Thankful Thursday - Graduation edition

Understandably, there's been a lot going on the past several weeks, and I'm constantly reminded that I have so much to be thankful for. Thus, this Graduation edition of "Thankful Thursday."

It finally arrived. I always have a fear of crossing the line between being proud of an accomplishment and bragging. In this area I know that I have nothing to brag about. However as Sarah and I discussed the other night, this was a BIG. DEAL. And not that I just graduated, but how I graduated - "with honors" (Cum Laude). I definitely get that in the big picture, honors or not isn't that big of a deal, but just that I graduated. But to me, I've always looked back at graduating from high school and feeling like I was the only one among my circle of friends who didn't graduate with honors. I was just happy to get out with a somewhat average GPA, and I expected the same when I headed off to college. Then in 2008 when I finally returned to college, I carried the same goal - just make it through and finish the degree. Well I did that, and to my own surprise, I did it in better fashion that I would have given myself credit for. I am so thankful that I graduated which leads into my second TT item...

Sarah
She was absolutely amazing through my time back in school. She was without question my biggest supporter and encourager. The number of sacrifices she made so that I could finish school are too many to count. I'll do my best though to make sure she never forgets how thankful I'll always be for that.

My family & friends
I have the best family and friends I could ever ask for. I've wanted for YEARS for my parents to see their son graduate from college and I finally gave them that opportunity. As added bonus, my grandfather was able to make it to the ceremony, making it that much sweeter. Both my parents and Sarah's have been nothing but supportive and encouraging, and I know her parents really wanted to be there. It was great to have her brother there though, and I kinda looked at it as he was there representing the whole family which meant a lot to me.

Fairly often, Sarah and I talk about moving out of Atlanta, just to see what life is like somewhere else. But the hardest thing about seriously looking at it is knowing who we would be leaving behind. I cannot say enough about our church family and small group. They're just awesome. Our small group gets together as often as we can. We have great Bible studies, and we have great fun. When Memorial Day or July 4 or other events come around, that's who we want to spend it with, and we always have a great time. Just like my family, they stood by me throughout going back to school with nothing but support and encouragement, and our dear friends Josh and Erin even came to my graduation. I love those guys and everyone in our church group.

Turner Sports
Simply put, without this internship, graduation wouldn't have happened. I am so thankful for the opportunity I've been blessed with to come work at NASCAR.COM. I held my first presentation yesterday and all feedback so far has been nothing but complimentary. Every day I walk in, I'm reminded of how lucky I am to be here, and that one of the biggest reasons I am here is because of the help of others. This has been a great opportunity, and I'm looking forward to my final month here.

That'll conclude the Graduation Edition of Thankful Thursday, but that's not all I have. Check back later for the second part of Thankful Thursday.

The cake our NACofC Small Group presented me in celebration of graduating.

You were doing so well...where'd you go?

Yeah, I had a really good month of May in posting regularly, but the past couple weeks have been very different in "life-scheduling" so there's been an adjustment curve taking place.

On June 7, I began my internship at Turner Sports, working in Business Ops with NASCAR.com. It's already been a challenging two and a half weeks, but I'm VERY happy to be here. My first week I got a crash course (pun halfway intended there) in website SEO and helped construct an HTML sitemap for NASCAR.com. What's the point? To make NASCAR.com come up at the top of the list whenever someone performs a NASCAR-related search with Google, Yahoo!, Bing, or any other search engine.

Then last week, I missed a couple days as Sarah and I travelled to Tennessee for a funeral. The rest of the week I spent researching International Speedway Corporation and Speedway Motorsports Inc. These are the two companies that own and operate the various racetracks that host NASCAR events. I also spent a good deal of time learning about Bristol Motor Speedway, and it looks like I'll have the opportunity to go to BMS for the August "Night Race." I'm pretty excited about that.

For the first time in a very long time, I am working normal business hours, but I'm starting to get used to it. As you might have read on my dear wife's blog, we're also in the process of trying to paint the inside of our house.

I really enjoyed getting back into the blogging routine and am happy to get back at it. With the World Cup in full swing, I'm looking forward to pulling some material from that, as well as my Braves are in the midst of putting together a pretty darn good season.