A Broken Wanter

As a young man I listened carefully to the lessons of old men & women. Their advice reflected the Bible's teaching, however my wanter vehemently disagreed with both. Now the wanter is the little compass inside each person that tells them what will make them happy. I found it hard though to believe that the one who made me, and the wisdom of age were more right than an unknown voice in my head (I'm a smart one that I am). Disturbed by the disagreement, I looked to see how happy the people who had flawlessly carried out the demands of their wanters were. To my dismay, I found them to be like butter spread over too much toast. The few who had reached the end of their wanter's imagination had fallen into misery, and many times thought it better to die then endure their pain. At the other end of the scale, I witnessed many people in compleate poverty overflowing with joy. After this I become hyper aware of all the people around me, carefully carrying out the demands of their wanter's, moving towards the jagged rocks that destroyed the people before them. But if the big red compass guiding me was wrong, was it possible to be happy? I dint know, but I veered from the course set for me. My wanter had a full out fit! It promised me I was missing my hearts desire and foolishly throwing my hopes to the wind. Although scared I soon learned a very profound lesson... my wanter is not omnipotent. In fact it had been dead wrong, and I could safely ignore its complaints.

I wanted my wanter to want the right thing, and soon I learned it could. When I stopped following my wanter, it started following me. Let me say that again because its important, when I stopped following my wanter, it started following me. I did this by denying my wanter a great many things it demanded, and instead chose to align my life with the advice of a higher calling and the wisdom of age. At the crux of this act was changing my ultimate desire, which meant removing myself from the middle, and filling it with God and his love for other people.

Be clear that this is not the same as marrying God for His money - or in other words placing Him next to the center of our lives so he will bless us. We can only move towards one of two opposing directions. At first I moved towards God by moving away from myself. This may be one of the more radical things a human can do, because it defies the most unreasonably trusted voice in our heads. Just understand that using God to serve our selves is not the same as serving him. If we serve Him will it will cost us everything.

This thinking is crazy because I am voluntarily taking a course of action which does not benefit me. Why then am I so happy? It is because the path that appears to offer life, gives death, and the path the appears to give death, gives life. I lost my old self, but something much better replaced it. Consider the following words, they are stated by Jesus in all the Gospels at least once, sometimes twice (hint, hint).

Luke 17:33 "Whoever seeks to keep his life will lose it, and whoever loses his life will preserve it."

People demand the freedom to want, but become slaves to their wants. I am free, and I live in joy. I am not suggesting the Buddhist approach of turning off our wanters. I am suggesting that we need to be smarter than our wanters. A wanter is like a warm fire on a cold night. The problem is that both endlessly demand more. The fire will always want more wood, and the wanter will always demand more gratification. If a person caters to the desires of a fire, it will soon consume their stash of wood and begin to die. When this happens the person grows cold. They must travel into the cold night to gather more wood for their fire. When they come back they dump all the wood they have gathered on the hungry fire, and must soon return to the cold night for more. The person spends an exhausting, cold night gathering wood for a fire they rarely enjoy.

In real life, we know that a fire will always demand more. Despite its hunger, we slowly feed it our stash of wood, so the small fire will keep us warm throughout the night. However, people bulk at the idea of curbing their desires. They agree its probably a good idea to sometimes compromise, but to disobey the wanter? Instead, they tirelessly forgo the enjoyment of what they have to get more. They end up with so much, they rarely enjoy any of it because they spend so much time taking care of it. Both a fire and our desires promise to give more if we feed them, but both fail to deliver beyond a moment.

Our wanter will always demand more, and is a willing slave master.
Our wanter's default settings lead away from joy and peace.
The path to joy and peace is counter intuitive.

Our wanter is an important sense that gives us information, but can easily be fooled (like our other senses).
We can teach our wanter what it should be leading us towards by looking at the bigger picture.

.

PS

I forgot to mention in the last post that I locked my keys in my car yesterday. While walking away from my car I realized that I dint have my keys in my hand and thought "wouldn't it be funny if..." but they weren't in my pocked either -- so I went back and longingly stared at the keys resting on the driver seat of my car - it wasn't funny, but its all part of the adventure. My first thought was, "I hope the APU security can brake into cars." They said they couldn't, and instead gave me the phone number for a lock smith. While walking back to my car I had my second thought which was "I bet I can brake into my on my own car." So, on the way back to my car I walked behind the cafeteria and found two long pieces of wood broken off of a pallet. With the help of a little paper I was able to pry the driver window away from the car body with the first piece of wood, and slip in the second piece in to unlock the car with a spike I had taped to it (tape provided by a very nice security guard). The highlight of the experiences was two girls that drove by while I was in the process of jamming pieces of wood between the car window and the frame. As they passed I heard one exclaim loudly to the other "is he braking into that car?" I was, but they never called the police or campus security which makes me glad I don't own an expensive car.

Also, perhaps unwisely I tried drying out some sliced sausage today. Although it's the type of thing moms don't like, I left the sausage in my car overnight, and laid the slices out on a piece of cardboard the next morning. When I got to campus I put my little plate of goodness on the dashboard. Although this type of thing is frowned apon in America, its not terribly uncommon in foreign countries. In the end I just wanted to see if I could pull it off, knowing that at worse I would spend the evening somewhat miserable. After an afternoon in the sun they were reasonably dry so I had a few. I had slight stomach ache for a few hours, but it went away after I ate a pomegranate. I don't think I will make a habit of drying meat out on the dashboard of my car, but I now know it can more or less be done -- and I want to assure any readers that I would never attempt to do something like this with raw meat.

The Good Times Continue

Two weeks ago I parked my car on a side street for the night, just to see what it was like. Because I didn't want to roll the windows down, so I tried leaving the vent on low overnight to bring in fresh air. That turned out to be a mistake. I woke up around 7am to a stuffy car and quickly confirmed that the battery was completely dead. The street was level, so I first tried to push-start my car. After successfully tweaking my back out, but failing to start the car, I sat in the middle of the street with my little house, waiting for someone to drive by. Since it was Sunday morning, there was not much traffic. After fifteen minutes a mother drove by in a van, to my great relief. She was willing to stop long enough to tell me that she was in a hurry, and couldn't help, but that there were a lot of nice people in the neighborhood. She then left me in the middle of the road, with a number of biblical stories running through my head, but I have no idea what was awaiting her. A short while later, a guy drove by and helped bring my car back to life within a minute.

Last weekend I attended a "Break Through" conference, put on by the Association for Christian Character Development (accd.org). Although there are some articles online criticizing the training, I can say from personal experience that it is excellent.  Aside from the great insights I gained last the weekend, I was referred to a family near Azusa, willing to let me park in front of their house. Last night I joined them for a Bible study held in their house, and hung out with them and their kids afterward. They are amazing people and I look forward to getting to know them.

I am learning to take joy in whatever circumstances I find myself in. It is scary to wonder where I will be tomorrow, but learning to let go, and dwell in the present, has allowed me to experiences more amazing moments than I ever could have by trying to plan everything out. My encouragement to anyone reading this is to remember that unexamined formulas blind a person to the joys of life. Living a purposeful (and adventurous) life requires the traveler to look up from their map and consider where they are going, what alternatives exist, and where they want to be going. Life is short, and should only be lived with eyes and heart wide open.

One Month!

This morning I was woken up by a very nice cop around 7am, who immediately recognized me. He even commented on how I have less stuff in my car now. This made me smile, because it alludes to all the interesting experiences I have had over the last month. I will say though, that being woken up be a polite cop is no problem at all, if they are rude it sucks.

Since today is the one month mark, I went to the Food for the Hungry site. Originally signed up to sponsor three children, but went back and added one. Bellow is there pictures and information.

Pedro Alfonso Cacao Chocooj

This is the first child I added so I forgot to copy the information about him, but I remember that he is about nine years old, likes mathematics, and enjoys playing soccer. 

Rebecca is nine years old. She lives in Uganda with her parents, who are peasant farmers. In school she likes drawing, and her favorite activity is jump rope.

Sarmin is eleven years old and lives in Bangladesh with her parents. Her father is a farmer and her mother is a housewife. In school she loves to study the national language. Outside of school her favorite activity is running.

Yeri is also eleven years old. She lives in the Dominican Republic with her father who is a Farmer, and her mother who is a housewife. In school her favorite subject is social studies. Outside of school she loves playing with dolls.

At times living in my car has been a frustrating experiences. It is very good to finally see the faces of why I am doing it.

Redesigning the Car

Thursday night I drove up an isolated road leading to a reservoir dam and a fire station outpost. I parked on the side of the road half a mile from the fire station hoping for a semi isolated night. The next morning several service vehicles drove past, all slowing down as they did. I was just waiting for the cops to show up, but in the end I left before any of that happened. This was the last in a long line of experiences that motivated me to spend, Friday transform my car into something a little more covert.  The previous traveling circus design had my bed level with the windows which allowed me to store stuff underneath. It was also the only way to fit my bed in because the back seats stuck up even when folded down. However, this design puts me and a large portion of my stuff in plane view. I spend the afternoon paring down what I actually needed in my car, and taking out the back seats. I arranged the remaining stuff so that it fits bellow the windows and is covered by a black piece of fabric, which makes my car almost look normal.

Bellow are a few pictures of the project:

Before the redesign:

After the redesign: 

At the moment I am staying in a church parking lot, but Im hoping this improvement will help me avoid the attention of the cops when I am staying in public parking lots. It is also nice to have a car that looks half normal.

A day in the Mountains

Last night I spent a little time on Google Maps and found a road leading into the heart of the mountains. It is a seven mile drive from the gym, but I enjoyed the solitude. By the time I stopped, I was several thousand feet above L.A. It was a beautiful scene, and since I was above the smog I got to see stars for the first time in a long time. There was a sweet mountain breeze blowing into the car all night. The next morning I woke up to an amazing sunrise dancing over a sea of fog covering L.A. Although I will not be able to drive that far on a regular basis, going into the mountains was a good break.

I continue to look for creative ways to cut costs, but I am still humbled to think how rich I am. According to the World Bank (the go to for this sort of information) 80% of the world's population lives on less than $10 per day. So far, my total average per day spending (not including car insurance, maintenance or school) is $12. This means that while living out of my car, and minimizing my food costs I am still one of the riches people on the plant. I don't think America fully understands what poverty is.

For the last few weeks I have been reflecting on James 1:23-24:
"Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like." (NIV). - The problem with America is that we encounter the great pain of other people, but forget about it as fast as possible. Either through a sermon, a video, or an experience we are reminded of how much we have. We then say, "wow I feel really convicted, I need to change the way I live" - and then five minuets later casually ask our friend if they want to go eat a $15 dinner at a restaurant. In five minutes we forget that 50% of the world lives on less than $2.50 per day, and go spend more on one meal, than they spend in six days.

Don't forget as soon as you turn away from the mirror, that you are not on earth to have a picnic, but to run a race. While we are not responsible for winning the race (victory is God's responsibility, because the burden is too heavy for us), we are responsible for running.

The Fun Continues

Over the last week, several different officers have told me it is permissible to sleep in the 24hour Wal-Mart parking lot for a few days at a time. Since I really wanted one undisturbed nights sleep, I decided to try Wal-Mart out. I first went in and bought some stuff because I figured it would help, after that I talk to the security guard driving around the Wal-Mart parking lot. The middle aged lady very unemotionally told me "absolutely not, but the Corviena Wal-Mart allows people to stay over night." So I traveled five miles to the Corviena Wal-Mart. I talked to the security guard there (also a middle aged, over weight lady) who told me "absolutely not" - but that I could sleep in the Toy's R Us parking lot to Wal-Mart. The more I think about this statement, the more it amuses me. I can just imagine all the creeper vans camping in front of a children's store. That said, I didn't even try Toys R Us. Instead I traveled back to Glendora and spent a restless night in the Sam's Club parking lot, where there were a couple of other campers.

My first reflection is how interesting it is that people were so quick to pass along a problem. Second is how little people communicate. Third is how socially unacceptable it is to sleep in a car. Fourth, that all the Wal-Mart security guards were over weight women who seem to generally hate life.

A Busy Weekend

This last Friday I was woken up by three young policemen at 6:30am. It is always a different, but interesting experience. They were really nice, and once again left after I dazedly explained what I was doing. Although they had me stand against the wall with my hands in plain sight while I talked to them. Saturday night I was woken up by someone playing a harmonica near my car, who went at it for almost an hour. Last night a cop woke me up at 11pm, and for the first time was somewhat rude. I only explained that I was forgoing an apartment so I could instead support some children, which didn’t change his attitude towards me. After checking my ID and calling it in, the cop proceeded to tell me that “it’s technically illegal” to sleep in my car. This directly contradicts what I was told earlier by a policeman who said “it’s not technically illegal to sleep in your car, but you will probably be woken up again by us again.” However, this cop had woke me up at 11am though, so he might have meant it’s not illegal to take a nap in my car, while the second cop was telling me it’s illegal to sleep overnight in my car. After telling me it was illegal to sleep in my car the cop said he would not make me move “tonight,” unless someone called in and said I was a disturbance (which almost sounded like an assumptions). Soon after I had crawled back into bed the crazy person with the harmonica showed back up, except this time he brought his gypsy band with him. They had a guitar, and what might have been a drum, but it kind of sounded like they were just kicking a box around. Between the lot of them they had a grand old time, but they need to practice a little more before they make an album.  I’m not sure what time they left, but I slept soundly until 6:45am when another cop taped on my window. I could tell immediately he was going to be a lot nicer because he did not pound on my window like the cop the night before, he just tapped. He was an older cop who was indeed very nice. I began this time be explaining that I was doing a project on what it was like to be homeless, and then added in the part about supporting the children with the money I was saving. He checked my id but seemed to be the first cop who was kind of impressed. During the course of the conversation I tried to indirectly ask if it was permissible to sleep in my car (i.e. is it actually illegal). He didn’t say one way or the other, but did say that the top of the parking garage was a good place to be, and talked about some folks in the past that had slept in their cars after falling on hard times. He also mentioned that some of the regulars might even begin to recognize my car and leave me alone. After this he initiated a hand shake and smiled as he left, whereas the cop the night before didn’t even respond when I asked how his night was going.


It has been fascinating to interact with all these cops in such a short period of time. I would have never predicted it, but every cop has handled the situation very differently. The younger cops are much more hesitant, and seem quite suspicious that im going to pull a gun out of my car (one of the young cops dint even want to see my id after I offered, because it was in my car). The older cops are much more confident, but one has been the meanest, and one has been the nicest. Over all I have learned that there is not a hard-and-fast rule for what they do, there is a law, but they are the on-scene judges who interpret the law and decide which parts they are going to apply. In the future I am curious to see how different explanations will cause these cops to react differently (emphasizing my experience being a project, verse it being a social good effort).     

Beyond that life continues to be a curiosity. Today I walked into the restroom and found one of the toilets twisted sideways (but still operational). Im not sure what the janitors do when things like that happen, but im glad I don’t half to deal with it. Thankfully I was able to joyfully worship the Lord this morning after the cop left, but tonight I think I am going to try to sleep in a Walmart parking lot. It is humbling to not have a private space, but God continues to be my peace.

For anyone trying to do something like this (and is counting dollars) I have found that it is not cost effective to buy perishables and store them in an ice chest. For the most part I have been spending $1/day on ice, which ends up costing the same as the meat I am keeping cold. Because of this I have started buying canned meats, which cost a little more, but don’t have to be kept cold. Getting away from the ice chest will also give me a significant amount of room (relatively speaking :)

Week Two

I have been homeless for two weeks now. Thus far, I have gone swimming
every morning, and swimming with my head in the water is not quite as
horrible as it first was. I consider this quite an accomplishment
since I have always hated swimming. I am also much better at avoiding
attention. For example, I have discovered that if I arrive at the top
of the parking garage (where I sleep) and there is another person
there, I pretend to be talking on my cell phone. One of these days, I
might actually call someone, but for now, I have just been praying into
my phone until the other person leaves. So far, I have kept a careful
record of my costs, which in total averages $12.30/day. However, this
includes food and capital costs (things I will be using long term).
Thus far, I have been able to maintain a balanced diet with $4.50/day
and have spent an average of $4 a day on capital cost items. This
means my actual cost of living in the car has been $3.80, which is
$9.20 less than living in an apartment. While living in my car is not
convenient, it’s not horrible either, and I am excited that it affords
the opportunity to potentially sponsor nine children through a year of
school. At the one month mark I will be going to Food for the Hungry
and selecting a few children from there to sponsor.

My challenge to anyone reading this is to consider how you can cut
one dollar out of your daily budget, and instead use that dollar to
sponsor a child. If the average young couple cut just one dollar out
of their daily budget, they would be able to sponsor about six kids
from the time they enter 1st grade, all the way through high school.
In 2009, the median American household income was $49,777 (about
$136/day). While we complain about not having enough money, we forget
that 5% of this income could support seven children. A radical family
who gave 50% of their income (and still be one of the richest
households in the world) could support 68 children. If they gave this
amount throughout their lives they would be able to fully sponsor 408
children through school (68 children * 60 years / 10 years to get
through school). While that would be a challenged, it’s interesting to
think that we could completely alter the lives of more people, than
the number of Facebook friends we have.

All that said, remember two things, 1) we at war, 2) we have a
tremendous amount of power to make a difference. If we are willing to
focus less on what we don’t have and more on what we do have we could
very quickly change the course of history. My challenge to everyone
reading this is to cut one dollar out of your budget tomorrow, and
give it to the war effort.

okay, I think i fixed the problem that was preventing people from leaving comments

One Week!

I have been homeless for one week, and to celebrate God sent fireworks. From the top of the parking garage I had a perfect view of a short, but violent thunderstorm in hills. As I continue to work through the experience of living in my car I have been amused to watch my human nature continue to make it’s demands. While I struggle to keep everything organized and tucked away, I find myself thinking; “if only my car was a little bigger, I would be content.” Once again I see that no matter how much or how little a person has, they will always crave “a little more.” This has strengthened my resolve to ignore the mirage of “a little more,” and instead press into my quest for living water, and finding the joy of becoming who I was made to be.

Day Five and Six

9-29-10

          Yesterday was my first day of class while being homeless. I had a presentation which kept me up a little later than I was hoping and so I only got six hours of sleep, which compounded my somewhat sleep deprived brain. I must admit it was really funny giving the presentation because I tend to be far loser when it comes to those things. My two partners had 39 slides for their twenty minutes of the presentation, while I had two for the last ten minutes. My first, much more organized partner asked me what I was doing for the activity (something else I was in charge of) and what I was doing for my part of the presentation, and a few other things my sleep deprived brain didn’t quite understand and so I just said “let’s just play it by ear” her response was one of those priceless looks and “no lets know what we are going to say.” The other partner has worked with me a couple of times in the past and is also more organized than me, but has learned to not worry about my lack of notes.  But she did smile at one point and say “o Dustin, you stress me out sometimes.” It’s kind of funny though, I always want to say “no lets plan it out less,” because they both read off their near verbatim notes. I didn’t have any at all, so I just walked around the room talking about what I thought were the most interesting points of my section of the chapter, showed a few short YouTube clips (“Who You Gonna Call?” from Improve Everywhere was my favorite), and then had the class go skipping around the school to feel the internal tension of breaking even a minor social norm (I joined in – o how fun :), and then we ended by talking about the power of norms in regulating groups. Overall I think it went really well. I still don’t understand though why people think “knowing what we’re going to say” is ever better than just talking with the audience and trying to share something useful.

            By the end of day (6pm), I seriously considered curling up on the grass and just going to sleep there.  Instead I drove to “my” parking garage, where two nice trucks were parked near the spot I normally park (Luckily I had an extra key in my backpack because I had accidentally locked my main key in the car - opps.) I parked at the other side of the parking lot, and ate dinner while enjoying the view, hoping they would soon leave. While I was eating my dinner, the two guys came up, and then left again. I thought; “great, well I better not go to bed yet.” Sure enough a cop car showed up about 15 minutes later to check me out. The second time around it was easier to assure him I was not some axe murder and I was then free to go to bed.  For the first time I got a great night’s sleep which is good because I have quite a bit of work to do today.


9-28-10

           I am amazed how fast the sense of ownership creeps into a person’s mind. Last night I drove to the top of “my” marking garage and found three high school boys just hanging out. My first thought was something along the lines of “scram, I’m tired and you’re keeping me from going to sleep.” It was good though because it forced me to go workout which is not something I want to do. Once again the elliptical machine kicked my butt, but not as badly the second time around. By the time I was done the high school kids were gone, but I now understand why homeless people get so grumpy when “their” space is trespassed.

Day Three

Being homeless is not an easy exercise, but it is good. Last night I was feeling the weight of not having an established space to myself. However, I am praying a lot more because of how dependent I am on God for basic necessities. Having to pray for a safe nights sleep is not something I have ever had to do, and I love it. I never thought about how peaceful it would be to put myself in the hands of God for basic needs.  I got to 24 Fitness at 10 PM an did a thirty minuet workout on a strange stepping/cycling machine that kicked my butt. After ten minutes I had burned 100 calories and wanted to quit really bad. I didn't quit though because there was a short little women going twice as fast next to me, and I just couldn't bring myself to walk away after 1/3 of a workout that she was doing twice as well. I am able to hike or walk for miles without getting tired, but that workout gave me a lot of respect for people who do it regularly to lose weight.  In total, I burned less than 300 calories and was quite glad that I don't have to work that hard to burn off every sandwich I eat.

I got to sleep a little be for 12am and had a wonderful nights sleep. After waking up, I did a few laps in the pool and finished with a little time in the wet sauna (I do love that thing).

Day Two

After the first night, I was quite tired so I slept on the third story of a parking garage next to 24 Fitness. It seems to be the best place. No one parks on the top story, and there is a building next to the parking garage that blocks the morning sun. Unfortunately, I spent a long time at the old house cooking up some food and didn't get to sleep until 2AM again. I slept until 8:30, and then moved down to the second story to catch up on some more sleep out of the sun. There is only a few cars that park on this story, but I woke up at 11:30 to the police tapping on my window (I now know what it is like to wake up to a light shining in my eyes). I crawled out of my traveling circus and tried to wipe away my sleep daze while explaining what I was doing. After checking my ID and finding out that I am an APU student, the two cop cars wrote me off as another disturbed individual and left. Apparently someone had called them because there are a lot of break-in in the area and I looked suspicions :) - They did say though that it's not technically illegal to sleep in my car, but I will probably attract attention. As far as break-ins go, I'm banking on the fact that most robbers are not looking for trouble and will not mess with a car that has someone in it, and also that they will break into one of the five or six BMW roadsters on the second level, before going to their third level and breaking into my 93' Subaru. I am however still trying to work out a good ventilation system for the car. Currently I crack all the windows, but that is not quite good enough.

It has become clear thought that I will need to change my daily routine. In the past, I stayed up until 1am and slept until 9AM. Now that I am at the mercy of the sun, I must shift my day back three hours. I will probably need to start going to sleep around 10PM and waking up with the sun at about 6AM. This is not a bad thing, but will make nighttime activity with other people a little more difficult.

Day One

I purposely stayed up until 2am to get a good idea of which parking lot I could stay in. In the end, I camped in Home Depot's parking lot where I slept like a baby until 4:25am (I'm glad I have the weekend to work out a system). I fell back asleep until 8:30am when the sun came up and the car got quite warm in a matter of minutes. After this, I went to 24 Fitness where I spent a little time in the hot tub, went swimming, and then tried out both the dry and wet saunas.

I have started to establish my mission for this experience:
       1)      Live a better, healthier life while in my car.
       2)      Maintain a professional image, and excel in my field of study.
       3)      Fund at least three children, to help them achieve their dreams while striving for mine.


I am still working out the organization of things, but here is the basic layout of my car.

Here are some of the pictures I took while packing. 

Ironically, the first time I actually washed my car was after I decided to live in it. Only after becoming homeless did I care about the appearance of my car.

Launch!

Tonight I become homeless. Once again, I will forsake social norms, and travel into the unknown. I repress the fear that comes before any jump, but I suspect I will find joy, peace and comfort. Not because living will be easy, but because I will be living intentionally. My plan is simple; give up a little so I can give a lot. Currently I spend $10 each day to live in a house ($300 per month). I also spend around $3 per day for utilities, which brings the grand total to $13. By becoming homeless, I will be able to instead spend that money supporting several children through Food For the Hungry.

My daily budget breaks down as follows:

.67 cents per day for a gym membership
.50 cents per day for ice for my ice chest
1 dollar a day for candy (Just to sweeten the deal)
3 dollars a day to support three different children - more or less as God puts it on my heart, but right now three seems like the right number

Total daily budget (other than food) = $5.17 ($7.87 less than living in a house)

For less than half the cost of rent & utilities, I will be supporting three children, have 24 hour access to a pool, a wet sauna, a dry sauna, two work out rooms, and of course showers. When not sleeping or enjoying the workout center, I will be at the APU campus studying and getting involved in all kinds of activities. Now all that remains is to jump.