I'm Stephen Cliff from Tulsa, Oklahoma and this blog is for family, friends, and unknowns to get a minute glimpse of college life at Oklahoma State University from the perspective of a man who's fueled by Christ's love to make it through to medical school.
I need to take a little break from studying for my Chemistry exam. Thermodynamics, quantum mechanics, and nuclear physics are a little too much for my brain to comprehend all in one day. Regardless, I have recognized that I study almost obsessively to the point of mental exhaustion. I'm at the border of determined and insanity. So I must take a break and consume some of your free time with this blog entry.
If you're like me, you despise mornings. I mean you exorbitantly loath the first ray of sun light that hits your window with its unwanted awakening. Almost every morning, I need about 10 minutes to slowly reach a complete state of consciousness. Turn on my lights without permission, talk excessively/intelligently, or look at me wrong and I've been known to lash out in an uncharacterized rage. One of the ways I love to ease into my new day is through music. Pick the right song to wake up to and the rest of your day seems to fall together nicely. So here are a couple of my favorite songs to listen to in the morning. Some might not be the typical "morning" type of song, but it does the trick for me. Maybe you can use my methodology to greet tomorrow with a good mood.
Robbie Seay Band- "New Day"
Mat Kearney- "Where We Gonna Go From Here"
U2- "Beautiful Day"
Jack's Mannequin- "Into the Airwaves"
Dave Barnes- "God Gave Me You"
And no matter how elementary it makes you feel, you simply can not deny that this song makes you in a better mood to start your day...
Here is some mental candy for you to chew on. I found it incredibly revealing. It's an excerpt from the book "In a Pit with a Lion on a Snowy Day" by Mark Batterson. Enjoy.
"In his Letters to Malcolm, C.S. Lews said, "If God had granted all the silly prayers I've made in my life, where would I be now?" Lewis went so far to say that someday we'll be more grateful for our prayers that didn't get answered than the ones that did. The reason for this is simple: Many of our prayers are misguided. We pray for comfort instead of character. We pray for an easy way out instead of the strength to make it through. We pray for no pain, when the result would be no gain. We pray that God will keep us out of pits and away from lions. But if God answered our prayer, it would rob us of our greatest opportunities. Many of our prayers would short-circut God's plans and purposes for our lives if He answered them. Maybe we should stop asking God to get us out of difficult circumstances and start asking Him what He wants us to get out of those difficult circumstances. Most of us blame our circumstances when things aren't going well just like we blame the ref when a game isn't going well. We look for some external scapegoat. But maybe our problem isn't our circumstances. Maybe our problem is our perspective..."
I have a great privilege this semester to have Dr. Lee Manzer as my marketing professor. I referred to him at the beginning of the semester as "Dr. Gpa" because he is the oldest tenured professor at Oklahoma State University. He is a unique professor. He isn't interested in monotone, dry lectures that put people to sleep. He doesn't use a PowerPoint slide show presentation with his notes. He doesn't sit in a chair to talk to us. Every day he tries his best to spice things up to make coming to class interesting. This is rare for an older professor at any university. Even with all these great attributes, he is most well known by his stories and quotes. Every class period he will tell interesting long stories that apply to what we cover in the book. He also takes any chance he can get to teach us "life lessons". Many of his stories include: "How easy it is to be great", "How to get people to commit to goals", So on and so on. It is interesting to me how many people I have spoken to, who have had Dr. Manzer as a professor in the past that remember the stories he tells. My older brother and sister-in-law also had him as a professor and they both remember stories that stuck with them through the entirety of their lives. Even the lady who interviewed me for a scholarship a couple of weeks ago told me a few stories she remembered. It's amazing how such a simple teaching philosophy has impacted the memory of so many college students. I was lucky enough to catch the last couple years of his teaching career. I would like to share one of his small "stories" with you: "The importance of goals".
If we don't have goals, than we can't expect to have any accomplishments in our lives. Aside from his story I found this fact very interesting, "The Yale graduating class of 1953 was surveyed to see how many had written goals. Only 3% had written goals. 30 years later, the same class was surveyed again. The same 3% had accumulated over 90% of the wealth of the entire graduating class". Dr. Manzer's story was based around Alice and Wonderland (yes this post is inspired by the premier of the movie tonight). I found a video clip that will save you plenty of reading time.
Do you notice that Alice gets to a fork in the road and does not know which way to turn? She does not know where she is going. She is lost in her circumstances and is just stumbling along mindlessly. She gets to the fork and asks the Cheshire cat a very important question, "Which way do I go?" The cat responds, "Which way do you want to go?"
"I do not know",
"Than it really does not matter which way you go".
If we have no aim in our lives, than it really does not matter which way we go... If we wonder around in our lives, simply clocking in and clocking out type of lifestyle, than we can't expect great accomplishments. "Shoot for the moon and you might end up in the stars". Even if I only hit the stars, that would be better than indecisively standing at the fork in my life on earth. I have taken the initiative to write out my long term and short term goals in my journal. Considering my task oriented lifestyle, this helps me see the current plan for my life. Another day and another story might be who your Cheshire cat might be. Who are you asking for direction or help?
Things to think about ladies and gentlemen. Don't be Alice and simply stumble around a hallucinogenic euphoria with no direction. Get a goal and start pursuing the finish line.
This is the reason I live. Listen to the message this man has to say. It ends about the 4:00 minute mark. Than listen to the song that preceeded the message in the second video. God is good.
With Everything
Open our eyes To see the things that make Your heart cry To be the church that You would desire Your light to be seen
Break down our pride And all the walls we've built up inside Our earthly crowns and all our desires We lay at Your feet
Let hope rise And darkness tremble In Your holy light That every eye will see Jesus our God Great and mighty to be praised
God of all days Glorious in all of Your ways Oh the majesty the wonder and grace In the light of Your Name
With everything With everything We will shout for Your glory With everything With everything We will shout forth Your praise
Our hearts they cry Be glorified Be lifted high above all names For You our King With everything
With the exception of Yankee fans, UCONN fans, or UCLA fans, most true sports fanatics have learned to live in the moment of sports. Most of us don't have the opportunity to invest so much time and passion into a team to be rewarded with a championship at the end. I've lived for 20 years and besides the Dallas Cowboys championship run when I was much younger, I've never rooted for a national champion. Therefore, I must grasp and hold on to those 'special' moments in my fantasy sports universe. These 'special' memories, along with the emotional side stories that accompany sports are the reasons people like me watch sports. I mean seriously, how can you look at this photo and not appreciate what athletics bring to the table.
I have many of these special memories that I can reach back and remember: Seeing Emmitt Smith break the all time rushing record in person, going to my first OSU basketball game with my brother, seeing A-Rod hit a walk-off grand slam against the Red Sox in the bottom of the 12th inning, watching the Yankees play ball, watching Michael Jordan cross over and drain the game winning shot against the Jazz while running fever, seeing John Lucas hit the game winning shot over St Joe’s to send the Pokes to the Final Four, or my own personal experience of playing 10 minutes of a basketball game with a broken nose. Of course, I can't leave out seeing your dad get kicked out of a state tournament for yelling at the officials in defense of his son. Ask any human why he or she watches sports and I guarantee everyone will have their own set of 'special' stories to tell. These stories are the reason we faithfully keep watching our teams play even when they are losing.
This past weekend I have another story to add to my collection. My OSU Cowboys basketball team upsetting the number one ranked team in the country! I have to admit that over the years I've learned, when it comes to sports, to expect the worse, therefore I'm never disappointed. My mindset walking into the game was that I was blessed to get to see at least five future NBA players play a game on the same court. I never would have expected we would do the impossible: win. Immediately, this memory has become branded as an all time favorite. The popular Al Michael's quote, "Do you believe in miracles?" kept pounding in the back of my mind as the seconds wound down to one of the largest victories in our school's history. I will never forget how loud the stadium rocked in the final minutes of the game when James Anderson threw down the game clinching break away dunk. The surreal converged with reality when I peaked over my shoulder to see the thousands of students inching closer and closer to the front row in anticipation of rushing the floor. The skinny police officers were not going to keep the deeply torchered Cowboy fans from ravishing our once in a lifetime victory celebration on Eddie Sutton court. Travis Ford's ear to ear grin said it all as he invited the students to rush the floor with 5 seconds remaining.
I'll never forget the rush, but I'll also never forget our tradition of holding the fan next to you and singing the Alma Mater after our victory. But this time is was done at mid court and under the arms of our fellow students, friends, and basketball team. I will simply never forget.
