Goodbye to an awesome friend

One of my best friends, Kendall, is dropping out of college.You can see some of his reasons for dropping out on his blog.

I don't know if I totally agree with his decision, and I feel that it's not really important for me to make up my mind on whether or not Kendall's decision is a good one. It's his life. He's different from me. He grew up differently from me. His financial, family, and shelter/house situation is unlike my situation. His life is different from mine. He sees life from a different perspective. It's not my place to tell him if this is a good decision or not. Also, college is not the magic potion to success and fulfillment. The Bible doesn't explicitly command, "Thou shalt go to college."

Anyways, he stopped by yesterday to say goodbye. I feel bittersweet about him leaving. He's excited and hopeful in his decision yet I know I'm going to miss him. We've spent five years here at Southwestern and made great memories.

Here's what so cool about Kendall.

• He's a great listener. I think he actually enjoys listening to people. That's just cool. I struggle to listen to someone for a minute.
• He's creative. He made me a cool birthday card a couple years ago.
• He can sing on tune.
• He lives one day at a time.
• He likes board games.
• He's laidback.
• He's authentic and honest.
• He's a great cook.
• He's loyal to his friends.
• He's smart.
• He can design web pages.

Top five Kendall moments in college (IMHO, of course)

5. First Enchiladas - I can't cook but Kendall helped me make my first enchiladas. My first real dish. Something more difficult to make than spaghetti or peanut butter and jelly. I even made the enchilada sauce from scratch. I think most of our friends liked it because it was really cheesy.

4. Hobo Stew - Kendall maked hobo stew for a bunch of our friends. One of the girls commented while eating, "Kendall, you're ready to get married."

3. Prayer Walk - I was obsessed with this girl. I thought this girl liked me. One night, Kendall found out that she liked someone else. He knew I was going to be devastated when I found out, so he took a walk that night and prayed for me. I took the news pretty hard, but I know that his prayers that night helped me deal with the heartache. (I need to stop obsessing over girls).

2. Winter Water Fight - Fifty degree weather. Ended up with everyone in the pool. I wasn't there but Kendall tells this story with so much conviction, I feel like I missed out on a lot.

1. Breakfast in Bed - All the guys in our friendship circle got flowers on Valentine's Day. Later, Kendall and some others figured out that it was two of the girls in our friendship circle that sent the flowers. So, we decided to get them back. Gabe, one of our friends, wanted to throw them into the pool. I think he was kidding. We nixed that idea and decided to pay back good with good. On a lazy Sunday morning, Kendall and Gabe made an awesome breakfast and we brought it to the two girls in their dorm.

Kendall, I don't know when you'll get around to reading this, but I wish you the best there in Jefferson, Texas. Thanks for the crazy Southwestern memories. Much love and prayers to ya.