It looks like our fellow ward member Julie has tagged both Emily and I. Time to learn some random/weird facts about the ShepAlder family.
Jan. 1, 2002. Tempe, Ariz. Ducks, huge Fiesta Bowl win... endless Tostitos chips and salsa., without ever intending to enroll. While I have nothing inherently against BYU, I knew from the first time I visited the
University of Oregon that I wanted to go there. I loved the town, the vibe, the scenery, proximity to the ocean... and of course, the
Oregon Marching Band. But, many of my friends were applying to BYU and several family members were sure I'd love it. I was never convinced, as I really wanted to experience college outside of a homogenous LDS bubble.
Once I decided on UO, several people in my stake expressed their dismay at my decision, with one brother actually telling my best friend and I that we were only going to UO because we "were filled with pride." On my mission -- where it sometimes seemed that all the elders and sisters had attended church schools -- an elder once told me that I would "one day get down on [my] knees and beg forgiveness from the Lord" for not attending His university. Wonderful.
However, I knew that attending UO was the very best decision for me. Things turned out pretty good for me! After my freshman year, I served a full-time mission. Later, I graduated with two degrees from one of the oldest and most-respected journalism schools in the country, witnessed many close friends join the church through the influence of the fantastic Eugene LDS Institute of Religion, enjoyed four great years in the marching band... and, of course, met my future wife!
Elder Boyd K. Packer once said the Church "
cannot, neither should we, attempt to provide secular education for all members of the Church worldwide." While I recognize that BYU is a good fit for many LDS students, I'm always excited to meet members of the church who have or plan to attend some of the many great universities and technical schools in this country. At the Eugene Institute, I had the incredible privilege of attending church with students who had no other reason to attend meetings than a desire to gather with fellow Saints. In the absence of an honor code came real-world decisions that strengthened my testimony and made me a better person. I may have stayed longer than most people (7 years!), but I wouldn't trade the experience for anything.
Wikipedia = Awesome!. What does that mean exactly? Well, most people know Wikipedia as the free encyclopedia that "anyone can edit." That's true, but only to a point. While anyone can edit many Wikipedia articles, there is a very good probability that those changes will be heavily edited or removed, often within minutes. Why? Well, contrary to popular belief, Wikipedia is not a free-for-all cesspool of information. Rather, it is a highly organized and monitored data system that is strengthened by many volunteer editors. The most controversial articles, which are often prone to vandalism, are protected with varying levels of security (such articles include those on
Pres. Bush,
Pope Benedict XVI,
the Iraq war, etc.).
As a registered editor, I've slowly built a reptuation for making sound and relevant edits. Although I'm no longer an active journalist, the skills I learned in college and as the sports editor of a small newspaper are quite helpful in editing Wikipedia. That doesn't mean that all of my edits remain in place -- Wikipedia articles change often as new information is gathered and incorporated and some additions are deemed unnecesary or untimely. But, my edits are generally accepted as good faith additions rather than just random acts of spam or impulsive changes.
So, remember... the next time someone warns you that Wikipedia is inaccurate, unreliable, etc., you have a registered editor's permission to punch them in the face (or other less violent methods to indicate the error of their statement).
I finally got to visit the Middle of the World monument... less than 12 hours before I left Ecuador. From Aug. 4, 1999-July 25, 2001,
I served a mission to Quito, Ecuador,
en la mitad del mundo. I had always wanted to serve a mission from the time I was a kid, having heard mission stories from my dad, his father, my uncles, various cousins, scoutmasters, family friends and more. How grateful I am that it is pretty much impossible to fully explain to a prospective missionary the obstacles they will face while serving the Lord; If it were possible, I don't think anyone in their right mind would go! It was much harder than I could have ever imagined, yet there isn't one day when I don't fondly remember my time in that tiny Andean republic.
When people ask me if my mission was the "best two years of my life," I tell them no. I like to think that I'm living the best two years of my life now... and forevermore in the future. My mission was a wonderful experience that I cherish every day, but I wouldn't trade my life now with my awesome wife for two more years in the sun.
The food is much better -- I never really got used to the typical Ecuadorean faire of "cuy" (aka guinea pig), grilled intestine, chicken parts (feet, livers, kidneys, hearts, necks, etc.), cow hoof soup, cow stomach, as well as "Ecua-beverages" such as hot oatmeal in a glass (aka "Quaker," pronounced "Kwa-ker") and hot, unset gelatin in a cup. I much prefer driving a car instead of walking everywhere or riding in crowded, tiny buses with low, inexplicably carpeted ceilings on which to rest the back of my bowed head. I don't miss finding ants in my food, frogs in the shower or huge spiders that made their way past the mosquito net covering my bed. I don't miss endless sunburn from the boiling, oh-too-close sun while climbing the steep streets of Quito (elevation 10,000+ feet).
But, I do miss the people. They were wonderful beyond explanation, and I'm thankful that, for all the physical hardships of living in the poorest of all South American nations, I was fortunate to teach the gospel of Jesus Christ to true descendants of the Lamanites. There's nothing quite like bearing testimony of the Book of Mormon in the very lands detailed in its pages, to the very people of whom it speaks.
Best two years of my life? No way... I'll take life with my beloved wife, Emily, any day. But, my mission taught me a lot and I'll always be thankful for that incredible opportunity to serve the Lord as His fulltime servant for those two
unforgettable years.
4.
I have never owned a trombone. This may not seem all that odd, except for one significant fact:
I played the trombone for 13 years! I'd probably still be playing regularly now, but opportunities to play have really dried up since I graduated from college. But, from sixth grade until my final year with the Oregon Marching Band, the trombone was my constant companion.
So, why then, did I never buy a trombone? My parents always said they wanted to make sure I "stuck with it," so I rented all throughout middle school and high school. Meanwhile, I have friends who played for a a year or two whose parents made a rather expensive, yet short-lived investment. By the time I got to college, I had no money to buy a trombone, so I continued to rent from the UO School of Music. All told, I've probably spent enough money in rental fees to have actually purchased my own... but, hey, you never know when you're going to stick with something, right?
5. I put myself through college. I grew up in the small town of Hermiston, Oregon. It wasn't a bad place to grow up... just small and with limited opportunities. I knew that if I was going to make something of myself, I needed to get a college education. Unfortunately, while my parents both had good jobs and wanted me to go to college, they didn't have the means to finance my higher education. I graduated fourth in my high school class and did manage to get several small scholarships to help pay for the first year of school, and my mom did take out a small loan to help out. But, once I came back from my mission, I was on my own.
Luckily, I had made some arrangements while still in Ecuador. I wrote a letter to one of the administrators I had met at
UO Housing while living in the dorms my freshman year, telling her of my desire to be an R.A. after my mission. She sent me an application, and before I knew it, they scheduled a phone interview with me. With my mission president's blessing, I spent about 30 minutes telling a group of strangers about my love for UO, my mission and how much I'd love to be an R.A. About 4 months before my mission ended, they informed me that I'd been hired!
So, when I got home, I had a job that included housing and a full on-campus meal plan. Upon discovering that my financial aid offer also awarded me some work study hours, I wrote an email to the director of the
Yamada Language Center. He subsequently offered me a staff position that lasted for the next four years.
I had many other jobs during college, including an attendant at the UO Bookstore information kiosk, a phone rep for a telemarketing company, a Spanish translator for a Eugene teen court, a desk assistant in the UO dorms (a position that killed my social life by requiring me to work until midnight several nights a week, including most weekends for two years), and a 3-year stint as a recreation director for a summer kids program. One summer, I even submitted myself to various paid grad student experiments at the UO Dept. of Excersize and Movement Sciences. To save money, I moved into a house with several guys from the Eugene Institute, remaining there for five years (and nearly 30 roommates) until the day before I married Emily.
College wasn't easy, but it was definitely worth it. And those two journalism degrees? They're 100% mine.
Silly kids... video games are for playing,
not for stacking!
I've been a video game fan since I was a kid, and my dad and I would play games on our
Atari 800XL. While the rest of my friends traded in their old gaming consoles with each new generation, I held onto mine. As a result, my collection now includes the following systems:
Atari 2600,
Sega Master System,
NES,
Super Nintendo,
Sega Genesis,
Atari Lynx,
Sega Game Gear, the original
Game Boy,
Game Boy Advance,
Game Boy Advance SP,
Nintendo DS,
Nintendo DS Lite,
Sega Saturn,
Nintendo 64,
Playstation One,
Sega Dreamcast,
Nintendo Gamecube,
Playstation 2,
Wii and
Playstation 3.
I never really planned to become such a video game archivist, but I must admit to being completely fascinated with an industry that has dominated most of my life.
Guitars + Babies = Awesome!. And not to impress girls, though that certainly came in handy. Right after my mission, I was helping my aunt and uncle move to their new house. My uncle asked me if I'd mind taking care of his classical acoustic guitar while they got settled. So, I took this nylon-stringed relic with me back to my dorm room, and promptly placed it in the closet. Then, one day while I was sitting in my room, I decided to break out the guitar. Guided by a high-speed Internet connection, I started searching for songs that I thought would be easy to learn. The first songs I picked --which proved to be simple, yet fun to play -- were classics such as "
There She Goes," "
Blister in the Sun," and "
If You Want to Sing Out, Sing Out."
Over the last seven years, I've improved my skills, bought a few more guitars and had some good times. Most importantly, my relatively new love for the guitar helped earn me the fancy of my future wife. In fact, when we got engaged, I prepared
this video for her to watch as I waited in an adjacent room (once the video ended, I surprised her with her favorite song -- "
Here Comes the Sun," by The Beatles, before I proposed). At our wedding, I sang and played "
Real Love," one of my favorite John Lennon songs.
Music continues to be a big part of our life together (we even sing to our cats!), and my ultimate dream is to have a ShepAlder family band! Perhaps with time...
