193- Sunshine Brings Out My Outgoing

All I need to do to be reminded that I'm an extravert is watch my attitude towards other change when the sun comes out. I have been making extra efforts to meet people in the last few days, and I'm convinced it's the sun. When it's t-shirt weather, I am just a happier person and care more about meeting people.

Something else. There is a terrible element to awesome weather: the football team practices at about 6 AM. This means I hear team cheers, grunting, screaming, clapping, whistles blowing, and so on and so forth. I should gripe, but I don't know who to gripe to, because it won't change anything.

I have been to all of my classes at this point. I have decided that I've got it good this quarter. My Soviet history course is going to be AMAZING. The prof knows her stuff, has a great way of interacting with students, and a very dry sense of humor which I find highly entertaining in a professor. She reminds me of my first history professor, Dr. Katherine Sadler at Clark College in Vancouver, WA.

Class #2, Intro to International Relations, will be interesting. It's definitely something I identify with. I was a little irked when the professor said that we'd be reading the New York Times for all of our news. While I agree with the publication choice, I would rather read something else in ADDITION TO the New York Times. Everything has a bias, and NY Times is no less biased than anything else. Christian Science Moniter is actually pretty good too, though I am not as experienced in their ways and refuse to believe the words of their founder, Mary Baker Eddy. In addition to this irksome attribute of the class, there was also this simple realization that PoliSci 271 is DEFINITELY a GUR class, as well as a pre-req for anything political science, which I need to minor in the subject. Such. Freshmen. I know this shouldn't irritate me as much as it did, but when you're used to following the syllabus with the assumption that the professor knew what they were mandating with regard to the course assignments, you generally don't question their words or challenge their course requirements. When told to read the "A" Section of the newspaper everyday, a good question would NOT be "The 'A' Section is kind of lengthy, what specifically do you want us to read?" I got the feeling most people thought it would just be an easy GUR, and were bummed out when they found out they actually had to work for it.

The RA class. Yeah. Um. I don't know how good the class itself will be. But the people in it are AWESOME. As mentioned, and to anyone who doubted it, the person who's words you are now reading (whether you're reading is a good or a bad thing has yet to be determined) is an extravert. To the max. So. Throw him in a room with a bunch of extraverts and see what happens. HE DOESN'T SHUT UP. I tried really hard to meet as many people as I could and talked to as many people who would talk to me. Yeah. It was fun.

My back itches.

So, today was an interesting day. It was a lot of fun for the most part. However, there was one particular segment of which was mildly awkward. A middle aged man was holding up a giant sign in Red Square (brick courtyard in the middle of campus) that read "God is Angry at Sinners" and shouting various other things. Oh boy. Surrounding him was a crowd of students asking him questions and basically mocking him.

Dilemma for Brandon. As a Christian, how do I deal with this? I am a firm believer that while it may work sometimes, there are better ways to talk to people about God than to carry a confrontational sign like that. I would rather draw people to Christ by talking about things like love, forgiveness, and living these things out to the best of my ability, knowing the whole time that I'm still a sinner and don't deserve the grace that only God can give. I do my best to answer the hard questions that people have about my beliefs, and if I don't know, I'll tell my friend I don't know the answer to their question with the belief that it's better to be honest than make up some kind of bullcrap to avoid being vulnerable. My suitemate said that he asked one of the sign carriers questions at one point, and the guy was just blowing off questions he couldn't answer, telling his inquirers "Nope, you're wrong. Penalty box."

On the other hand, it should generally be assumed that this guy was my brother in Christ. That's serious business. Option #1: I could distance myself from the situation and play it safe (this is the one I chose when I heard the verbal abuse this guy was taking.) Option #2: Jump in and help. "Help what?" I asked myself. I can talk to people one-on-one and be relational, because that's my strong side (I was reminded of Moses and him saying he wasn't qualified to talk to Pharoah as I wrote this.) But these students were riled-up-mad at this guy, and I could see why. He was yelling at them. He was coming into people's lives, of which he knew nothing, and telling them the were going to hell if they kept up what they were doing.

I am not sure if I'm satisfied with the decision I made. Maybe next time I'll play it off differently.

I had a revalation. I really wish there was a footnote option for these things. It would be so much more helpful to the reader than parentheses. So if anyone actually reads this and knows if you can add footnotes let me know. I would like the information.

Cheers.