided to take my three-year-old twin brothers shopping for our parents. The last few Christmases had readily turned into everyone watching as my brothers opened gift after gift. They are the youngest (and cutest) of the family, which inevitably meant they were given a plethora of gifts from every relative. But this Christmas, I thought it was time to make sure they had the opportunity to experience the joy of giving (because Lord knows they have experienced the joy of receiving). On Christmas morning, I reminded my brothers about the gifts we had gotten for my parents. They bubbled up with excitement as they handed them over to my teary-eyed parents. The gifts weren’t much, a candle and a mug, but my brothers had chosen them, and that made them very special.

The rest of the day I saw my brothers get very excited and happy with their new toys, but nothing quite matched the joy that they exuded when they gave my parents their gifts. I was astounded by the fact that three-year-old boys on Christmas morning could fulfill the truth that “it is more blessed to give than to receive” (Acts 20:35, NIV). It struck me then how Truth resounds throughout the universe, no matter the situation or the person.

From Christmas morning, I was taken back to November when I traveled to Oshkosh, Wisconsin for the NCAA Elite Eight for Volleyball. The night before the competition started a banquet was held. A few representatives from each team spoke about their journey to the Elite Eight. In one speech, a player said that this season their team decided not to care about wins and loses or their personal performances, but instead chose to care about each other. This struck me. I could not figure out why until Christmas morning with my brothers. This team had inadvertently performed one of God’s greatest commandments, just as my brothers had discovered the Truth of giving.

This team had decided to love their neighbor as themselves. They operated in acts of service rather than their own ambition. They had discovered that God’s will for us is not random; it is true. Non-Christians and Christians alike serve each other in teams. A team success does not happen arbitrarily, but rather it is God’s design for the universe. When we serve each other, success is inevitable because God has called us to do so. Service is a fundamental truth of the universe, but it is not true arbitrarily. It is true because God made it so. There is no such thing as “God’s Truth” and “truth”; all truth is God’s.

When I read the Gospels, I am struck by the Apostles’ desire to be named the greatest. It seems silly to me: Did they not know that they had God incarnate before them? I would be asking Jesus my millions of questions instead of arguing about who was the greatest. Yet I realize this is often how I operate during sports. I am so concerned about my own performance, and I lose sight of the work of God. Relinquishing my own desire for greatness and focusing on my teammates is the ultimate service I can do for my team. This does not mean not performing well, but it does mean not valuing my performance or success above the team’s.

At Eastern, the pillars for the Volleyball program are, “Love each other, and love the game.” Our coaches constantly challenge us to act in accordance with these. When I make loving my teammates my first priority, I serve God. The simple act of submission to something greater than myself acts in accordance with God’s truth. The universe has been so designed. God’s design for our lives does not stop and start in the Church or in the Bible. Through acting out these pillars and working as a team, we are reflecting the truth found in God’s design for the universe, and this design is an eternal and unchangeable truth. We can see and live out this truth in all things, whether it’s through Christmas presents or volleyball teams.