The Azusa Pacific Blog

            With midterms taking place this week, I’ve naturally been doing a lot of thinking about my studies. Conversations with my friends have mainly been revolving around the topics we discuss in class. I’ve been thinking back on what I’ve learned so far and how it connects to what is going on in my life. My mind has been consumed with philosophy, art, literature, and leadership.

            The amazing thing is, this week is no different than any other.

            One of the most unique aspects to the High Sierra program is its ability to remove us from the crazy race that we run each day – waking up too early, not getting enough sleep, running an errand to the bank, to the mall, to the library, trying to catch up with friends – all the while just looking forward to the weekend so we can get rest from our crazy lives. Oh yeah, and classes fit somewhere in there.

            The very reason we’re here at Azusa Pacific University, the very reason we work so hard in high school to get good grades to get into the right college, and the very reason we pay an incredibly large sum of money becomes our last priority – our burden – on a long list of “things we have to do”. Being here at High Sierra, away from the race, has shown me that studying, learning, and becoming educated is not “something I have to do”, rather, it’s “something I get to do”.

            I think it’s easy to forget this when there is so much going on around us. Learning requires us to slow down, push away our distractions, and fully indulge ourselves in what we have in front of us – whether that’s Plato’s “Republic”, a research paper on why men and women communicate differently, or the Bible – and that is something for which we should rejoice. To have the ability, as college students, to slow down, push away our distractions in this world, and fully indulge ourselves in a book or an idea – that is leisure. Yet, when our lives are so filled with “errands”, the first thing to go is our studies.

            This is something that I struggle with, and have struggled with over the past two years. Why can’t I sit down and commit myself to my studies? Why do I place everything else before my homework? Why do I feel like classes “take up my time”?

            As Christians, and as students, our job is to become educated and love reason. Plato said that to be educated is to be virtuous, and to be virtuous is to keep our sinful desires under control. So this is our task – our calling – to become educated so that we might learn what virtue is. To fully dedicate ourselves to our studies so that we might be ruled not by our desires, but by reason. And while seeking this, I think its fair to say that we will encounter God in such a way that we never have before.

            This has been my occupation and goal at High Sierra, and when I’m allowed the solitude of the mountains and the rest from the city, I can remember why it is I’m at APU and why it is we’re called to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind.”

Me at the top

If you’ve ever been to Yosemite National Park, you’d recognize the one granite feature that dominates all the others along the skyline. You know the familiar sight of the 4,800 ft. tall rock that sits atop the valley like a king sits on his throne. It’s the first place the sun hits in the morning, and the last lingering place it clings to in the evening.

One hundred fifty years ago it was thought impossible to summit Half Dome. Today, thousands of people do it every year. Last weekend, High Sierra conquered the rock.

We left at 4:00 AM and took the long, winding road up to the valley. We started our 17-mile round trip hike at about 7:00, just as the sun was illuminating the east side of Half Dome. The trail is a strenuous one, and can be really hard on the knees and quadriceps. It consists of a 4,800-foot elevation gain, in which nearly 3,000 feet are gained in the first half. As you follow the trail up, you pass by two enormous waterfalls, Vernal and Nevada. The only way to gain the elevation needed past these waterfalls was for stone steps to be constructed right into the cliff faces. These steps are definitely the hardest parts of the hike, but to be able to ascend nature’s staircase literally right next to two of the tallest waterfalls in the nation is incredible.

Vernal Falls

The second half of the hike takes you through a forest of Redwood, Ponderosa, and other pine trees. This part is more gradual and about a mile of the trail takes you alongside the beautiful Merced River. We happened to be walking by just as some morning steam was lifting from the water.

Merced River

Once you exit the forest, Half Dome is directly above you. It looks so close you could almost touch it. But you’re far from that yet. The last part of the hike takes you up more stone steps on an unprotected rock face. Then come the cables: the last and final push to the top. Metal poles, cables, and wooden planks were drilled into the east side of Half Dome years ago to allow hikers the summit they came all the way to the top for. It’s a scary hike straight up, but the view from the top is well worth the effort.

The cables to the top of Half Dome

Three other guys and I made it a goal to summit in three and a half hours. After our buddy David, who powered ahead and finished in three hours flat, reached the top, we came in next. That gave us a good two hours to relax, take in the view, eat some sandwiches, drink water, take pictures, and converse with the other dozens of hikers who made the ascent that day.

As the rest of the APU students and faculty arrived to the top, we cheered as each person made the final step past the cables. The feeling of accomplishment when you arrive on the top of Half Dome is like nothing else.

Some of the guys sitting on the "diving board"

Then you realize you still have to hike down.

The descent always seems to take longer. The stairs, a difficult task to climb up, now take a toll on your knees as you descend down. I was fortunate to have some great company on my way down, though. A couple guys and I met up with Woody, APU’s campus pastor, and his wife, who joined us for the hike that day, later on down the trail. We shared some great conversation and enjoyed the beautiful afternoon. We met up with some more APU kids near Vernal Falls and decided it was time to do some cliff jumping. We hiked down from the trail to the pool below the falls and found a great spot. The water was absolutely freezing but it felt great to wash off the dirt and sweat from the day’s work.

After drying off and hiking the last mile of the trail we arrived in Curry Village and were welcomed by a stack of hot pizzas. As everyone slumped into their chairs around the table, we told stories of the day’s hike and enjoyed the warm, crackling fireplace nearby.

I’ve been trying to really cherish our days in the park this semester. I’m pretty positive that I’ll never be able to say again, for the rest of my life, that I lived 14 miles from Yosemite National Park. The Half Dome hike is something I will absolutely remember for the rest of my life.

Just as I thought things were starting to settle down up here and somewhat of a routine was setting in, High Sierra showed me that there’s no such thing.

And I love it.

That’s not to say that during the week I don’t have my class schedule and time set aside every day for homework, meals, and hopefully a bike ride around the lake. But my hunger for adventure has been fed here like never before. Each week brings with it different activities, different trips, and different visitors to the campus. On main campus, and back at home, I often try and look several weeks ahead to know what my schedule will be, and what I need to look forward to. Here at High Sierra the director and faculty do such a great job of making each week new and different that I don’t even want to know what happens the next week…that would spoil the surprise!

In the last two weekends, I’ve done more than I often, when at home, would have accomplished in two months.

Two weekends ago was Family/Friend weekend. My parents were able to fly out from Illinois and pick up my girlfriend, Kelly, from Azusa. All three of them made the five hour drive from Los Angeles to Bass Lake to come up and spend the weekend with me. Unfortunately, my sister Karen wasn’t able to make it out. She’s just started her own college journey back home in Illinois and needed to attend to important college duties like studying and classes.

Kelly and my parents only had two and a half days with me, but we made our time count. The day they arrived I showed them around campus, took them up to a Giant Sequoia Tree grove about twenty minutes up the road (how amazing is that?!), and got back just in time for a barbecue and square dancing down in the meadow by the dorms. Just about everyone’s families had made the journey, some longer than others, and to sit back and watch mom’s and dad’s, reunited with their son’s and daughter’s, dancing around in circles, smiling and laughing, was one of the happiest moments of my life.

The next day we drove fourteen miles up the road to Yosemite National Park. This being both my parents’ and Kelly’s first time to the park, I was so excited for them to see it. As you’re driving in from Bass Lake, the road winds up and up along a mountain ridge, switching back and forth, through a dense forest of towering pine trees. The drive becomes dizzying and you wonder when it will be over. As you finally begin to descend into the valley, you pass through a tunnel. At the other end of the mile-long tunnel, you are thrust out to an over-look of the valley, and what has become the most photographed vista in the entire world. http://www.flickr.com/photos/mikejonesphoto/2665757260/

To see the looks and dropped jaws on Kelly’s and my parents’ faces was a true joy. We spent the rest of the day watching rock climbers on the nose of El Capitan (http://www.pdphoto.org/PictureDetail.php?mat=pdef&pg=8324), hiking to the bottom Vernal Falls, and eating some of the most delicious pizza ever at Curry Village. On our final day together we went to church and spent a relaxing time down at the lake. Saying goodbye after only a few days together was really difficult, but to hear them echo my thoughts and tell me how much God has blessed me in giving me the opportunity to come to a place like this made it a little easier. And now that Kelly and my parents have an idea of where I am and what I’m experiencing, I feel like the distance between Bass Lake and Los Angeles and Illinois has shrunk just a little bit.

The Chicago Cubs, in their infinite wisdom, have decided that they want their fans to wait another 100 years before they win a World Series.

I’m telling all Cardinal fans right now…in the 2108 season, look out.

I mean, really, I should feel blessed that we even had a winning season. And to have had the best record in the NL was absolutely incredible. This season felt like the one, though. I thought that we had finally made the decision to put everything else aside and simply play baseball. No worrying about curses, goats, and Bartman’s. And we did – for the entire regular season. Our hitters hit, our pitchers pitched, and we played defense – better than any other team in the National League.

But, alas, this is the Cubbies we’re talking about. The same team that was five outs away from a World Series appearance in 2003, but instead lost the last three games of the NL Division Series to the Marlins. The same team that went from the worst record in the NL Central to the best last season, but then got swept in the first round of the playoffs. The same team that has tormented me every October for the last 20 years.

Tomorrow night I’m heading down to Los Angeles to attend Game 3. I’m not sure if this is a good decision or a bad one. I’ll know afterwards. What I do know is that the Cubs work in mysterious ways. If any team decided to lose the first two playoff games at home, just so they could win the final game at home, giving each and every one of their fans a stroke – it’s the Cubs.

So here we go again. Tomorrow night I’ll be at Dodger stadium, wearing my Cubs jersey with the nostalgic Harry Caray patch, cheering on our team with the other 20,000 loyal Cubs fans that will infiltrate the Dodger-saturated city by the sea.

If tomorrow night doesn’t go the way I hope…there’s always 2108.