Ben
There is therefore now no condemnation for those who are in Christ
Jesus. For the law of the Spirit of life has set you free in Christ Jesus from the law of
sin and death.
—Romans 8:1–2
For me 2023 has been a year of increasing in friendships, knowledge, and leadership.
I got my first full-time seasonal job this summer being a landscaper at Eagle Creek Nursery & Landscape, where Sarah works as a designer. For most of the summer my good friend Everest and I worked together. I learned how to plant a tree professionally, how to mulch, how to water plants, how to load plants into a truck, how to prune, how to spread gravel, and most importantly how to work on a team and follow instructions. On my first day of work, Everest was driving the 25-year-old box truck, and because I was talking to him, he didn’t see a stop sign. He slammed the brakes, and a full bucket of soil slid toward the front of the truck and buried our backpacks with soil and filled up the space between our seats. We laughed for minutes on end, and then I learned how we clean the truck out with brooms and the leaf blower. This was certainly a fun job, especially when I got to work with Everest. I learned to work long days in the heat and fortunately I sweated through my pants on only a few days.
On December 31 I ran a half-marathon in 1:40:09. On April 8, I ran the Carmel half-marathon in in 1:34:18. When it was time for Cross Country (XC) Camp in July, I was ready for it. I had diligently trained since the previous year so that I would be thoroughly prepared for XC camp and could get the time I wanted in the 5K race in order to say that I was a successful high school runner in my personal standards. I had spent much time researching training strategies and the best shoes to run in. I also met with my friends so that we could train together during the off season. At XC camp the coach announced that I would be the team captain. I was excited, and because of my training, I was shaping up to be the fastest on the team. The week of XC camp was the hottest week of the year with lows in the mid seventies and highs in the upper nineties. Starting at 5 miles, we added one mile every morning so that on the last day we ran 10 miles. The afternoon trail runs were always three miles and like last year were my favorite runs of the day. One of the days we ran our trail run with a heat index of 105 degrees and an air quality alert. After the runs we would huddle up in the walk-in freezer to refresh ourselves and dry off from sweat. On the longer runs, I was so drenched in sweat that the sweat glossed down my legs and made puddles in my shoes that made sloshing noises as if I were running in a rain storm! Working landscaping definitely prepared me for this weather. The structure of the camp was very similar to last year, and I made memories I would never want to forget. I got to bike to the closed section of the park and view the spectacular damage that an EF3 tornado had caused in March. I was in awe of the sheer power that the storm must have had to rip off the tops of large healthy trees and uproot others. I also realized that all of my strategies to protect myself in a tornado would stand no chance unless I was in a hole 10-feet deep.
On August 15 I completed the Tree Top Master Challenge for the fourth time. I chose to climb the eighteen trees early in the morning, and the trees were still moist from rain on the previous day. With most of the trees being moist, it was hard to climb up them, while it was very easy to slide down. I completed it in a record time of 2 hours and 44 minutes. The hardest tree of the challenge was too moist to climb, so I decided that my life was more important than completing the challenge perfectly. Just minutes after completing the challenge, I hopped into the car and went to play pickleball with Jackson and Mom. In the afternoon I mowed the field with my push mower, and in the evening I ran at cross-country practice. After a quick four miles I started feeling pain in my hip that only got worse the farther I went. Soon I had to stop and walk, finishing at a slower pace. After that point, my hip only got worse after every run. I had majorly overused my hip, especially during tree climbing. Within two weeks I could barely run at all. I got my hip X-rayed and discovered that I have a cam impingement and possibly a labral tear. Physical therapy is supposed to be the solution, and if that fails, surgery is the solution. I decided to try my own physical therapy exercises, because there was no way that I would be healed well enough to run for the cross-country season.
The 2023 cross-country season was quite different for me. With my hip injury I was limited to cheering on my teammates and leading what I could. Not being able to run with my team was devastating to me but a time that built my character, and I learned to find joy in the Lord. For races I cheered the team on as much as I could and even made a team flag to support the team’s morale.
This summer I was accepted at Cedarville University. I participated in their summer scholars program, which was two weeks on campus earning 3 college credits by taking a condensed Politics and American Culture class. We went to this same class three times a day for five days a week. It was an intense course, and we were often assigned at least 8 chapters every day and one quiz. Because there was way too much to read, we often resorted to skim reading or altogether skipping the chapters deemed least important. We also wrote an essay in this short time. Out of all the students, I got the best grade on the final exam, and I aced the course as a whole. Overall, I was thrilled with my experience and met some excellent friends. I was also lucky to have a great roommate. After the trip, my roommate and I have called each other about once a month, and we hope to room together when we take the Bible and the Gospel class next summer.
This semester I am currently taking Applied Calculus, Intro. to Engineering, and Early American History at Marian University near downtown Indianapolis. Intro. to Engineering excites me for Civil Engineering, Calculus opens my eyes to many useful applications of mathematics, and history gives me different perspectives on the founding of the United States and how current events relate to the past.
C.S. Lewis has been my favorite author this year. I have throughly enjoyed learning philosophy and theology through reading some of his books including The Great Divorce, The Problem of Pain, The Four Loves, The Screwtape Letters, and How To Pray.
Although I am no longer going to Wisdom Builders this school year, I have continued to study Latin just as much as before. Every week my friend Aiden and I meet together to read through the Latin book Familia Romana Pars 1. My goal is to speak somewhat fluently and have the ability to read the Vulgate by the time I go to Cedarville. In our most recent meeting, we managed to communicate solely in Latin for eighty minutes!
Our tree fort hasn’t changed much this year because we are growing up, working summer jobs, and attending college. It makes me sad that we probably won’t build much more in the future, but that also makes me excited to become a Civil Engineer so that I will always have big projects to work on. One crazy thing that Ethan and I attempted was to mount a 5x8-foot American flag on top of the tree on which our HQCI fort rests. The previous flag was only a 3x5 and would snag the branches below it and thereby shred itself. I wanted a big flag and a taller post to mount the flag above the tree branches. Ethan and I connected a bunch of 2x4s and similar boards to construct a 45-foot post. After we screwed all the boards together, we realized that it was easily bendable and had a high chance of snapping. We connected a rope near the top of the post, climbed up to 47-foot-high HQCI, and started pulling. It was very difficult to get the post standing upright, and after that we needed to lift it 47 feet straight up. With the post’s weight being well over 100 pounds and it rubbing so many branches, we struggled to get it a mere 10 feet off the ground. When we could not get it any higher by ourselves, we left it where it was by tying it to the tree. We let it dangle there for a few weeks before we decided that it was a lost cause and had to let it down. Later I put up the 5x8 flag, but it didn’t last more than a few weeks because a wind storm made it come crashing down. But while it was still up, I was lucky enough to be interviewed about the flag by a nonagenarian who lives in the retirement village behind our house. On July 4, Ethan and I installed the 3x5 Betsy Ross flag pictured above.