The smell of the air is different in many states. I have only really noticed that recently, thinking back on all of the places we have
been, and realizing that every place has a different smell to it, a different
feeling to the air. California is the same: it smells of many things and I
don’t think I can even begin to describe it. Yet it was the same smell that I
knew from my childhood, and it flooded my heart with great happiness (if more
happiness was possible) as I stood outside in front of the Sacramento airport
and waited patiently for a lumbering shuttle to come pick us up.
To stand once again with my feet on the ground was
wonderful. And it wasn’t because I hadn’t liked the flying (it was awesome). It
was because, for the first time in ever so long, my own two feet were standing
on California soil, and my own two feet liked it. I stood there and felt the
hot concrete beneath me, smelled the wonderful scents, and was overcome with gratitude for the opportunity God had
provided. Truly He is good to me!
A kind Mexican man with a huge grin helped us to load our luggage
into the shuttle, and then before we knew it, we were at the rental car pick-up
place. Our car was ready for us, a snazzy silver Mitsubishi that
didn’t like hills but did like speed, with soft black cloth seats and wonderful
cool air conditioning that reminded us (again) that we were in California.
Now the first thing to do was to find lunch. And what might
be the perfect California lunch? …In-n-Out Burger, of course!! Oh yeah. Oh yum.
It had just been tooooo long since I had had one of their burgers, and those
ever-so-tasty fries. Um…and a chocolate milkshake. My, was it good to be back! There's nothing quite like a company that puts a Bible verse on their cups!
After a little while we began making our way up towards the
foothills. The land was changing again, as we re-traced our path from earlier
on the plane, and I eagerly snapped pictures as the Sierras loomed larger ahead
of us. The foothills in California are unlike any foothills I know anywhere
else. The trees are different, the grass is different, even the earth is
different. When we opened our windows, the smell of the hills came into us on
the breeze – smells of pine and hot rocks and sagebrush and wildflowers and a
hundred other lovely things. And there was Lake Tahoe. Oh Tahoe, Tahoe, land of
epic times and incredible memories and good people and answers to prayer and inspiring messages and sweet fellowship and
wonderful friends! What a place!
We arrived at the conference center with just moments of
time before dinner, but we had help with directions (thank-you Laura) and help
with lodging (thank-you James) so we made it.
Now, I am going to give you full and complete disclosure: I
won’t pretend to hide the fact that I’m going to put in plugs for Oak Brook College of Law. This is simply an incredible school. And if you don’t feel
called to enter their J.D. program (which will change your life and make you an
awesome person)(just saying), then maybe you’re cut out for their Paralegal program.
Ha. I bet you are! Seriously, if I could recommend any program
to a guy or girl anywhere between the ages of, say, 14 and 30 – this would be
it. It’s one year long with a tuition of only $3500, and in that one year you
learn a ton about law, government, writing, reasoning, Biblical counseling,
interpersonal skills, and much more. The program equips you to sit for the
Certified Legal Assistant exam and become a Certified Paralegal (an incredibly
useful skill to have in your skill bag), and is also perfect as a
last-year-of-high-school program.
If you are interested in law, politics, history, counseling,
or just being a well-rounded person, then absolutely, definitely, totally
consider Oak Brook’s Paralegal program! There’s just nothing quite like it.
More on that later... the journal continues tomorrow...
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