Friday, February 8, 2013

Groundhog's Day

Did you know?  That in addition to being the humble SALI assistant / SALI teacher / ESL coordinator here in the great land of LINC North Texas, I am also a full time grad student at the University of Dallas.  Our mascot is the Groundhogs (yes, I'm for real), and yes, we do go crazy for Groundhog's Day - the one day of the year that all the serious students at UD get a chance to cut back and relax.  What's more, on that day of celebrating giant rodents and their shadows, there is the compulsory screening and re-screening of the movie, Groundhog Day with Bill Murray.

If you've never seen this film, your'e in for a treat.  It's the story of Frank Conner, a malcontent-ed weatherman from a big city news station who is sent to Punxsutawny, PA to cover the emergence of the hollowed hog only to find that the next morning is a repeat of the day before.  Frank seems doomed to re-live the same day over and over until he finally gets it right (learning to speak French, play jazz piano, and fall in love).    Ultimately, it's a good tale of getting a do-over on the events of life - especially when you have a love of time to kill.

But when I think of the ability to re-do everything in life, I also think of all the things you would forfeit: the errors we've made that have taught us valuable lessons, given us chance encounters, and ultimately helped to define who we are.  This Groundhog's day, I'm making it a time to be grateful - grateful for mistakes and errors that have made life richer and helped to make me the person I am.  As for the unknown future and worrying about mis-steps, I'll give all of that to God and let him direct my path.

Brandon

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