I’m Christian Sessions Roderick. I’m not the best at just talking about myself. I do much better if someone is sitting across from me, asking me questions. I’m at least DECENT at answering questions about myself. So here’s what we’re going to do: I’m going play two rolls in the following dialogue. The first will be Christy. She was hanging out at a friend’s house and was just introduced to this guy Christian (the second roll I will be playing). The following is the dialogue that could have hypothetically ensued:
Christy: Hey so you’re friends with Kelly?
Christian: Yeah Kelly and I have been good buddies for forever. We grew up going to the same church and summer camp. Our parents are also really good friends.
Christy: Oh awesome, what church?
Christian: It was in Tulsa, OK and it was called Bread of Life. It was pretty cool. Kelly, our friends, and I had some crazy experiences with Jesus when we were young through this Church. I think that church is where I really started to learn some extent of the power of the Holy Spirit as we got a chance to see Him moving powerfully in our parent’s lives. It was awesome cause our parents really did a lot to usher us into a lot of that stuff when we were young.
Christy: Wow, I kinda got more than I asked for on that question!
Christian: Sorry, I ramble sometimes when I’m nervous and talking to a pretty girl…
Christy: Oh stop it!
Christian: hehe…**Bashful face**
Christy: Soooo…where did you go to school? Or are you still in school?
Christian: Nope I’m done! I went to Oklahoma State University and I finished up my undergrad degree in Accounting (I know, very exciting) in December of 2008. Then I did an internship with a company for a spring and went back to OSU for grad school for accounting the following fall. After one more year I was out! Since May of this past year, I’ve been working for a CPA firm in Tulsa. Sometimes it feels like I’m still in school though cause I’m currently studying for the CPA exam (to become a certified public accountant). I have passed two of the 4 parts and am hoping to pass the other two over the next 3-4 months.
Christy: Oh that’s awesome! I went to…**section edited out because it was irrelevant to this blog post**…and I really like it!
Christian: That’s cool, I like it when I hear that people enjoy what they do.
Christy: So Kelly told me you’re going on some sort of trip around the world?
Christian: YEAH!! I leave in September of this year for an 11 month missions trip with an organization called Adventures in Missions!
Christy: Where are you going on the trip?
Christian: **in this section, I just told Christy where all we were going and what kinds of things we’re doing. However, if you’re on this blog, you probably know this stuff already so I won’t reiterate it**
Christy: That is SOOO COOL!! So, what made you want to do this trip? How did you decide you wanted to do it?
Christian: Well, that is a good question. I had a good buddy named Dan-Tan Stinson who went on the WR in January last year. It’s weird because I spent a lot of time checking out the trip and the organization before he left on his trip. You know? I just wanted to know what my friend was going to be doing and I wanted to also kind of evaluate whether this was a trip I wanted to support and such. I really liked the trip and I was really excited for him to go; however, I had no desire at all to go myself at the time. It just didn’t pique my heart’s interest. So anyways, I read his blog for the whole year he was gone and really enjoyed hearing about what he was doing. Still no personal interest in the trip though…sorry, am I rambling too much?
Christy: haha you are rambling but it’s ok. I’m enjoying it.
Christian: OK. Well, if it gets to be too much, just stop me. So he got back near the end of November and I was really psyched to see him. He drove down for the OSU homecoming football game along with most of our college friends and we had a big reunion weekend. When we hung out that weekend, we didn’t really even talk a whole lot about the race. We just had some fun together. But I tell you what, by about 15 minutes into hanging out with him, I was at the point where I couldn’t get this trip out of my head. I can’t explain it. It was just all over my brain. I kind of brushed it off for most of that day and the next. But by about the third day of having it constantly in my head, I decided to look it up again and let myself think about it. I read a lot of blogs from people who had been on the trip over the next week or so and I started getting very jealous of the things these people were learning. It was like I could read the blog and see the awesome lessons that God was teaching these young adults but I wanted to learn them for myself.
Christy: So did you start praying about it?
Christian: Yeah, I started praying about it. At the time, I was working on a client out of town so I was staying in a hotel room all week each week. Thus, I had some awesome alone times with the Lord in my hotel room just asking God if this is what He was wanting me to do with a year of my life. After a week and a half or so, I finally felt like I got an answer. I felt like God told me to stop asking Him whether or not this trip was something that I was “supposed” to do or not. Basically, He revamped my understanding of what this trip was! He showed me that it was simply an invitation from Him for me to come spend a year in adventure and communion with Him.
Christy: That’s really cool. So I guess that sounded like an invitation you wanted to take Him up on? (she then gave me a winky face)
Christian: Pretty much! At some point during the next week, I committed to this trip in my head and my heart and I’ve just been getting more and more excited about it since then.
Christy: That’s way tight duder.
Christian: That was kind of a weird thing to hear a girl say to me…you talk like a guy…
Christy: haha, sorry. I have two brothers.
Christian: Hahah I’m just messing with you.
Christy: So are you scared about the trip at all? Have you ever even been overseas before?
Christian: Yeah I actually have been blessed with the opportunity to go overseas a few times before. I’m kinda obsessed with traveling to be honest which is part of the reason that I’m so dang pumped about this trip!! After my freshman year of college, I went backpacking around Europe for a month with a few friends and then I went again for another month by myself the summer after my senior year. Then I also got to spend about 3 and a half weeks with KELLY in Australia on the YWAM base he was involved with at the time. I’m excited to go to some third world countries though. I feel like that’s a type of culture I’ve never seen before. I really love getting into other cultures but I feel like most of the places I’ve been have been pretty western. Thus, I’m pumped to see some places with different flavors.
Christy: So tell me something random about yourself. I just want to know crap about you.
Christian: I feel like you should know better than to ask that question. The whole reason that we’re falsifying this conversation is cause I’m not good at talking about myself without direct questions.
Christy: Oh yeah, I forgot. Ok fine, ummm….how much do you love music?
Christian: Wow, very relevant question! Music happens to be one of my greatest obsessions. I LOVE listening to music, finding new music, writing about music, and every once in a while I even like to try to play some music. I think music might be one of my love languages.
Christy: Noted. I’ll remember to use music if I ever try to woo you.
Christian: Very funny.
Christy: Thanks, I try. Well…I should probably get back to my friends but it was mildly fun to meet you! I kinda still know hardly anything about you though! What should I do if I want to know anything more?
Christian: Well, you have a few choices. A of all, you could creep on my previous blog at http://rodsies.blogspot.com/. Only do that if you really want to know how weird I am (be assured, I’m VERY weird). B of all, you could just let things happen as they happen and maybe we’ll end up becoming better friends. Or C of all, you could email me or contact me in some other way and ask me direct questions (in case you didn’t catch it, that’s the best way to get info out of me).
Christy: Shweet man. Well…
**we both then exchanged pretty clever goodbyes and went our separate ways**
Wow, that simulated conversation went a little further than I had originally planned. haha I’m a weirdo. I’m excited about this trip though and I’m excited to see God continuing to move in my life leading up to the trip and especially excited to see what adventures He has for me come September!
Christian Sessions
