This is an email, I originally wrote and never sent nearly 6 years ago. Its interesting/funny to go back and see what has stayed the same and what has changed in my life.

eastward ho!, a bowl of chili and the end of a dynasty

Hey hey everybody!!! Well here we are again, the end of a, once new year, the out set of yet another, the next step in the finite puzzle that comes together to form the existance that is ours. Where have we come from? Where are we going? Questions that we all must delve into. Another Christmas, a season of Joy, reflection and looking to the year that stands emminent on our doorstep. Any attempt to ignore it proves to be futile. We must look to the new year, we must look to change. What have we done? Where has it gotten us? Is there a margin of error? Or room for improvement? Will we sit and hope that our current direction will hold true for yet another year? Or will we change that path in hopes of making the world a "better place." Will our failures help us grow or leave us floundering? New years resolutions, everyone has them, and everyone breaks them. Will you stick to yours? Can I stick to mine? Will this year be the year that things change? Just as we ask every year. Can we change ourselves in order to change the world? Leo Tolstoy once said "Everyone thinks of changing society but no one thinks of changing themself." Lets go or fail trying, with the pride of having at least tried.

This past year has been a year of growth and change for me. Just over a year ago I was returning home from Romania, most of you were kind enough to come along with me in prayer and support. Coming back and facing the changes and inner-conflicts that this trip taught me about the life we live, desiring to know Jesus heart for the poor and our role in that. Since then, I have had three jobs, Midwest Express Airlines(baggage handler) Marriot Hotel Reservations(ummm...telephone hotel reservations agent) and China Buffet(server) and learned the 'joys' of working a 70 hour work week and functioning on -literally, little to no sleep at all. I had the opportunity to return to Romania with a youth team from my church. I have attended the University of Nebraska at Omaha for a semester, often at the cost of my sanity as term papers went un-typed up till the night before they were due. All of that, barring the millions of boring details, brings us to now and onward.

Well, In the next few days I am moving out(lets change that to 'a few days ago'), to a house with a bunch of guys from church, down at 38th and Farnam. I am taking a semester off of school in order to work and save up for this coming fall, in which I hope to attend the University of Nebraska at Lincoln(GO BIG RED-proud and un-abashed after this past season.) I will be turning my program of study from broadcasting to Film Studies at UNL. What this will ultimately do for me, I do not know. But one desire of mine is to direct films, when I grow up. This summer I hope to be in the city of Minneapolis. Helping out on the movie set of this SUPER cool guy that I know. With all that, again barring all of the details about this next year that I dont know yet, brings us to this point next year. I will probably be sitting at this same spot in my house typing an email similar to this one.
Will this next year drop us off in the same place we picked up, unsatisfied with a bad taste in our mouth? Will we come to this place: 2003 still holding the same frustrations? Will we sit and watch as the world slowly drifts by or can we get up and make a difference? Can we change ourselves in order to change the world? It only takes a spark to start a forest fire, why is it that the spark is the hardest to produce? As we step into the new year lets light that spark and allow that to be our catalyst.

I guess that optimally I would close all of this out with a big stunning presentation of THE one thing that I think we should all strive for. Unfortunatly I dont have a universal propoganda of this magnitude at this time. I would contend however that all of us can think of at least one thing that they would like to change in their own life, and we can think of a number of things that we would like to change about society. Lenin once said, "Without a revolutionary theory there can be no revolutionary movement." This would be to say that there is always a beggining to any revolution. Why do you think that there is a marked 'historical site' at all of the major revolutionary 'birth places'? Because this is where the masses gathered, this is the place where the peoples conscious was stirred, this is where emotion was aroused, and something changed. Kingdoms have had their rise and fall on revolutions. Regimes have seen their power come and go. Whats the hardest part of accomplishing any task? Where to start, right? It usually takes something to motivate us to 'get off the couch and do something.' Perhaps, this could be the start we are looking for, Perhaps we can all work together to push and encourage everyone. Perhaps we can change the world. Lets Go.

"everyman dies, but not everyman really live."
-William Wallace, Braveheart

"...I dont want to lose heart, I want to believe."
-Robert the Bruce, Braveheart



peace,

matt

my new contact information is as follows,

3819 Farnam st
Omaha, NE. 68131

phone number,

(402)933-8973

email,

thetick91@yahoo.com

please, call or drop by anytime, I would love to hang out and show you around.