“You are so cool” – my editor
(sarcastic or not I will allow the above complement to go to my head)
What a year. 2023. The ups and the downs, the highs and the lows, the triumphs and the embarrassments, this was easily one of the best years of my life.
As I have completely lost my blog writing mojo and I’m something like 5-6 blogs behind I’m gonna write something of a love letter to the year that flipped my life upside down. Here we go, recounting some of the most iconic moments, impactful people, and some funny lowlights from the year. Hard to believe it’s over.
Top Moments in my walk with Christ:
5. Baptizing That Guy: for the whole story, I wrote a blog about sometime ago in Chronicles of Norcia, I believe it was one of the finest blogs I’ve written to date (it was also the one that finally won me the Featured Blog – what a moment). To sum it up – one day in Guatemala we met a man who was drunk, on drugs, and looking to commit suicide. By the end of the day, we gave him the Gospel, baptized him, and he was moving to get back onto his feet, all the while proclaiming his life anew. It was beautiful. The man who had been lying on the street crying was now in the hands of the Father. Shoutout Jesus, he saved that guy for real.
4. A Prophetic Word: Another point in Guatemala we had an activation day which basically consists of the AIM base staff coming and doing street evangelism with us. There was one woman on the staff who as soon I’d seen her, a woman I had never spoken too, I had the urge to tell her something I had no idea where it came from. We have looked pretty in depth into how God uses people to speak his words to others and when I knew I had to tell this lady this thing that I was pretty sure made no sense I was freaking out. In the morning, I chickened out and refused to go tell her. In the afternoon, I saw her again and felt the urge even stronger to tell her this random note. I chickened out. That night we went to a worship room. Naturally, she was there again. Finally I went and told her and I’ll never know what it meant to her but it must’ve been pretty powerful because she was moved. Crying pretty hard, actually. Once I stopped chickening out and I let God use me it had a pretty profound impact on this woman. Pretty cool stuff.
3. Getting Baptized: I realize now I never posted the first episode of the blog where I covered this stuff but yeah, I got re-baptized during training camp. For me, I felt I hadn’t chosen into a Jesus-led lifestyle in the past and I wanted to rededicate my life to Him, thus I got baptized. It was incredible. It was a real turning point for me in leaving behind an old sinful nature and stepping into a new life led only for Him. Awesome moment. Ask Banks about it, I’m sure he’d love to share more about how cool it was.
2. Kairos 66. Where it all began. On my school’s retreat last February I got wrecked up for Jesus. I had had knowledge of the truth before this but I had never experienced nor understood the extent of what the Christian walk was until this weekend. As I wrote to myself in a letter at the end of the weekend, I knew I had experienced God’s love. The inspiration moving forward was clearly evident as I wrote how I wanted to live this experience out and bring it to all aspects of life, but I was new to it still as I wrote, “I’m not yet sure how I will do this”.
1. Kairos 67. Where it all changed. Leading the retreat that changed my life was an experience I wouldn’t trade for anything in the world. Big shoutout to Father Monica who led me both retreats, both as an attendee and as a leader. So much thanks is owed to him as he guided me through the retreats and pointed me in the direction that has brought me to where I am today. While it is nearly impossible to compare Kairos’s as they were both incredibly moving moments that helped shape who I am today, I put K67 here in this #1 spot because of how it left me. As I concluded in my final letter to myself at the end of the weekend, “I hope to continue serving, leading, and acting as a role model for my peers because I realize how much I could help people if I choose to continue. I hope to continue using my gifts and faith to Help Others. – Ben” Forever Grateful for Kairos 67 and everyone who was a part of it, it set me down this path of service that has forever changed me.
Praise God for putting in me not only these incredible five situations, but in many more moving moments that have changed me!! What a powerful year!!
Most Memorable Adventures:
There are far too many for this list to be accurate. Here are five though that I find worthy of the top spots. Also note that all the above moments would be here but I’m not doing repeats.
5. Fleeing Senior Week: The evacuation of Ocean City Maryland was definitely an interesting time. Personally, escaping home by means of a friend’s cousin’s car to a friend’s cousin’s dad’s car to a train station to a friend’s mom’s car and ending up at my favorite farm was quite the odyssey. It also made for an iconic picture beside the rail road tracks.
4. The Polar Plunge: (maybe not) In January, David, Jack, and I had the genius idea of doing our own polar plunge. Highlights of the weekend included bowling with Uncle Tony, messing with my cousin Patrick, intense Fifa bouts, late night fishing, and nearly freezing my toes off.
3. Hiking a volcano: What a time to be alive. See my blog Ch 2 ep 8, I deliriously wrote it while climbing said volcano. Shoutout the Fab 5. They made the trip. Glory is forever.
2. My End of May Beach Trip: Towards the end of May the boys and I took an awesome beach trip for a weekend highlighted by an instigated beef between David and Jack that concluded with an epic wrestling match. Other highlights included #keepmikewalking, a spikeball tournament, a ranch spillage and a huge Celtics game 6 victory against the Heat.
1. Santa Marta Basketball Project: Peak life. Love those kids. Love basketball. Ricky skipping class was an all time moment. Shoutout the boys. SMBP forever ❤️.
Random Fun Stuff:
Here were some random moments (some better some worse) that 2023 would not have been complete without:
5. My first concert: In late July the Uhlmans took me to see Luke Combs in Philly. It rained for hours and hours and after midnight he finally came out and rocked the city. Can I get a loooong neeeck iccccce colllllld….
4.Bowling Club Championship: The Bowling Club was one of David and I’s greatest successes our senior year. The success of the club was highlighted by the epic finale of the Bowling Bowl in which the Tennessee Bowls took down the Fishbowls. Gnarly.
3. The BJs Pet Smart War: some say it never ended…
2. Texas Hold ‘em Nights: Over the summer the fellas and I used to have Texas Hold em nights and we’d each gamble like $20. One time we wore suits and had cigars while we played. Most I ever walked out with was like $45 and the most I ever lost was around -$23. Great times. Gambling is awesome.
1. BJs Wholesale Club takeover: A couple of times we got the whole employee payroll to all wear matching BJs shirts and take over a function somewhere. Shenanigans unclear. “BJs country, let’s ride.” “My name is Mista BJ…” Iconic.
Insignificant Moments I Remember the Most Fondly:
5. That One Thirty Bomb I Scored in DASH For Someone Else’s Team: I forget the logistics but the Harry Lawlor coached pink team needed a fifth one day and I showed up and contributed a thirty piece. No further questions on how much cherry picking was done.
4. That Time David and I both caught a Fish in the same second. Call me Captain Ahab.
3. The first 3v3 game at the Gautemala AIM base when I shattered the backboard and made the word SLAM materialize in the air as I posterized Ally. Her 3v3 game was never the same.
2. The Assassination of Ben Mace in Senior Assassin: Legendary. After my demoralizing failure and humiliation in my first attempt I came back at 4 am one morning, soaking wet with a dream. A dream of taking out the man. At around 5 am I chased him down and barely managed to tag him with some water. Legend. Shoutout Mr Mace, he loves that story.
1. Me and Will K dominating pool basketball at Hope’s and then learning how to be a legendary stuntman with Sarah. Shoutout. Backflip coming soon.
Thanking the People Who Made the Year:
Coach and Mrs Coach, My Dad, David, Jack, Zach, Joe, the quads, Andrew, Patrick, Fr Monica, Jalen Brunson, Banks, the DOGs, Ivan, Loyda, shoot I’ll even shoutout my editor too. These people made the year!! Love u guys!!
2023:
One for the books, one to remember. So many more moments to cherish, it would take weeks of me sitting here in this free Vietnamese coffee shop wifi to remember all the places and all the faces. My walk with Christ was truly founded and has flourished in this year. I’ve gotten into shenanigans and adventures that I’ll always cherish, and spent amazing time with some amazing people. Praise God for such a blessed year!!
This is how we chill, from ‘23 till…
– – – – – – – – – –
Thank you all for making 2023 special ❤️
