So far, I have shared with you the highlights of my recent life, including most of what has happened since I found Bryan College. The story that I’m about to tell, however, is not a story of things that have been. Instead, this is two stories of what may be to come.
I have been telling you that my attending Bryan College is now a matter of considerable uncertainty. If the recruiter for the Air National Guard, whom we have both called and emailed, ever calls me back, I will get a few answers that will make up my mind in a very short time. But for now, I have two options, and I am going to explore two futures with you, my reader, my most loyal friend, so that you can see what I am weighing in my mind.
Option One:
Enlist as a reservist in the Tennessee Air National Guard;
Attend Bryan College on government funds through the Tennessee Strong Act
The moment I sign that dotted line, I will have committed to six weeks of Basic Training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. This will probably take place between June fourth and July fifteenth. For the first time, I will not be home be home for my mom’s birthday in June or for the Fourth of July. I will not be able to attend the 2023 Summer Institute at Bryan College, because this will take place during the final week of Basic.
I will return home the following week as a new man, under the effects of military training. Then, aside from the weekend of August during which I will return for whatever reserve duty entails, I will have four or five weeks at home prior to leaving Bryan College.
This will probably happen on August twenty-first or twenty-eighth. That date will determine whether I am home for my dad’s birthday, which is after the twenty-first and twenty-eighth.
College life at Bryan will be almost carefree. With my rich Uncle Sam covering my college expenses, I will be able to devote all of my financial resources to basic necessities and personal endeavors. All of my time will be able to be focused on being a star student, a model citizen, and a weekend per month of whatever reserve duty entails.
During the course of this year, I will also begin to slowly build my business on a solid and reliable customer base of people I know and people that those people know.
Freshman year will fly by as I live at the top of the world, and I will say a fond farewell to those special people whom I have grown to love very dearly. Then, I’ll come home and spend my summer months working on my business, except for the two week period during which I return for whatever reserve duty entails.
Then, the next August, I’ll go back to Bryan as a sophomore to repeat the process: take new classes, make new friends, and reach new heights.
Option Two:
Skip College;
Get a Job;
Start my business
My parents are willing to let me stick around for a while, so my bills will be more relaxed. I will go back to work at a little sandwich shop called Greg’s. I worked there once during the summer of 2022, and I have no doubt that they would hire me again because they told me that I had been a good employee.
This option will be logistically possible for everyone. I don’t drive yet, so I have to be driven. But my dad works with my great-grandfather right across the street from Greg’s so I can just ride along with him like I did during the summer and spend my spare time at his office. This situation worked once, so it is a near guarantee of success.
During the free hours where I’m not working at Greg’s I will create videos, graphics, and web designs. Some of these will be for myself, to showcase my work and abilities. The others will be for customers who patronize my fledgeling business.
If circumstances allow, I will have done my best to persuade my parents to let me attend the 2023 Summer Institute at Bryan College. This week, from July ninth to July fifteenth, will be the final opportunity that I will ever have to experience Bryan College.
The next manner of business will be a driver’s license. Until I can drive, it will be logistically difficult, if not impossible, to live on my own outside of a college campus. But this will be a tradeoff for my parents, because they will have to be comfortable with the idea of my driving, or continue to accept me as their tenant.
Beyond what I have just described, the future is too distant for me to predict. But that is my future, one way or the other, so far as I can see it. I do not, however, rule out the possibility that God will present a totally different future, because the very reason this uncertain time is occurring is that He is doing just that.
To be honest, I don’t know which option I prefer. Before I wrote this, I wanted to go to Bryan College more than anything else. But now, after looking forward, I feel that I am at more of a crossroads than I was before. All I really know is that God will make His will clear to me in time.
Mrs. Wesolowski, my admissions counselor at Bryan College, put it this way:
God is a God of miracles. He owns the cattle on the hill. He created the hill. He loves you more than we can imagine. If Bryan is where HE wants you to be, finances will work out. Don’t give up and be intentional about pursuing all avenues!!
Pat Wesolowski
I hope that when all is said and done, Mrs. Wesolowski knows how much her prayers, help, and simply being there have meant to me. When this turning point is years into the past, I pray that she will remember me, not because of who I am, but because of how important she was.
I am very careful about who I name in my stories—indeed, have I not mentioned my own name! But Pat Wesolowski is one of those people, because no matter how this turns out, she has been a hero.