Brian Fallon's blog

10! 9! 8! 7! 6! .....

I love to bowl! I like getting a group of friends together and walking into some dingy bowling alley that smells like moldy potatoes, putting on some stranger's shoes, and getting ridiculed by some '90s animated bowling pin. I know those descriptions don't make it seem like I enjoy bowling, but I love every minute of it.

Did I mention I'm lousy at bowling? Yeah, it's not my strong suit. In the rare moments when I knock down all the pins I run around like I just won the lottery. But the rest of the time I'm just trying my best to stay on the lane, not to cross the red line or to see my ball end up in one of the gutters. More often than not there are more than a few pins remaining after I've finished my turn, so I've learned not to expect to be hoisting any bowling trophies over my head anytime soon. Read more »

Welcome back. You ready? Do you have enough notebooks, pens, loose leaf, and a big shiny apple for your homeroom teacher? It's that time of year again, where suddenly the pools empty and the classrooms fill up, alarm clocks are dusted off and set for some God-forsaken time, and students head to their respective schools to learn learn learn while trying to remember all the stuff they forgot over the past few months. Hooray! Read more »

Project Life / Christpower is over. Now what?

It’s a question going through a lot of our heads in the days after such amazing service retreats from June 12-19 in Perryville, Missouri and in St. Louis. We scraped, painted, sorted, pitched, built, restored, prayed, played, sang, laughed, cried, and helped so many souls this week that it can be a bit daunting to go from such an awesome experience back to the “lazy days of Summer.”

So what to do? How can we keep alive the “Best. Week. Everrrrrr?” Here are just a few ideas:

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Dear Senior/Almost Graduate,

How are you? We all hope your papers, exams (APs!), projects, etc. went well and are now completed. We also hope you had an amazing time at Prom and all the other cool things seniors do that make all the Juniors jealous. As you prepare for graduation and have your last day of class, last practice, last time at your locker, last everything, we want to write you a letter to send you on your way…

Just so you know, the next few months are going to be a blur. Soak ‘em up! You’re probably feeling it now: there’s that huge desire to LEAVE and start college, but there’s also this pit in your stomach, the one that you felt when you started high school…only this one’s on steroids. It’s all happening so fast, the goodbyes and almost-hellos, and feels like it came out of nowhere! Relax and trust. Everything’s going to be fine. Read more »