The Learning Center

Alright, some of you might not get this, but that's okay, you'll catch on soon enough.

So I was at Great Lakes Adventist Academy. It's a private Seventh-Day Adventist boarding school for the 9th-12th grades. I only went for the Junior and Senior year, because I had other options up until that point. In the main schooling building, the Administration Building, there was: The Learning Center. It was basically the library of the school, but Adventist. So like, every third book was either Ellen G White or something else that was Biblical. Whatever, that's not the point. IN the Learning Center, there were some staff that would supervise the like, four people that were in there at a time. It wasn't super loud or exciting in there. Not a lot going on. So the staff tried to make it fun. Not the school staff. Just the Learning Center ones. They would bring in puzzles, they would bring in snacks or drinks sometimes, they would have all sorts of stuff.

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We interrupt this broadcast to let you know that those two (2) staff from the learning center are probably the most legit human beings I've ever met. Both of them were always there to listen, or give advice, or to lend a hand with a project, or put a smile on your face, or help you with your puzzle, or just be there for you in general. I owe my enjoyment of Senior year at that school to the Learning Center. And then to make things better, when I was visiting after having supposed to have graduated, we still met up and did some puzzling. They're the best.

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Skipping to a different thought here for a second.

Also, in terms of classes at GLAA, I was rather busy. Everything was fine except for Algebra 2. Now, I wasn't horrible at math at the time. I could probably figure out the problem given the time. That's exactly what the class took from me though. You would have until the next class period to turn in your assignment. No late work accepted. If you didn't turn it in, you got a zero. So yeah. That class was hell. 9.8/10 would not recommend. So, I met up with the registrar? I think thats the name I'm lookin for? I "Withdrew Passing" from the class. And boy oh boy, did my schedule ever open up. That's the point I was trying to make in this paragraph.

So, my dormitory room was a boring 10 x 12 concrete walled grey box, and for the majority of my time there, I didn't have a roommate. So that option was out of the picture. What else could I do with my time? The Learning Center. Puzzles. A blog ( that you're reading :) )

That's right. I went all old-man on 'em.

I'm going to draw a lesson out of this. So the puzzles right? It's one big picture. All sorts of different pieces that come together to form one big glorious painting by a master artist.

Life is one big Learning Center. There's people coming in and out of it all the time, all of them working on their own puzzles. Their own little future. Each of the pieces come together, and by the end, its gorgeous, and its exactly what the Master Artist intended it to look like. Some peoples puzzles take longer, some people look at the pieces and find the pattern, and figure it out that much quicker, flying towards the end goal.

Now imagine that somebody from the school came along and painted a bunch of puzzle pieces black. Significantly harder, but still possible right? Looking at that through my comparison, that would be like if somebody stole experiences from you, past, present, and future. Just like a regular puzzle, you'd be stumped for a while, and you'd have a hard time figuring out how different pieces even connect at all. You'd still have the picture at the end, but it wouldn't necessarily look the way it was meant to.

Now to relate this back to myself, for this is in fact, still my blog.

I've had some trouble over the past little bit figuring out where some puzzle pieces are supposed to fit. There's a lot of pieces: Jobs, education, family, friends, hobbies, love, hate, death, life, and all sorts of in-betweens. I've watched as those around me have their lives, their occupations, their love-life, etc, seemingly snap into place before their very eyes. They see the pattern, and they fit the pieces together, and boom. Big picture. Master Artist.

If there's one thing that I want in life right now, it's to figure out when mine is going to begin, and where, and with who, and doing what, and everything else. And I'd be able to.

But I'm dealing with quite a few painted pieces.

Thanks. -.-

-Dominic Romeo

4:50 PM EST

April 28th, 2020