The Return to Academia

A final chapter in this trilogy to document my experiences with weather, people, and God.

I said in the last post that this would be a hard post. A post that would be difficult and bittersweet. There is much joy in sharing this post with you, there is also sadness as another chapter to my life is being concluded in the near future.

In early April, as I was placed into the position of chief meteorologist, a letter I had set aside was brought back to my attention.

While in the UK, I had continued to seek out job positions and grad school opportunities. During the latter weeks in the UK I applied to 4 universities to attend for graduate school and earn a master's degree in meteorology. The University of Wyoming, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, Mississippi State University, and North Carolina State University all received an application for acceptance from me. Shortly after arriving in Bowling Green, MSU replied with an acceptance letter. This letter was exciting, I knew then that I qualified for grad school. I had been turned down by three schools in the spring of 2013. However, it was a second letter from MSU that was brought to my attention in early April.

This second letter extended to me an assistantship to aid in my pursuit of research and a master's in meteorology and climatology at MSU. The assistantship consisted of an out of state tuition waiver, a partial scholarship for tuition, and the offer of a graduate teaching assistant position with a monthly stipend to cover the rest of my educational expenses, and the main portion of living expenses. The letter gave me until Easter weekend to make my decision.

In the midst of the chaotic rise to chief's position, I knew that this was the end of the road if I stayed in Bowling Green. I can climb no further here, I knew this was the highest spot I could attain within the station and the corporation. I also knew that the Lord has placed me at Christ Fellowship for a reason, and I love the church dearly. The Lord doesn't call us to sit back on our laurels and marvel at all we've accomplished. He desires men and women who will passionately follow His guiding across the street, across town or around the world.

Life in television in Bowling Green appears to be, quite frankly, in opposition to God's call. There, I would develop a routine, develop a clique at work, and become hardened to others around me and to the city of Bowling Green. I would become cynical, cut off from the rest of the people of Bowling Green and out of touch with other humans and unwilling to follow the Lord Jesus Christ.

God has placed in front of me an opportunity to take His name back to Mississippi State University. He's provided me an opportunity to be a leader within the department of geosciences at MSU. Part of my desire to work in television was to be just that, a leader and an example to others. The Lord has given me the opportunity to do that back in Starkville. He's not only blessed me with a roommate, as well as many friends from undergrad; He's blessed me with new contacts who are incoming freshmen, transfers, grad students with whom I can share my knowledge of weather, Mississippi, and most importantly, my knowledge of how Jesus has changed me.

Life following Christ is crazy, illogical, exciting, and completely worth it. I cannot imagine, after being taught many things by God, living my life just to please me. I can never be pleased. I'll always find something wrong with me, something I can't have that I want, or something I don't want that I have. Following Christ means that though there is something wrong with me, it's called sin and Christ died to deal with the consequences of what's wrong. In Christ, He has promised to make me new, and He will make good on His promise. He rose from the dead to prove that fact. Following Christ means giving up my selfish desires and wants, and seeking Christ. The Bible says that the one who saves his life will lose it. The one who loses his life gains it. This is made possible in Christ, in His resurrection from the dead. Following Christ means that the stuff I don't want (pain, persecution, hunger, stress, etc) can be handed over to God. I give up control of trying to fix my life and myself. I'm letting the Potter mold the clay, the sculpture chisel off the imperfections. The process is painful, I have been and will be pushed, stretched bent, even broken. Above it all, God has a plan. His plan is for His glory, and in His glory, our greatest joy is found.

On August 11, 2014, approximately 1 year after I made the commitment to spend my autumn in the UK, I will return to the place where God took hold of me, grabbed my attention, and began remaking me and teaching me.

He knows my fears, He knows I want to be independent, and there are bills to be paid. He has since blessed me with a part time job in weather and TV. Wednesday, I accepted an offer to become the weekend meteorologist at WVUA-TV. THIS TV network, channel 7 in Tuscaloosa, AL.

I love working in television. I love being able to interact with people and help them by providing information they need in daily life and in emergencies. These two positions give me the opportunity to become better at that, and learn where it is God wants me from now until I see Him face to face.

I don't know where God wants me. I don't know if He wants me to continue in television or move to another field, but what I do know is that He is good. He allowed the dream of working in television come true, even if it's only for a short amount of time, I'm thankful for what He has blessed me with.

Throughout this year, I have been reading novels, and one, "The Count of Monte Cristo" by Alexandre Dumas, is very appropriate in its closing. Edmond Dantes writes a farewell letter to his heirs,

"Live, then, and be happy, beloved children of my heart, and never forget, that until the day when God will deign to reveal the future to man, all human wisdom is contained in these two words, -- 'Wait and hope.' -- Your friend,

Edmond Dantes,
Count of Monte Cristo"

Through it all, strength has been found in waiting and hoping in Christ. He will never fail, His promises are true, His love is deep, and His majesty is worthy of all my praise.

I want to thank a bunch of people. Through all of this, my parents have worried, stressed, prayed, and let me follow God's call even when they doubted.

I'm thankful for my British family, my friends from college and Colorado, all of whom supported, loved, prayed, and encouraged me to pursue the Lord's call to England last fall.

Additionally, I'm thankful for all of my wonderful new friends here in Bowling Green. I have been blown away by your love, acceptance of myself as a new friend and encouraged me through the rough days. Thank you for showing me around Bowling Green, welcoming me into your homes and lives. You've blessed me immensely.

Finally, I thank God, my Savior. He saved me, showed me love, cared for me, and blessed me beyond measure.

I love you all so very much. To those I'm leaving, I'll be in Bowling Green through June, and please, let's spend more time together. Please come visit me in Mississippi, it's a lovely place that I would love to share with you. To those I'm returning to, I love you and I cannot wait see you again and spend time together.

All, may the Lord bless you, keep you, and may you seek His face and His glory with every breath.

HAIL STATE

Dear Readers of crankyweather,

I certainly hope that as you have read this blog that you understand at least a little of what I say. However, apparently not everyone at Mississippi State University is quite as literate in weather as you wonderful people are. Today, as we had some snowflakes, sleet and rain come down on campus, the students were all talking about the "hail" outside. Twitter was full of students commenting on how ironic it was that it was hailing at state, where a common greeting is "Hail State." I am writing this today to put down this bit of unintelligent thinking, and to  combat the rumor that in the winter, it can hail whenever, as opposed to in the summer, when hails comes down only in certain thunderstorms. According to dictionary.com, sleet is defined as "precipitation in the form of ice pellets created by the freezing of rain as it falls." Hail on the other hand is defined as "showery precipitation in the form of irregular pellets or balls of ice more than 1 / 5  in. (5 mm) in diameter, falling from a cumulonimbus cloud." I would like to go further than just this general definition, which, in all honesty is a little wordy and confusing.

Hail is created during a thunderstorm by the updrafts and downdrafts of the storm. A raindrop begins its life as a piece of ice; at the altitude at which they are created, it is below freezing. When this raindrop falls in a thunderstorm, it falls, melts and combines with other raindrops, but before it falls out from the cloud, an updraft picks it up and sends it back up to the top of the storm, where it refreezes. So this same raindrop, just larger, has frozen, and begins falling to earth again. This process happens several times, and eventually the hailstone will be too heavy for the updraft to send back up, and so it falls to earth. This is the life of a hail stone. Sleet has a much simpler life story.

Sleet, begins as a snowflake! Thats is awesome just by itself, I know. Anyway, the snowflake begins falling to earth, but as it falls, it reaches air that is warmer than freezing. This snowflake melts there, however below this layer of warm air in the sky, there is another layer of cold layer. This layer refreezes the snowflake, only now its not a snowflake, but an ice pellet... sleet. The sleet then falls the rest of the way frozen to the surface where it hits you in the head, and you notice it more so than rain or snow, because it hurts more. This is why sleet, snow and rain can all occur simultaneously. Because each individual flake, pellet or drop is going through this on its own and may not be at the same stage. 

Freezing rain is another winter precipitation type people are often confused on. Freezing rain happens when the ground is below freezing, but the air directly above it is not. This means the sleet doesn't refreeze until it hits the ground. This creates a glaze over the surface, on roads, this is known as black ice. This type of ice is quite common in North Carolina, which is infamous for its ice storms. Freezing rain is extremely dangerous because it is hard to see, especially at night. If anything is "shiny" and you are driving on it, take extreme caution, or better yet, stay home, read a book, sit by the fire and have something warm to drink!

In conclusion, sleet does NOT equal hail. Sleet is often mixed with snow and rain. Hail happens during a thunderstorm. Hopefully this has cleared up some questions that may have been in your mind as you went about your business today. :)