Year-End Wrap-Up

It is almost beyond comprehension that this year is already coming to an end!  It seems like the older I get, the faster time goes.  So, what kind of year has 2017 been to us anyway?  To be honest, it has been quite a different year - a new chapter in life has opened, there have been many challenges, and also a lot of new things have taken place which have shown that we are indeed at a new place.  Was 2017 a bad year though?  Not at all actually - it has had its challenges for us, but I would not say it has been bad at all.  In many ways, as a matter of fact, it has been one of the best years, although at times circumstances don't appear to reflect the fact.  As mentioned, a lot of new things have happened, and if there were a theme to the events of the year, it would be "New Beginnings."  Let me now touch on some highlights of the past year.

A New Place

The most radical aspect of this year is the fact we moved, and that move happened on the very first day of the year - last year at this time, as a matter of fact, we were in the midst of packing up the house and preparing for it.  After spending an entire day on December 31st of last year doing the backbreaking task of loading our whole house into a Penske truck, it was at 8:30PM on that day that we pulled out of our driveway in Lakeland, FL, and we headed east on I-4 before turning north onto I-95 and leaving the state for good.  When 2017 dawned on us that night, we were just north of Jacksonville heading toward the Georgia state line.  That move was significant for several reasons, and it indeed signaled a new chapter for us.  But, we need to go back in order to move forward in order to tell the story, so let's do that.

In August of 2016, I had reached a milestone of living 27 years in Florida, with the exception of two months in California and a few months in Dothan, AL in 1992.  That time frame itself is of great surprise to me, as when I came to Florida initially I was a 19-year-old kid fresh out of high school and just starting college.   That point in my life, much as this one has, closed another chapter on my life story as well - I had opened the door to adulthood that year and stepped out of the shelter of childhood.  When I graduated high school in mid-1989, I recall being both excited and fearful, and the reality hit me like a ton of bricks when I was loading the last box of my belongings in Dad's van that year.   I still remember standing out in front of the house on Salt Lick Road in Terra Alta that day - Mom was actually crying, as was the little nonagenarian lady Myrt who had more or less adopted me as a new grandchild, and a great adventure lay ahead.  Arriving in Georgia that year on the same highway I left Florida just this past year (I-95), it was apparent that my life was changing.   After a summer with Dad that year in Georgia, I arrived on the campus of Florida Baptist Theological College in Graceville, FL, on August 26, 1989, and that began my long sojourn in the state of Florida.  Over the next 27 years, I would get married, earn my Bachelor's degree, and accomplish a lot of other things, but to be honest, Florida was beginning to seem like a dead-end to us - Barbara and I felt stuck there, a feeling we both had extending back as far as 1997 but that we ignored as life moved on with jobs and other responsibilities.  It was due to a final crisis in 2015, when we almost lost our house, that we finally made the decision to make a big change for good, and we spent the better part of 2016 preparing for it.  I remember that night in late December 2015 when we were facing eviction at that point from our house that Barbara and I stayed up all night talking about what we were going to do, praying to God for direction, and just really seeking some guidance, and at that point it came to both of us - we both saw Maryland as our destination, and it was decided at that point to just do it - move out for good, as Florida was not promising much to us nor did we have any real roots there anyway.  After God miraculously delivered us from our rental crisis, as well as providing us both with good work, we began in earnest to prepare for this big move.   It had its challenges, but 2016 was actually a good year to do it, and for the most part our preparations went smoothly.  So, from that long night-long talk we had at the end of December 2015 until pulling out of the driveway on December 31st, 2016, we now had a purpose.

Many have asked us, "why Maryland?"   The reason for that is simple - Maryland is an ideal location for us personally in that it is my home territory - where we live now is only minutes from the border of my home state of West Virginia.  Also, Maryland presents opportunities we would not have had otherwise in Florida, although in the course of this year it has taken some time to tap into them.  We have had our sights on this area since at least late 1997, so we knew for almost 20 years that this was where we needed to be.  So, when we were finally faced with making a decision, it was as if the apple that had fallen off the tree and hit Sir Isaac Newton on the kopf had likewise knocked sense into us, although it took a near-catastrophe to get us here now.  After really looking over our options, it was finally decided that Hagerstown would be the ideal location for us - it is at a convenient distance from everything we need, and it is also a nice town that is within 30 minutes or less of three other states.  And that is how we ended up here. 

Of course, this move was not without its sacrifices.   The first of those occurred last year just prior to our move, when we had come up to Parsons to visit my grandparents while scouting out the area.  It was of course wintery out, and on the Saturday we were to head back, a major snow storm had dumped a few inches of white stuff on Tucker County.  So, early that morning, when we were leaving my grandfather's house just south of Parsons to head home, we took some bad advice from my stepmother to head east on what was to be Corridor H construction, which took us over Dry Fork Mountain between Elkins and Harman.  About midway we started to notice that the roads had a lot of ice on them, and I cautioned Barbara that we needed to watch out for ice.  Not 30 seconds after saying that, we hit a nasty patch of black ice and after a few spins out of control in the road, we flipped twice before finally French-kissing the north side of Dry Fork Mountain, which also landed us upright.  Although we were not injured in that accident, it did total our Ford Ranger pickup we had owned for almost 8 years at that point, which was a tragic loss.  But, thanks to some distant relatives who lived in the nearby community of Dry Fork who graciously gave us a lift to a local mechanic shop called Dave's Auto, we were taken care of - as an extra blessing, the owner's daughter-in-law was sweet enough to give us a lift into Elkins where we were able to rent a car to drive back home, a trip which was uneventful and in style, as the car they leased us was a 2015 Mustang, which was nice!  And, in less than a week, our insurance company gave us a nice settlement, which we were also able to apply toward our moving expenses (along with a gracious loan from my dear sister-in-law Sue, which was a real blessing as well) and that kept us on-track.  Although we have yet to invest in another vehicle, for now at least we have Mom's, which has been excellent in getting us around for the past year. 

The move itself was also challenging too, as it was a lot of backbreaking work loading the Penske truck, which due to a miscalculation was undersized, so that meant we also had to leave several things behind.  But, we got here.  When we pulled into the Super 8 Motel on exit 9 off I-81 in Martinsburg, WV, which would be our home for the following week, we had about 65% of our former home in a Penske truck with us, and that was still enough to get us settled.  Now, when we moved here, we had no clue as to where we would be eventually living, which is why we stayed in the motel in Martinsburg for the first week of 2017.  During that time, we looked into several houses before settling on one that sort of came our way by an ad in the local paper - there was a huge mobile home park called Lakeside Village just south of Hagerstown, MD, which had some nice mobile homes open, and we made an appointment on Wednesday, January 4th, to check them out.  We went, filled out the paperwork, and saw the new place, and on Friday we received the call that they offered us the lease, and we then spent all that Friday and early Saturday moving stuff into the new home - again, it was backbreaking work in 11-degree weather, and while chilly outwardly I was sweating like I was in a jungle under my coat, and would pay for that a couple of weeks later when I caught a nasty virus.  But, we were home, and here we have been ever since - soon we'll be celebrating our first year in this place, and it has actually been overall a pleasant experience, as it is a nice park and generally easy on us, although a bit steep pricewise.  At this point we are still acquiring new furnishings and have some more settling-in to do yet, but we've made progress.

Adjusting to living back in my home territory after living in Florida for 27 years has had its challenges, but overall I really believe it is the right thing to do and have no regrets.  Honestly, it is just good to be back home, and as a new chapter in our lives has opened, we want to make it one of our best.  We both anticipate that happening more so in 2018, as a lot of new things come our way as well.

Moving Forward

There are many other milestones that have happened the past year that need to be discussed as well, as they involve our church, my academic pursuits, and other things.  A lot of transition is still taking place even now as I write this, so much will have to be observed as it comes together.

When we moved up here earlier this year, the original idea was to continue work in the ACC at what was to be our parish, St. Michael the Archangel in Frederick.  We started out there at the beginning of the year, but a couple of months after our move, the parish church moved as well to a new building at an old Roman Catholic sanctuary dating from pre-Civil War times near the small community of Buckeystown, and at that point some changes started happening.  As I am on the verge of completing my Master's degree, it was originally my hope to serve the Church as maybe a catechist and possibly seek Holy Orders as a permanent deacon, but circumstances occurred which sort of changed our focus.  Although the Anglican Catholic Church has been a great communion to be part of the past 10 or so years, it also became apparent that I may not have much of a future serving there, and some other situations forced me back in June to take a long hard look at what I was doing and where I was going.  As it happened, just down the road from our house in Hagerstown was a vibrant Roman Catholic parish, St. Joseph's, and after having a change in schedule during the summer months - Barb was working for a teen counseling program called Catoctin Adolescent Program in nearby Sabillasville, MD, and had to work some odd hours - it was more convenient for us to attend church closer to home, so we started attending Mass intermittently in June.  This was the very thing that I was being shown as far as direction, and after deliberating over it, Barbara gave me some sound advice entailing the ACC - sometimes it is best to just "rip off the bandage."  So, I did that - I effectively resigned my post on the Vestry of St. Michael's, as well as relinquishing my layreader responsibilities there, and we began attending St. Joseph's here on a regular basis.  This was a rather easy transition, as I had already been confirmed Roman Catholic in the year 2000, and I took the steps to re-establish communion with the Roman Catholic Church and the transition was not difficult as I was still very much Catholic in convictions and theology anyway.  So, we became registered parishioners of St. Joseph's, and in the bulletin a couple of months later there was an announcement that catechists were needed for their Parish School of Religion, and I responded - after a screening process, I was teaching my first class of 6th-graders in September, and not long after Barbara also was able to volunteer to teach 3rd-graders, and here we are!  Teaching these kids has been very rewarding, as they are a fine group of young people and I found that I have more of a knack for doing this than I thought I had.  I have also become a Knight of Columbus as well, and we are now fully integrated into parish life, which is nice.  That opens more doors for me as well to put all this education I have to use, and I now look forward to that. 

As for school, I am also excited to note that I have completed my final semester of coursework in my Master's program at Franciscan University of Steubenville, and upon taking the comprehensive exam in January I will anticipate having my degree.  Attending Franciscan University has been one of the truly rewarding experiences of my past 4 years, as it has been spiritually enlightening, academically challenging, and just an overall awesome experience.  As I finish up my final steps to get the degree I have worked for, I also plan on taking about a year off to recuperate before starting my doctoral program at Catholic University of America, as honestly I just need to take a break.  Although academic achievement is enriching and rewarding, it also can be taxing, and lately I have also been feeling that.  In the interim, I have to do some preparation work anyway for my doctoral studies, which entail taking a GRE exam later this coming year, as well as brushing up on both my German and Latin, both of which I had in high school but have gotten rusty but both of which are also very integral to my doctoral studies as reading efficiency in both is a requisite.  To be quite honest, I am kind of sick of exams and tests, but they come with the territory - in order to get a quality education, one has to master the material in such a way as it can be applicable to the field one will work in.  It is almost scary to think that by the time I receive my doctorate though I will be 53 years old!  Imagine that - spending almost all my life with education; it seems at times as if it never ends!  But, again, the rewards outweigh the challenges, and despite the hard work, as well as my being a target of misunderstanding by some unsupportive but mouthy family members who seem to take pleasure at condemning and criticizing my efforts, in the end it's going to all be worth it.  And, with only a few people to thank for helping me along the way  - God of course, as well as Barbara, to name two important ones - I am blessed that I have come as far as I have.  And, the important lesson is that despite the wagging tongues of meddling relatives who like having opinions on everything but are of little use otherwise, it is important to press on and finish the task at hand.  Discipline is a good thing, and it has its own rewards.

Milestones and Memories

There have been other accomplishments this year as well outside of church, school, and the move itself.  One of those is a very important one that I want to spend a little time on now, as it has redefined who I am to a degree, and it is also one of the most exciting discoveries I have made in many years.

One of the major interests I have in my own life is my own roots - I have extensively researched my genealogy for many years, and still conduct some of that off and on as I am able.  Over the past few months I was able to do a little bit of research, and what I came across brings many things into perspective for me personally.  I have established already in the past that I am a blood descendant of a minor British aristocrat by the name of Sir Thomas West, who was the 3rd Baron DeLaWarre (he is also the man after whom the state of Delaware was named).  Sir Thomas's own pedigree is an ancient one, with ties to the Plantagenets, Charlemagne, as well as other noble families across Europe.  However, until this time, the major thing that caught my attention about my roots was that I was a descendant of St. Vladimir of Novgorod, who of course in AD 988 converted and Christianized Russia.  That in itself would be impressive enough, but as this saga continually unfolds, there are more branches in the tree I have discovered.  One of them is through an ancestral line of Sir Thomas West's called the Percy's, who were known as the Barons of Leicester.  They, come to find out, have as their distant forebears two noble Armenian families, the Mamikonians and the Bagratids.  It would take a lot of time to document how the intricacies of that all comes together (although I have charted it out as the line goes back over 1300 years), but it is personally significant to me, which is what I want to discuss now.

Armenian advocacy has been a part of who I am since at least 1988, when I first learned of both Armenians and Assyrians.  Anyone who knows me knows that my work with Armenians and Assyrians is a very important aspect of my personal identity, and although I have been somewhat dormant with that over the past 20 or so years, I still have a very committed conviction about it.  In doing much soul-searching regarding a new church, etc., this past summer, I had this pull to revisit my old passion for the Armenian cause, and interesting enough in April a movie hit the theatres called The Promise, which focuses on the events leading up to the tragic 1915 Genocide committed by the Ottoman Turks in which 1.5 million Armenians, as well as huge numbers of Assyrians and Greeks, were martyred.  That movie touched at something in my core being, and it was this year that I made a renewed commitment to supporting my Armenian and Assyrian friends in a way I haven't since about 20 years ago.  At around the time The Promise opened at theatres around Easter, I also began to revisit some of my genealogical research as well, and that is where I believe God brought together so much about who and what I am - I was led somehow to discover this Armenian root I have in my own DNA, and upon doing so, it was as if a door was opened, and at the very core of my own being the tragedy of the Armenian Genocide became more personal to me than it ever has been - these were my people, in a real sense now, who were affected, and the revelation of that stirred within me feelings I cannot even describe, but there was a connection that happened unlike anything I had felt previous.  As this all happened, a voice within me was almost shouting "You are Armenia!"  This was something God knew that I needed to discover, as my passion had been lost for many years, but this rekindled it in such a way that I think about it again almost daily.  In the coming year, I want to explore this even further, as it is a great gift I have been given that I was never aware of, and it brings together so many mysteries from over the years that now make perfect sense - I was drawn to Armenians all those years ago in high school because in a literal sense now I am Armenian myself.  I now understand more of what Saroyan wrote about in his books, as well as what Komitas and Mirzoyan composed in their great musical masterpieces, and now when I watch movies like The Promise I can see my connection.  There is so much that can be said of this, but it will have to wait for another time, as at the present there is still much to sort out.  But, I will affirm that this is no accidental occurrence either - God has timings and seasons for everything, and this was the time to discover and reconnect to something which has been a mystery for many years.  Thanks be to God for His wisdom in revealing all these things.

What Lies Ahead

As I write this, we are about to enter the holiday season.  The house now smells of the lingering odors of Christmas cookies baking combined with the apple smell of a plug-in air freshener, and just behind me the newly-decorated Christmas tree stands dormant waiting to be turned on later tonight as it gets dark out.  Also, outside there is a briskness in the 29-degree morning air, and the residue of a light dusting of snow that happened a couple of days ago still slightly lingers.  For the first time in many years, it feels like the holidays.  Living in Florida for almost 27 years, Christmas never really felt like Christmas, as on many holidays it was even 80 degrees out - you cannot take a holiday seriously when you have hibiscus blossoms and palm trees outside your doorstep.  So, although there was some festive mood, it always seemed like something was missing.  This year, for the first time in many years, I don't feel that - it feels like Christmas in this house today!  It is a fitting end to a challenging but exciting year as the new chapter in our lives has really began to unfold.  So, as I close today, I wish everyone reading this the most blessed of holiday seasons - including some old friends in Florida, who still have the misfortune of hibiscus blossoms and palm trees and not a snowball's chance you-know-where of any snow whatsoever.  Christmas is more than climate, and it is more than how many cookies you can bake and eat, how many presents you give or receive, and it is definitely more than Santa Claus, flying reindeer, and talking snowmen - Christmas symbolizes for humanity a new chapter of our collective story; it is God's giving of Himself, by coming as a humble child in a manger in a small town in a distant land over 2000 years ago, so that we can be restored to Him.  Let's keep that in focus even as the persistent pelting of commercialism and the bright lights and shiny tinsel on our Christmas trees can risk our distraction from that fundamental reason for the season.  It is also my prayer that you who read this have a blessed 2018 ahead as it dawns on us in less than 3 weeks, and hopefully all of us can thrive in many ways this coming year.  So, as you enjoy the beauty of the season, hopefully some of us can have that dusting of snow on Christmas morning as we awake from our slumber and open those festive packages we have been anticipating over the past several weeks.  Have a good remainder of 2017, and a good start to 2018.