Life is a series of challenges. Sometimes I get to thinking that whatever problem I’m facing is some unusual thing that has intruded into my life and once it’s solved and done I can move on and all will be “normal” meaning problem free. This is ridiculous. Perhaps in hind sight things don’t ever look like they were that complicated but in the here and now life is tough. Life will always be hard and that’s ok. The satisfaction can be gained from the challenges and trials if I think about it the right way and focus on the right things.

I hate to give away my location and what not but there are some things that I can’t just pass over. This semester has been… unique. Though I don’t go to VT the town I live in is very tied to it. I know a lot of people who went there or date people from there and ever since I’ve been here the pride people have in V-Tech has amazed me. Though the shooting didn’t happen on the campus of any of the Universities in Lynchburg the area schools have had constant “scares” since then. Instead of extra days at the end of the year to make up for snow days they’ll have to have makeup days for all the shooting scares. As if this town weren’t already drenched in burgundy and orange…

For those of you who haven’t heard my Chancellor passed today. I don’t really know what to make of it. It may sound insane to those of you who are politically minded or religiously anti-religious but five years ago I had no idea who Jerry Falwell even was. I decided to come to this school for a myriad of reasons none of which involved him. I remember telling one of the old ladies in the church where I was going and she said, “Oh that’s Jerry Falwells church isn’t it?” and I said, “Ummm I don’t know… it seems like that may have been who signed the acceptance letter…” Hahah when I saw him at the first convocation I remembered thinking, “hmmmn he sort of looks like a political cartoon…” HAHAH later I learned that he looked so much like those cartoons because they were OF him.

In 2005 when he had his heart attacks it was brought to the forefront of everyone’s mind, “… what would happen to Liberty if Jerry dies?” It’s hard to imagine this place without him. It’s going to weird not seeing that black SUV with the LU 1 license plates… you know he drove that thing into the new Thomas Road when it was being built. That was something I admired about him, he was very child like about his projects when they were going well. He played.

Here’s the real test for the school: What happens to if after Jerry’s gone?

I remember once in convo he talked about all of the once great Christian Universities that lost their way after their founders died away. He said that if after he’s gone and we see the university doing things we know aren’t what he had planned [getting too liberal that is] haha he told us to burn it down. That would make a good movie wouldn’t it? A group of old college buddies burning down the school because it’s gone against the vision of the founders.

And Lynchburg… what happens to Lynchburg after Jerry? You think he cared about national politics alone? He was very involved in this town. You know, I always thought he would outlive Tim LeHay though… guess not.