Adapting to God's Plan

Adapting to God's Plan

Many pieces and memories of our lives that we hold onto today were not included in our original planning process for ourselves. With that, we must wonder how the plan deviated from our thinking. If we trust God and His amazing plan for us all, we will recognize that He sometimes takes out or adds experiences for a reason. The motive, we do not always know. However, God introduces us to the world and beyond in the eyes of Him and the world, not just our closed-minds. We have been told by our friends and family on what we will become, which could be true, but only God knows the end path for us. We have the ability to choose whether or not we want to follow His path and better ourselves and those around us. It is eye-opening to reflect on past situations and what they have taught us. It is remarkable to see the growth in ourselves. It is a proud moment to realize that you are doing what you love and you are surrounded by people who you love. I am continuing to live in the presence of The Lord and I am continuing to chase my dream. Blessed for He is by my side.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

A Transformation: From One Door to Another

A Transformation: From One Door to Another

           

            Reflecting on today, I've realized once again, what sometimes seems to be a wrong outcome may actually be the start of a new beginning for greater successes. I realized that a leader is not one with a position, or a label given to them. But rather, a leader has his/her intentions and actions focused on helping the people around them and in return, helping to unify a community of leaders.

            In the past, I only spoke about my achievements and successes when running for leadership positions, but I've discovered that a leader walks with his/her peers, sits eye-level to his/her acquaintances, and listens to his/her community as much as he/she leads them. It is no longer about me as much as it is about me helping those around me. My life is worth more if I am making an impact in the lives of those around me than compared to me helping only myself. I do not see any benefit to being self-conceited.

            God did not place me on this world to serve myself, as He placed me here for a reason. That reason has yet to be discovered, but my heart tells me I am here to inspire and here to make a difference in the lives of others through my opportunistic outlook on life. I am grateful to be learning and growing each and every day. I am walking with God. I am taking a path guided by God and trusted by myself. I am on a mission and I will continue to achieve my goals. We must always have Faith and trust in The Lord. He takes us to great depths of challenges and obstacles, but He strengthens us to become achievers, do-ers, and followers of Christ.

            The Lord has a plan for each and every one of us and it is remarkable to see parts of it unfold and to reflect on our lives and see the transformations we have made. Chase your dreams because you'll never know how long you have left to see, breathe, speak, or live. Stay humble in your living, Be confident in your ways, Stay true to your morals, and value those that care about you.

            One door closed, but another door is opening. My vision considered only this one door, but now I see many more. Dreams. Drive. Determination.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident
 

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

Easter in Our Lives

Easter in Our Lives 

Today is a day that celebrates the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. On this day, we do not live in sadness of Jesus's death, but rather in appreciation for His sacrifices to allow us to live- to sin and still be forgiven.

On this special day, we are able to think about how we live our lives and how we choose to respond to external and internal stimuli. Jesus forgave the men for killing Him on the cross. Just as He chose to forgive, we must forgive those around us, even when we do not believe it is necessary. We are taught to forgive, not attack. Jesus challenges us every day to take the higher road and commit to living a life of love, giving, and appreciation for everything the world has to offer.

On the calendar, Easter is just another Sunday. But in our lives, Easter is a day to remind us all that we are Christians — followers of Christ — and of God’s children. We were brought into this world for a reason and we must uphold to the standards that God has placed upon us. Times may be rough, times may be easy-going, but we must always remember to live through God, through morals, and through grace. In addition, Easter serves to reiterate the idea that we are all human. We are not perfect. We will make mistakes. But as Christians, we must not forget who we are serving. We must not forget about who is watching. Jesus is always with us, so we must not fear making mistakes. We will learn. We will grow. We will become one who is closer to God.

When we devote ourselves to God, we begin to notice changes within our daily lives. Believing in God and giving our life to Him is a sign of Faith, Trust, and Belief in His end plan. For some people, God is not in their lives. It may be their choice, but God's Grace should be shown to the world. We are taught to give. Giving does not have to be through monetary values. The giving which God wants us to give is speaking the word of Our Lord and teaching others about His plan for us. The word of God should flow to others and be passed to others like the peaceful flow of a river. We are each born leaders of life, followers of God, and speakers of a magnificent plan. 

If we live our lives wondering, we'll stay in a never-ending thought of misbelief. But if we choose to listen to our Lord and speak the word of God, we'll bring more people closer together. God has sacrificed everything for us all and He gave up Himself to allow us to live, to sin, and to be forgiven forever. We cannot thank Him enough.

I wake up every morning giving thanks to God for another day to breathe, another day to chase my dreams, and another day to make an impact in this world. Whatever may happen to me on any given day, I always know that I have God to support me and nobody can take that away from me. When I put my head down at night, I thank God for another day to see and another day to learn. And before I close my eyes, I pray for those around me, those far away in need, and for a world change for the better.

 

God is miraculous.

God is here to stay.

I am a son of God.

I am here to speak the word.

 

 -Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident
 

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

Being Fortunate & Finding Your Reality

Being Fortunate & Finding Your Reality

High up in the sky, not in control. Giving Mother Nature my life in whole. What can you do as a person when you are 32,000 feet off the ground? You put your Faith in God and fear not. You realize that in a blink of an eye, your life could be over.

Just as it is on ground level, your life is in your hands, but too often, we get familiar with every day practices and routines that we forget about how fortunate we are to be breathing, hearing, seeing, walking, and more. Therefore, worrying over the things we commonly do is unnecessary. Truly, what will worrying do other than create more stress and cause more tension in our lives with those who we interact with. If we considered how fortunate we are of EVERY thing, we'd be too grateful to even worry about the greatest of problems that in our worried minds, would cause a 'terrible' effect to our lives, reputation, salary, or future.

Our outlook on life is our own opinion. Deciding on what is right and what is wrong is also our own opinion to an extent. We, as American citizens believe that we know it all and can use our name as a way of living our life and as an answer to every problem. We see one percent of the world in our own world, therefore; we are seeing a mere .01% of the world beyond us. We make judgments off others prejudgments that have been passed down through generations over the years. We never make our own decisions based off our own knowledge because we have already been advised by media, government, and others on how to go about solving problems and reasoning. Additionally, we cannot always listen to our parents because they too, have been educated by a predecessor who was told what to do and how to do it. It is about time we begin thinking about what is right for not only our individual self, but the body of people in this world, not just our community or not just our country. To some people and to my family at times, I am considered as one who does not understand the setup that has been created for us or that I am unaware of how ‘dreamy’ my thoughts are and that I do not live in reality. But what is reality? What is the way of life for us all? Who is to determine such a question? The way of living is to be discovered by each individual who is brought into this world and our life is a journey that we are living in and growing in, in order to understand what OUR purpose was for this world and what difference we were to make.

I am waiting for something to happen, but I do not know what it will be. I am done living the way we have been told to live and that is..."You can be whoever you want to be, just keep chasing your dreams." Well anyone can say words to motivate you, but we say great things, but where are the great things? We talk the talk, but never walk the walk. We as a society have yet to realize that we are not living in the moment, but rather just riding along for the ride as a spectator. It is those who do not watch and those who are not satisfied that become the leaders of our world.

I myself make the mistake of saying so much and planning to accomplish the most, but then I fall short of some tasks. However, I have discovered that striving for the best and falling short sometimes is similar to wanting to learn new things by taking new courses and not receiving the highest grade. If you are learning new things or motivating yourself in any form or fashion, then you are growing. Striving for greatness is a sign of someone who is not satisfied and one who is not only determined, but passionate. And taking a course and not doing well is still not a waste of time if you can tell yourself something new that you took from the course. The world is constantly offering new hints, knowledge, and insight for us to access, but it is up to us to discover it, capture it, and store it in our minds. Find your reality. Find your passion. Accomplish your purpose.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

More Than One Path

More Than One Path

            Doctors will tell you something is wrong or that maybe you and the doctor are aware that something is not right, but neither of you can identify the reason or the location of the problem. And these doctors received an education from the most prestigious of Universities’. And yet, they paid hundreds of thousands of dollars for their education unless they were on scholarship AND they still cannot manage to pinpoint any problems better than an average human-being with no learning history in the medical field can? We as humans feel that there is a problem and there is one. Sometimes we know when something good is going to happen, and it does, but before we knew so, we had no clue what the good thing would be.

Now, I just know something is wrong or that I am waiting for something, but I do not know what it is. I feel an urge to move faster ahead with my life than the speed of a regular day. I want to get to the doing now and begin my life. I feel myself saying that I am fine and thinking that everything is going to be fine, but then when I think about how I have made some poor mistakes and held a 2-point something GPA, I realize that I am not doing much right. I have an internship, a job, involvement in clubs, and Freshman Class President of our class, but I am not living the lifestyle in which I should be living. The problem is that I do not know what the lifestyle I am supposed to be living is like.

Then, I see the majority of students and kids around me having fun, partying, and doing well academically, but I do not see where they get the time to do both. I study 24/7 in regards to academics and my extracurriculars and jobs, and still; I hardly have time to party, so the partying cannot be the issue. Therefore, how is my GPA at a 2-point something. I excel in three of my five classes, I have not skipped one class period this entire semester, and I have tutors for the two classes I do not have an ‘A’ in. I meet with them twice per week and study with students from my class.

I truly believe that the classes are not what I am here for. For example, I have an ‘A’ in both Astronomy and English. Additionally, I do not work as hard in English to get an ‘A’ as I do in Math to receive a ‘D’. So, if GPA means everything, aren't the students who are academically gifted, such as I am in English at a disadvantage when it comes to the real-world? I believe that if I was good at Math or Spanish from the beginning, I would not need Calculus because I would be like some kids in my class who hardly ever show up, never do their homework, and still manage to get a 96 on a test. In result, if students already understand the material from the start, why take the class? We are told to stop wasting our lives time after time by leaders, but then we are in a classroom taking courses that have no effect on our future lives for 99% of the students in the classroom. I can go on Lumosity.com and train my brain for free if the answer to my question is that students are taught to solve problems differently and to increase memory. Secondly, I am not trying as hard in courses I am already excelling in because I literally do not need to, for I can no longer challenge myself. In support of my assumption, a student who plays basketball with his same friends learns their strengths and weaknesses to the extent to where he or she can beat his or her opposing friend on a daily basis. Although that friend can find new friends, or students can take higher level courses, many students do not have any desire for those classes. With the money students are paying for college today, why I am scolded and looked down on for scoring poorly? I should not have to take a physical education class or an assortment of General Education requirements that are unnecessary for my future. I understand that grades for students are in place so that we do not pay for college just to party and sit on our couches and watch TV all day, but I am involved more than ever because I see more value in extracurricular involvement than I do in classroom learning. I respect learning in the classroom, and I have learned a remarkable amount this first-semester as a freshman. But in all honesty, since high school, I have learned only how to memorize and apply facts from a textbook to paper that determines whether or not I remembered what color t-shirt John was wearing at dinner or if I could memorize formulas to a math problem. I want to agree with my peers, teachers, and family that education is important in the classroom, but I can and will not. I understand that I may not have the credentials that a company wants from me, but what does it matter to me if I am not on this planet for the money. Can someone really tell me that if I do not get an education from a University, then I will not accomplish my dreams? You can never stop a person from accomplishing their dreams through your voice or through your actions, only through death. Honestly. Recruiters can waive me off. My friends can laugh. My teachers can shake their heads. But in the end, someone in this world is looking for someone with the desire to accomplish anything and everything, and that same person has the identical values as me and has done just fine in this world in regards to financial wealth.

Our society stresses the importance of wealth and its correlation with power. Our society presses the importance of a conventional life. Our society feels that it is safest to travel down the same path that everyone else has taken. Why can’t I take a different path? Nobody is stopping us from doing what we want except ourselves. Although it may be more difficult to find a job, live a stable life, or meet the wants that everyone we have ever known wanted for us, I believe that I can and I will meet my goals and reach the peak of the mountain holding all of my dreams. Many people will not understand where I am headed or the way my mind thinks, but I just have the ‘urge’ to go a different way and to keep learning through experiencing.

If you fail in life the only thing you will not have will be money. Think about it. You will still have a family. You will still be alive. And most importantly, you will still have God. It is as if money is the only thing society is focused on. Chase the dream, not the green.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

Literacy Narrative

Literacy Narrative

            Learning to read and write was never difficult for me because my parents were avid readers and I looked up to my older sister who was always eager to dive into a novel. Throughout elementary school, I was the kid who read a book a day and then checked out another book a minute after. I enjoyed finishing books and taking the online tests that went along with them because I could receive points and the student with the most points received an award. I won the award in fourth grade. I had no competition. It was not that no one else read books and took the tests, but rather, it was because I had distanced myself in my level of proficiency and passion to read. I read 48 books and passed 43 of them. I was also a devoted writer in my early days; writing short stories for a comedic purpose to share with my classmates during break-time. In elementary school, I scored exceptionally well on all of my English and writing tests and the state-given final exams. I had no trouble to any extent with my ability to succeed in writing or English up until my junior year of high school. Junior year of high school is the toughest year for students because colleges begin to recruit and classes are more rigorous because students are striving to impress the universities’ in which they are applying to.

            It all started on the first day of my junior year when I was assigned an essay prompt, “I Believe”. I was eager to write an essay on such a broad topic. I had several ideas traveling through my mind, almost like the way a little boy’s mind scrambles when he is required to choose one ice cream flavor from a list of twenty. I went home that night feeling excited about the first day and how perfect my classes were because all of my best friends were seated next to me and I even had some cute girls in my class. I finished all of my math, science, and history homework and then took a shower before eating a family dinner. After dinner, I took my laptop upstairs and plopped it on my desk. I pulled out my headphones, turned on some music, and opened up Microsoft word. I began writing freely, attempting to strike gold with a remarkable essay. I formed an idea of which I began to write around. Starting the paper off with, “How did I begin to believe”? I wanted to travel backwards and answer the question of why someone believes something. I had a structured essay with no grammatical errors and I was confident that my professor would score my paper with distinction. After turning in my paper and after a few days passing by, our teacher had graded the papers and they were ready to be handed back. Our teacher was walking in circles around the classroom struggling to remember everyone’s names while passing back our essays. I was awaiting mine with a sense of nervousness even though I was positive that I scored well. When I received my paper, I saw red pen marks; the “red pen marks which usually signify errors”. I flipped my paper over with assurance, only to see an 80 on the top right corner of my paper. I had just received a ‘C’ on a paper that was issued, “I Believe”…A paper that was supposed to be written on something I believe in. How can someone grade the value of what someone believes in if we all have our own beliefs and perspectives on life? From that exact moment of seeing a low score, I knew the teacher did not like me and I had no intention of considering her an effective instructor.

            Of all my classes, English had always been the most preferable class to take and I never had an issue with any of my prior teachers. But after having a teacher who graded me harshly for so many assignments and tests, I had no intentions of caring anymore in English. I started seeing myself more interested in a depressing science classroom than I did in English. We were given AP practice essays to test our ability to write and I scored in the 3-5 range. I repeat; I scored in the range of a 60-76 range, which is an average of a ‘D’ grade. I am not a ‘D’ student and my work ethic surely did not reflect even the lowest of a ‘B’ average. I told my other teachers, my parents, and the principal of everything I had been doing to score well. I went to tutoring at 6:00AM three days a week to strengthen my writing skills and I went to everyone asking for help. I saw no results in my grades; if anything my grades in other classes went down because I had placed so much of my energy into English.

            Over the rest of the semester and into the second semester, I had kept a solid, ‘82’ average in English and A’s and B’s in each of my other courses. I was attempting every possible plan and idea to earn a higher grade. I began writing to please my teacher, rather than writing for what was on my mind and I saw lower grades. I did not understand her reasoning. I listed her as the number one teacher for being irrational and illogical. I spoke with her many times about how I could improve my grades and we were on the same page and we connected with one another. She was one of the most sociable and personal teachers I have met when she was off-duty as a teacher, but inside the classroom, I could not take her anymore. I felt enraged with an unknowing sense of anger because my hard-work was not paying off and my determination to succeed was diminishing because the results I had hoped for were buried deep beyond my reach.

            With less than three weeks of school left in session, I knew that I needed to bring my grade up to a ‘B’ or I would receive my first ‘C’ in my entire life of schooling. It was a sunny Friday afternoon and school had just been let out and I had to stay after school to make up a quiz with my English teacher. I was just looking forward to the weekend and had no desire to be at school for any longer. I took my quiz and handed it to my English teacher. She asked me how I felt about the class and if I had learned anything over the course of the school year and I said to her, “Personally, I have only learned that with effort you do not always succeed, but I am irritated that my grade is a ‘C’, which is considered ‘average’ by the State of North Carolina. If I knew hard work was going to earn me a ‘C’, why try? She told me to think about the school year and to study for the final exam and the essay, counted for 25% of the final exam. I waived her off and just thought she was the average teacher who said, “Study and you’ll be fine.” That is too broad for success to result from. I left that day and enjoyed my weekend. I came back to school the next week and we worked on a couple of practice tests and essays and my scores were still at 4’s and 5’s, but I felt that I was understanding the material more and more because our teacher pulled out an essay prompt we did on the second week of school and my mentality on what to write at the beginning of the year was far less persuading than how I decided to write it at the end of the year.

            At that very moment, I realized that my teacher was not trying to be the ‘harsh’ teacher that we all have at one point in our lives. She was helping me reach my true potential as both a writer and as a person. I learned how to control my emotions with maturity. I learned how to communicate effectively with an adult regarding business and in my case, grades. I learned more about myself from that class then I did from any other course. I respect Mrs. Danielle Volker (Danielle Cupples) because she wanted the best for me, and she was one of a select few teachers who have truly pushed me to the maximum. Essentially, our perspectives at the beginning of a situation are like judging a book by its cover before opening a single page. In life we must allow for the story to unfold and we must not quit when the results we are looking for do not fall our way.

            So, growing up I was always an avid reader and writer who never had any trouble with my ability to write a persuasive essay or to report on a book that was over five-hundred pages. But as I grew up and reached high school, challenges arose and junior year was a year to remember because I learned that there is always something new to learn and that education never ends and new knowledge is always beneficial. Being literate comes not only from reading books or writing, but also from the experiences we encounter and work through. Experiences shape our minds, heart, and our eyes. These three combine to shape our understanding in life. In life we must converse with others, communicate, and work with one another. If we experience, we learn and when we learn we grow. If we are growing we must be moving forward and literate people are educated individuals who have experienced a lot through books and through living life’s never-ending journey.

-Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com

Learning Experience

Learning Experience

            As you enter your freshman year of college, you realize that you can start on a new slate and you can be whoever you choose to be. Usually, you will attempt to change and be someone other than you were in high school, but in the end your true character will unfold itself and trying to be someone other than yourself will not work to your advantage. When you leave high school, you leave your friends and past life in the back of your mind and begin focusing on your new journey. That journey begins with learning how to sign up for classes, knowing where your lectures are held, figuring out how to purchase food, and much more. However, the most important part of the journey is discovering who you are and discovering who your true friends are. In college, you will constantly come across new people and you will build relationships and make new connections with students from across the country and beyond.

            However, meeting hundreds and maybe even thousands of people will make you feel as if you are friends with everyone. You will have hundreds of phone numbers, followers on social media sites, and you will know the names of so many. But, if you sit back and think about which ones are your true friends, how do you know? Ask yourself the question, “If I were to leave college today, how many of the people that I met would contact me ever again to see how I am doing?” So, how do we know who our true friends are?

            Well, it is the ‘learning experience’ which enables you with the ability to clearly determine who will always be there for you. In college, we are learning a different life in a foreign environment. We are persistently learning fresh knowledge about life, relationships, academics, ourselves, and miscellaneous information that we will use to be successful. It takes messing up to not make a mistake again. Therefore, it takes experiencing to even have the chance of making a poor decision. So does this mean that we should all make poor decisions early in our lives so that we may have a wider understanding of how not to mess up? Yes and no. We should not aim to make non-intellectual decisions, but once you enter adulthood, any decision can affect your reputation and ability to acquire a job. Making one corrupt choice can cause your downfall when you reach an age where you are expected to never make poor judgments. For college students, the time is almost at its end to make poor decisions and still be able to bounce back in a reasonable amount of time.

            Essentially, the most important aspect of college besides attaining an education is to find yourself and to find who your true friends are. Secondly, it takes the ‘learning experience’ to realize who your true friends are and inside of the ‘learning experience’ consists of several things. First, you must mess up to find who your friends are. You will know when you messed up and learned something that will serve to better you when you wake up and think about who was there to help you. You must fail. Without failing, how do you know how it feels to be at a low-point in your life? You must also learn to adapt. If you cannot adapt to your surroundings, you will never grow. If you are not growing, you will fail to reach your highest potential. You will experience a lot in college and will learn an abundance of life-knowledge.

            In my perspective, you will learn more in one weekend than you will learn in a week in college. Academics are vital to your success, but life-skills and common sense, which is only attained through experiencing firsthand, is what enables you to accomplish the toughest of tasks. If you do not know who you are, then what purpose does academic knowledge have? It starts with YOU and discovering what YOU enjoy doing, what YOU want to do with YOUR life, and who YOU want to be. We are in college to learn and gain new knowledge, but we are also here for four years or more if we head to graduate school, to learn about the things we cannot be taught by a professor or by our parents.

            You will discover who your true friends are when you have a poor experience or make a poor decision because those who care about you will be by your side the entire time. You will have your friends. You will have your best buds. You will have your party friends. You will have your business friends. And you will have your lifelong friends. You place the people you know into different groups based on their importance and connection to you. Learning is endless. Find who you are and find who your true friends are. Learn to learn and live to learn.

 -Austin McClain Baker

Austin Baker 

Twitter/Instagram: @ABakerPresident

DreamsDriveDetermination@gmail.com

Austin.Baker25@yahoo.com