Hello and welcome to my World Race blog… Whether you just happened upon my blog after a google search, or you consider me a friend, family, soon to be race teammate, or a new acquaintance I am very glad you reading this in support of me, and what I am doing in 2016. I should probably start by introducing myself. My name is Aaron Shugars. I’m 27 years old, and I am insanely blessed by God to live in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain, specifically Banner Elk, NC.
I have lived up here for 10 years now!!! Wow that is really crazy to think about. I first came up to the mountain to attend college at Lee’s-McRae College…. What you’ve never heard of it?!?!? It only has 650 students, so its a very very small school. I received my degree in Religious Studies, and guess how many students graduated with my degree…. I’ll give you a second to phone a friend….. Yep just me myself and I. Talk about a really small classroom right?!? Actually my classes had whopping 6-8 people in them. Anyway enough about college. After college I needed a job, and so I sought out employment at Bank of America. I worked there for about 4 years. While I worked there I always wanted something more, I wanted to travel, have adventures, help and serve others etc. I looked into teaching abroad and I came really close to moving to Georgia (The Country), but instead I decided to travel to India on a medical mission trip. I spent about a month in northern India traveling from village to village doing basic eye care, building glasses, and refracting patient’s eyes to see what prescription they needed. This was an amazing trip and I will blog more about it in the future so stay tuned! Same Aaron’s Blog Channel Same Aaron’s Blog Time….
After India, I came back to the states and started working at Grandfather Home for Children. GFHC is a treatment facility for kids who have been sexually abuse and/or have sexually abused others. I worked as a supervisor for a building that housed either 6 teenage girls, or 6 teenage boys depending on the current need. I had a team of 12 people that worked with me as direct care staff to the children. I loved working with the kids, but it is also one of the most stressful jobs you can have. I learned to really seek out God in some very very tough times. I learned quite a bit, and I grew so much as a person while I worked there. I did eventually leave the organization, it was becoming to taxing on me. I prayed and prayed for God to give me the strength to continue, or to open up another opportunity for me. I am now working at a brewery which is way way less stress 🙂 and I am working towards going on the World Race!!!
Anyway here are some things that my future teammates might be interested in knowing.
I love living in the Mountains! I love community and my close friends that live up here! I love adventure! I am an avid Scuba Diver!!!! I love to camp, I love waterfalls (and jumping off them), I love to be on boats even though I get sea sick in rough seas, I love Pirates… wait I am pretty much obsessed with all things pirates… minus the stealing, and killing… mainly the ships, and the romantic view of pirates. I love music, I love my family, I love my church, and most importantly I love God, and serving others through Him.
