Hello. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Garrett Sonntag and I now have the opportunity to tell you about myself. Normally, I am a person who composes paragraphs of information in order to get my point across. But I realized that people, mostly myself, don’t want to read volumes of text to get to know someone. So, the following is just a bit about me. Hope you enjoy my delightful weirdness and that you can better know the person behind the blog posts!
Birthday: January 1, 1993 ~ That’s right, I was a New Year’s Baby. And while some people might find being born on the New Year to not be desirable, I like it! I mean, there is always more than one celebration to go to, a big, shiny globe drops on the day I was born, and everybody celebrates my birth (oh, and the beginning of a new year)!
College: I am a recent graduate of The Class of 2015 from The University of Akron. While there I majored in Biology and Psychology and got a minor in Chemistry.
In college I was exposed to many ministries that helped me to realize the importance of a personal relationship with Christ. To me, life is meaningless and trite without a relationship with Jesus and I now know that I am to serve him and go where he leads me so that I can live my life to its fullest potential.
I love spoken word poetry. While I haven’t composed any of my own works (yet), I enjoy the creativity and lyricism that some artists are able to achieve and I think it helps me to understand the story they are telling just a bit better.
Favorite movies: Forrest Gump and The Help. Plus I love the childhood classics like Home Alone, Land Before Time, and 101 Dalmatians
Favorite quotes:
“Nothing great is ever achieved without much enduring.”
-Catherine of Siena
“To laugh often and much;
To win the respect of intelligent people
and the affection of children;
To earn the appreciation of honest critics
and endure the betrayal of false friends;
To appreciate beauty, to find the best in others;
To leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child,
a garden patch or a redeemed social condition;
To know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived.
This is to have succeeded.”-Ralph Waldo Emerson
I love elephants! They are wonderful, that is all.
Voluntourism is what I am about! I love to travel and experience other cultures as well as meet peoples from different places. Additionally, I like to volunteer because helping people and making a tangible difference are awesome. But what is even better is when you combine the two…so, you travel to a new location that you have never been before, and while you are there you take some time out of your trip to help out, to give back, and to make the place you visited a bit better than it was before. It is way more rewarding than just going on vacation.
Some voluntourism missions I have been on include Thailand (2013) & South Africa (2014).
In Thailand our team was able to help with the construction of a crematorium for a hill tribe, volunteer at Elephant Nature Park, a sanctuary for injured elephants, as well as have fun at a local school teaching and enjoying activities with the local children.
In South Africa we helped with cheetah conservation at De Wildt Shingwedzi Cheetah and Wildlife Ranch. We also got to visit a local school and hang out with the awesome kids there.
I spend about 90% of my waking hours singing, humming, or thinking about music. No, I am not that guy who can play the piano, guitar, and oboe, but I do enjoy music a lot and I like to share it with everyone around me (whether they like it or not).
That said, some of my favorite musicians include: Pentatonix, The Bergamot (don’t know ‘em? Check them out!), Gabrielle Aplin, Jesus Culture, Jason Upton, anything from OneThing, Chris Burns, Norah Jones, Tori Kelly, Kari Jobe, Rick Pino, etc.
Sarcasm might be my love language. I appreciate a good amount of humor.
I love to laugh and make others laugh. If you get to know me, you will see that I am an eternal jokester. I’m just a goof and that is the way God made me.
Chips are the key to my heart. Forget chocolates, flowers, candies and all that nonsense. You come to me with a bag of kettle-cooked chips and a request, I know we are talking business.
I like foods that end in CAKE, PIE, or PASTA (ex. CheeseCAKE, PizzaPIE, Pesto PASTA).
I do not embody my German heritage…in terms of food that is. I do not like sauerkraut, not a fan of beer, and I can only stomach so much sausage.
I am not one to shy away from adventure. I may be a large individual who is more festively fit than athletic, but that doesn’t mean that I don’t enjoy bungee jumping, mountain climbing, creeking, biking, hiking, running, bridge-jumping, kayaking, caving, etc.
My heart is for the nations and the underprivileged. I think that my future career will be in international medicine in order to travel to many nations and to use my gifts to help others.
I am a passport junkie. I have this really out there dream to travel to every country. Outside of the US, I have made it to Thailand, Cambodia, Canada, South Africa, Swaziland, Zambia, Botswana, and Mozambique. Hopefully more adventures and countries are in my future.
Favorite poems: it is definitely a tie between these two.
Our Greatest Fear – Marianne Williamson
“Our greatest fear is not that we are inadequate,
but that we are powerful beyond measure.
It is our light, not our darkness, that frightens us.
We ask ourselves, Who am I to be brilliant,
gorgeous, handsome, talented and fabulous?
Actually, who are you not to be?
You are a child of God.
Your playing small does not serve the world.
There is nothing enlightened about shrinking
so that other people won’t feel insecure around you.
We were born to make manifest the glory of God within us.
It is not just in some; it is in everyone.
And, as we let our own light shine, we consciously give
other people permission to do the same.
As we are liberated from our fear,
our presence automatically liberates others”
The Road Not Taken – Robert Frost
“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth;Then took the other, as just as fair,
And having perhaps the better claim,
Because it was grassy and wanted wear;
Though as for that the passing there
Had worn them really about the same,And both that morning equally lay
In leaves no step had trodden black.
Oh, I kept the first for another day!
Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
I doubted if I should ever come back.I shall be telling this with a sigh
Somewhere ages and ages hence:
Two roads diverged in a wood, and I–
I took the one less traveled by,
And that has made all the difference.”
And I will end with this… my best friend is my sister, Ruthanna Sonntag. She understands my weird, she loves fiercely, she provides much entertainment with her bubbly personality and quick wit, and she is the best person I have ever met. Cheers to you Ruthy, you are awesome!
