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Well, I've been in Colorado now for less than a week. I've been looking around for some jobs, and I've gotten a couple of responses already. Beside the point, it's actually kind of nice to be here back in Colorado. It's a place that carries a lot of memories with it.

The highlight of this week? That would have to be getting together with some of my old friends from high school. I was really looking forward to it. These were people that I hadn't seen in three and a half years. I was looking forward to catching up with each other and finding out was was different with everyone after these years. Still, I knew that despite those three and a half years of separation, the conversation would eventually devolve into talk of those few years that we spent at that place that we all knew and loved and hated: Maranatha Christian Concentration Camp in Arvada, Colorado.

Well, the conversation actually went… pretty much like that. We said our hellos. We expressed how awesome it was that we were all twenty-one now.¹ Everyone commented how Tom and I were going bald. Trish called me “creepy”². Lottie confessed that she was now a practising Buddhist after she got offended when I gave a prayer before our meal (obviously a joke³). Then, really, it devolved into our hatred of MCC talk.

Gosh, we must have talked about stuff for hours. Gosh, we talked about getting kicked out of Bible class, staff members having sex in the copier rooms, almost getting suspended for saying gosh, taking a stack of pancakes along with a stolen jar of syrup from either an IHOP or Village Inn and bringing it to a teacher, staff members having a vasectomy reversed,⁴ and, finally, a certain couple who sneaked out of class to make out in a closet.⁵

I hated Maranatha. It was a ridiculous exercise in Christian Fundamentalism… the type that I've come to despise. Despite the fact that I despised Maranatha as much as I did, I've come to realise that if I had the chance to go back and change things, I don't think that I would. Experiences such as Maranatha have taught me so much more than I ever could have learned from my own imagination. Being put through suffering has caused my mind to ponder upon some deeper questions that often don't get the attention that they deserve. If it weren't for Maranatha, I doubt that I would be the advocate against Fundamentalism that I am.⁶

Regardless, even if the learning wasn't worth it, I came out of it with some of the best people in the world.

I can't complain… except for the fact that I had hair back then and don't now.

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1. I tried an IPA for the first time that night. I highly recommend getting one.
2. I don't know if she meant serial-killer creepy or sexual-predator creepy. I'll have to ask her the next chance that I get.
3. However, the basic tenets of Buddhism were summarised that evening as “common sense”. Not having studied Buddhism… sure… I guess.
4. I laughed my ass off about this one for a few minutes.
5. You know who you are! Come clean!
6. Still, I think that JBU played a role in that as well.