Let's Start At The Very Beginning....

Hello!

If you, oh reader, have found your way here, you probably know me in some non-digital capacity. For your sake, I will spare you a David Copperfield introduction, but to those of you whom I do not know as well (or perhaps at all, and to you I give a special welcome!), I owe you at least the basics:

My name is Sam. You can call me Samuel, Samwise, or more or less anything that strikes your fancy - many do. I'm a sophomore at Abilene Christian University, where I am currently working toward my Vocal Performance BM. You might, then, correctly deduce that I have a passion for music and performance. With that in mind, please pardon in advance the frequent instances of song lyrics, Disney references, and the like.

However, with apologies to my mentors, colleagues, and friends in the field of music, I aim to be much more than "just" a music major; appropriately or not, I style myself a student of the world, with an interest in a wide variety of topics. I will as soon discuss theology as music theory, or literature as law. It is to that end that I have chosen to take up blogging, in the belief that I will find it an invaluable tool with which to document the many adventures I hope I will have along the way.

Like many of you, I process in written word. In addition to more academic pursuits, you will find chronicled here my hopes, fears, insecurities, obsessions, joys, successes, mistakes, and occasional fits of relative insanity. It is, then, inevitable that in the course of my endeavors here, I will say things you, daring reader, will disagree with - perhaps very strongly! Frankly, sometimes I end up saying things I disagree with, and along those lines, I'm certainly not immune to foot-in-mouth syndrome. Please, oh, please feel free to contact me, and we'll talk! I look forward to learning from you, just as I hope you will learn from me.

There. Now that we're through with all that, there is the matter of the title of this blog, Calmly Adapt, which was taken from the following quote attributed to Henry Thoreau: "Those who look forward to change and calmly adapt are those who gain the greatest opportunity." While I do not pretend to adapt calmly to, well, much of anything, I am hoping to train myself to embrace change and take myself a little less seriously, and thereby free myself to pursue opportunity.

I cannot conclude without acknowledging the intended focus of my work and life: God. My writing here should honor Him, and I humbly ask those among you who share my faith to keep me accountable. With that said, I don't think it's any secret at this point that some of my writing will be less than pleasant or agreeable, and I believe that I would do Him a greater disservice by pretending life is perfect, when the truth is that people are dirty, the world is broken, and life often sucks. Even so, I don't want or need to be overwhelmingly critical or pessimistic. Help me honor God by remembering in my writing His good works and presence.

I close with my goal from Scripture, Micah 6:8. I'll probably do a post on this verse down the road, but for now I leave you with just this: "He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?"

-Sam

"It's a magical world, Hobbes, ol' buddy.... Let's go exploring!" -Calvin and Hobbes