Alive.

I know it's cliché to reflect on some "invisible weight lifted off my shoulders" or whatnot, but that's a pretty accurate description of how I've been feeling lately.

I feel different, different in a good way. God's hand on my life is so guiding and so unmistakably present.  It gives me chills just considering the awesomeness of our Creator and the fact that He would work in my life.  

Simple, unimportant, worthless David Johnson has a purpose in God's master plan. Incredible.

It's such a noticeable difference that my thought process itself has changed. I really don't stress out anymore.  Granted, I still freak out over really stupid stuff every now and again; we all have our moments, but lately, before I even have a chance to panic, a peace floods over me like a cold, awakening water.

There's a definitive moment where I give my worry to God now. I strive to put my heart and soul into everything that I do, praying that it would be for His glory, but once I've given it my all, I'm done and I let it go. No buried doubts or regret, just a resounding satisfaction with myself and a renewed thankfulness for the opportunity to do something, to do anything at all.

Yes, thankfulness. Have you ever taken a few moments to dwell on how thankful we are and how much more thankful we should be? 

Consider your life: break it down into every movement of your body, every blink of your eyes, every inhale, every exhale, the slight contraction and expansion of your nostrils as you breathe, the slight involuntary tremble of your fingers. Now, break it down even further: the thousands of tiny fibers in your muscles that tear and repair themselves on a daily basis, the network of veins behind your eyeball that allow just the right amount of blood and fluid to maintain your vision, the beat of your heart. God created all of these, every bit of it. How can we not be thankful?

I'm reveling in the smallest of things lately, cherishing mere moments more than I used to cherish entire days.  There are trillions of truly amazing things to thank God for, to praise Him for, the simplest of things that we may go our entire lives without dedicating a millisecond of thought to. 

The thickness of the air after a rain, the rhythmic whirring sound of a ceiling fan, the bite of ice against bare skin, the gritty smell of a pile of fallen leaves – all these things exist as they are simply because God designed them that way. And I can't help but be utterly and unreservedly thankful, awe-inspired and thankful.

I don't claim to understand God, but I like to think He enjoyed creating us. Because why else would He have made everything so wonderful, even the things we deem "bad" like tornadoes or wasps are incredible things and, in my opinion, beautiful things.  God's creation is of an unmatched beauty and intricacy, the right to merely behold it is a reason to be thankful.

I don't know how I missed it, but hopefully, I will never again forget...

Life is such a gift.       

Brother-isms.

Something I've said many times before (and fervently still regard as true) is that I could write an entire novel solely based on the crazy things my brothers say. This isn't a novel or anything close to one, but I figured I'd share the hilariousness and show everyone why they make my life so much better.

For those of you who don't know, I have two brothers, Josh (17 years old) and Adam (10 years old). That's just for the sake of putting these situations in perspective. Since neither of them have identities yielding public influence or black market value, I think we're all good.

Adam walks into my room.

A: "Time to eat."

Me: "Alright, I'll be down in a few minutes."

A: (stands there awkwardly)

Me: "What?"

A: (quietly) "Uhh...do you, uhm...know why mom hates Josh?"

Me: (laughing) "She doesn't hate Josh. She's just upset with him because he never listens to her."

A: "Oh well, he's dumb. She yells stuff to him like a million times."

Josh and I at the store.

J: "Hey Dave, you heard of that new Xbox game, Luh Nory? Looks pretty sweet."

Me: "No...can't say I have. What's it look like?"

J: (holds up case)

Me: "That's LA Noire. It's French."

J: "Looks like Luh Nory to me."

Adam talking to my mom about me leaving for Florida.

Mom: "So, David got accepted by the program. He's gonna be moving to Disney World!"

A: "Yeah. How long?"

Mom: "He's leaving in August and he'll be back mid-January."

A: (tearing up) "So, what you're telling me is that I'm losing my only brother?"

Mom: "We'll go see him! It's only for a few months. And your only brother? Josh, hello?"

A: (snapping back) "Duh, mom! My only brother in COLLEGE."

Josh and I at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, NC.

J: "That little house out there is probably for like servants and stuff."

Me: "It's still pretty big though."

J: "Yeah, everything here is."

Me: "It's probably like one of their bathrooms or something. That whole house."

J: (chuckles) "Yeah, it's like the house of dump."

Adam and I watching "Regular Show."

A: "Hey Dave, you and I should dress up as Mordecai and Rigby for Halloween because you're tall and I'm short."

Me: "That would be pretty awesome."

A: "Yeah, we could ride around in a golf cart and every time we got to a house say, "Candyyyy! Oooooohhhhhhhhh!"

(Bee tee dubbs, I got my apartment and check-in assignment for the program yesterday! 172 days and counting.)

Keep moving forward.

As most of you know, my family and I love Disney World and really just Disney in general.

But what most of you probably do NOT know is that, two weeks ago, I applied for the Disney College Program. To be completely honest, I didn't expect anything more than a confirmation email thanking me for my interest in the program, which did, in fact, arrive moments after I submitted my application.

Amazingly though, my application went through quickly and I received further correspondence less than an hour following the confirmation email. From there, I stuttered and stammered through two interviews and was informed that within a couple weeks they would reach a final verdict as to whether or not I would be accepted into the program. 

The momentum and excitement from the sheer thought of being accepted had me incredibly anxious, and what had originally seemed like it would be a short lapse of time became an agonizing waiting game. I scanned through various blogs (and vlogs) regarding the program, students who had waits of up to three months before hearing anything. Some were placed on a waitlist for months only to be rejected, and some even claimed to have never heard anything at all. Talk about psyching yourself out.

For the past several days, I've kept my phone and/or laptop fully charged and within arm's reach at all times, constantly checking my email. Despite being completely unproductive during that period of time, I did manage to achieve a few things:

- The Disney College Program dashboard rocketed into my top visited sites in Google Chrome. 

- I changed the settings on my iPhone to consistently check for email on a half-hour basis (In hindsight, probably not great on my data plan...). 

- And I pressed the F5 key on my keyboard so many times that it is no longer functional.

So, the moment you've all been waiting for... 

...okay, the moment that I've been waiting for and am going to rave about...

ACCEPTED BABY!

Just one week, exactly seven days (not months, hallelujah) after my second interview. Yes, yes, it was indeed a good day in the life of David. And in the end, we all lived happily ever after. 

I am so incredibly thrilled and humbled and honored by the whole situation. And slightly ticked that all those previous applicants forced me into a state of panic. Although, to the guy whose video introduction involved headbanging to the Mickey Mouse Club theme song...keep doing what you're doing, man. That's a level of magic that not many can achieve.

I tell this emotional rollercoaster triumph of a story to say, God is good. So very good. 

I could never stress enough how incredibly undeserving I am of the blessings in my life, but this...all this you read above, that's all Him. I could not have done anything, would not be where I am today without His grace and, more importantly, His love.

I plan to write a lot more in these months to come. I'll try to blog my journey from college student to Cast Member and hopefully provide a less scary take on the program. As Mick would say, see ya real soon!

"We keep moving forward, opening new doors, and doing new things, because we're curious, and curiosity keeps leading us down new paths."

- Walt Disney