Wow... what a year. In retrospect, which is the only way to write about anything at the cusp of a new year, this year has been amazing. Sure it's had it's ups and downs and most certainly didn't turn out the way I expected it but, wow, I can't be happier with where I find myself standing at the end of it.
Starting the year in the middle of a compulsory time of being off team to allow for recovery from a number of issues wasn't really where I wanted to start from. At least it allowed me to focus on work and actually being in church for a while. I guess that this was the start of the year of consolidation in many areas of life. My relationships with people, relationship with God, my commitment to work, my commitment to my church as well as a rebuilding of my self esteem and value.
If anything while 2007 was a year of consolidation it was also a year of discovery through distillation. Bringing things to the boil so that the crap was boiled off and the good oil remained. It saw me through the journey of having stepped down as technical director for Kings and finding my place in the team again. Most of the year was spent serving as a camera operator and photographer under the most esteemed Richard Griffiths and filling holes as needed on the sound team. While I enjoyed the time and the leadership and my talents weren't wasted the pull back to doing my "first love", mixing sound proved to be inexorable and by November I found myself back in the middle of production and December finds me more pumped than ever before to make sound, lighting and staging more excellent than ever before.
2007 also saw me through a time where the church I'm planted in was called into question. Not so much that the church itself was questionable but that within me I reached a point where I was unsure if my roots were as planted as they should be. After much talking through with friends (thanks Dave, Daniel, Roz & Sarah) and family (again, thanks Tim, Naath, Mum and Dad!) I decided that Kings is my home. Sure sometimes I may not have the most amount of fun there and I might go through some rough stuff, but that'll happen anywhere. So my roots are down regardless of how I feel and I now have a foundation and a place that I can go out from.
January started the journey toward medicine and a career as a naval (or air force) officer with my application to sit the GAMSAT exam in March. After not enough study and a wing and a prayer I sat the exam and left the process in God's hands as I waited for the results. In May I was rewarded with a score of 63 putting me in the top 20% of all candidates who sat the exam and then proceeded to put together my application for medical school. Along side this my application with the military was churning along with various interviews, information sessions and medical scrutinies to be undertaken. After applying in June the painful three month wait for med school interview offers began. I received an invitation for interview and submitted myself to the process and submitted the process to God again, praying that he would have his will every step of the way and started to wait again.
The military application progressed to the point of the medical and interviews in Brisbane at the beginning of November while I had no offer for uni yet. I took the day off work, went down to brisbane and started the day with the psych evaluation questionnaire and then a fifteen minute essay. The process finished earlier than expected. I was then advised that because I did not have a place I was not eligible for the position and therefore could not continue with the interview process. Various people apologised profusely before advising me to be in touch and sending me on my way. The good point there being that I didn't have to go through the medical before being sent packing.
I still haven't received an offer or letter of non-offer (I don't think they're allowed to reject you these days) but it's reached the point of being comfortable with where I'm at, that God's will was for me to stay where I am, to keep doing what I'm doing and let him take care of the rest. It's by God's grace and peace that I can keep running and not have a problem with not getting into uni and the military after all the effort, time and money that went into the process. God is Great, to Him be the Glory!
Career Highlights at APN would have to include moving to the Sunshine Coast Daily in a site support role after a year and a half on the Service Desk. I may regret making that public but there's still people there who have absolutely no idea who I am (I'd like it to stay that way but that just aint gonna happen). The installation of ITSM in New Zealand and the project setting up ITSM so that Australia and NZ can share the same system was an amazing project to be a part of. Sure we're still working through issues and tuning the system to do what we need it to but it's been amazing to be a part of. Three trips to NZ in the month of September was pretty intense, going from never going out of the country to trench hopper in one giant leap.
The consolidation has been key at work too. The process of going through the application to the military and uni as well as having job offers come my way recently has really forced me to look at what I'm doing and why I'm doing it and realise that I'm not finished where I'm at and that I'll be around for a while yet.
2007 has been an important year and while most of it has been making up ground again and building my foundations under me again it's been a successful year. It's been a fruitful year and most importantly it's been a year where God's will has been done on earth as it is in heaven. Can't ask for much more than that.
Now I've just got to remember what I prayed at the start of 2007 so I can pray it again now at this the beginning of 2008. Can't wait to see what this one is going to bring!
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