Write Drunk, Edit Sober
In this episode, I recall where I was and what I was doing on 9/11, talk about my feelings on Mac Miller’s death, and wish good luck to the Aggie football team and Jimbo Fisher.
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Jeston is a former student of Texas A&M, the author of Jesse Granger: Bushranger in Hit the Ground Running, and a volunteer at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX.
It’s been a pretty rough week. Work has been hectic and with hurricanes coming, we’ve been getting tons of rain. I don’t think we’ll get hit by the hurricane, though. Last weekend I got to go see some of my missionaries out in Houston and it was so great because I’ve missed them so much! One of the sisters is going to be done with her mission in December so then I’ll finally be able to give her a hug (because sister missionaries aren’t allowed to hug guys on their mission).
I’m still working on that polaroid album for my favorite missionary. Since the weather’s been too terrible to take any good pictures, I’ve decided to hold off on giving it to her until her birthday which comes up in about a month. I’m still going to go see her this weekend, though. I’m going to give her a nice letter and one of those keys that’s actually a knife. The area they have her in is pretty sketchy so I have to give her a fighting chance. The knife isn’t that big but as long as she aims for the soft spots, she should be alright. She’s pretty tough.
The pictures that were the hardest to get so far were the ones I took of the 9/11 memorial on campus. It was raining off and on that whole day but when I checked the radar, it said that the rain was going to stop around the time I got off of work. I thought that worked out perfectly. After work, I headed straight to the Institute because it’s right across from campus and not too far of a walk to the memorial. On the way to the memorial I saw my favorite missionary’s previous companion and told her happy birthday because her birthday’s on 9/11.
When I got to campus, I stopped by the statue of Pinky Wilson (the guy who wrote the Aggie War Hymn in a trench in France during WWI) so I could take a picture of him for the album. I think I wasted too much time on his picture because it came out too dark and it also started to rain a little bit while I was there. I had to fast walk over to the memorial to get the pictures I came for before the rain started to come down.
I finally got there and took a few pictures of the inscription on the memorial, the memorial itself, and some roses that were left on the memorial in honor of those who lost their lives. I think the rain just amplified the sadness I felt looking at those towers. But the inscription on the memorial always gives me a boost. It reads:
On the evening of his departure from Texas A&M to become the Secretary of Defense, Dr. Robert M. Gates offered a true “Aggieism” to the group of thousands of well wishers. His comment conveyed the clear purpose of his mission. He offered,
“BEAT THE HELL OUTTA TERRORISM”
And that’s exactly what we’re gonna do to em, Ags!
Even though I was soaking wet by the time I walked back to my truck, I wouldn’t have traded the rain for any amount of sunshine.
Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira
Jeston is a former student of Texas A&M, the author of Jesse Granger: Bushranger in Hit the Ground Running, and a volunteer at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX.
Sorry this letter’s late. I’ve been pretty busy lately. I’m going to start trying to put headers before each section of my letters. That should save you from having to power through a bunch of rambling and nonsense. There will still be plenty of nonsense, though. But we’ll try this out for a little bit and if it ends up not working out, I’ll switch it up.
COLLEGE FOOTBALL IS BACK! I’ve been waiting for seems like an eternity to say those words. Life between the final touchdown of the championship game and the first kickoff of the season was basically a sham. Now it’s the real deal. We can all stop pretending like we’re happy and actually BE happy! Plus, it’s JIMBO TIME! The big question is, is he worth $75 million? We’ll find out this season. Hopefully we don’t end up 8-5 again. I don’t think my Fightin’ Texas Aggie heart can take it. I really wanted Dabo Swinney to come here instead and I’m sort of getting my wish this weekend. Too bad he’ll probably be murdering us on the field. It can’t be any worse than blowing a 30+ point lead like we did last year to UCLA. Can it?
Also, since school’s back in session, my friends are all back! It was pretty lonely over the summer with only my roommate and his rabbit to hang out with. Living in a college town sucks sometimes if you don’t go tot the college anymore. The good part, though, is that there’s barely any traffic when all the students are gone. But then you have no one to hang out with if your friends are students. I got to see the missionaries some but they were usually busy ministering to lost souls and I didn’t want to interfere with that. Somebody’s gotta do the Lord’s work. But it has been good to see everybody. I’ve been trying to get more involved in group activities even though being in big groups makes me uneasy. Maybe I’ll get over it.
I’ve been working on a little project lately. I’m going to go visit my favorite missionary next weekend and I didn’t want to show up empty handed. I love giving people gifts, especially when I know it’s something they’ll like. I put a lot of thought into the gifts I give even though most people don’t notice. This missionary loves photography so I figured a gift related to photography would be perfect. She’s also been sent to a rough part of Texas for her next mission ward and it’s taken a toll on her happiness with our great state. I have an Instax camera and decided for her gift that I would put together a polaroid photo album of nice Texas things and things that would remind her of College Station. Maybe she’ll look at the pictures with fondness and it’ll make her miss us. I don’t want anyone to leave Texas without loving it. Except hippies.
I hope everything’s going well for you, J. It sucks talking to you when you can’t talk back but one day that’ll change. I’ll try to send the letter on time next time. Sorry.
I miss you.
Follow me: @DoHpodcast and @JestonTexeira
Jeston is a former student of Texas A&M, the author of Jesse Granger: Bushranger in Hit the Ground Running, and a volunteer at the Cameron Park Zoo in Waco, TX.