My best friend and I were having a conversation the other day about people like me. He’s a teacher. Basically, he said gifted students (those too smart for their own good) have trouble sticking to one thing. They get bored or want to do too many things. In short, they’re not focused enough. I’m not personally calling myself gifted; that’s just what they labeled me in school.

The conversation we had made it feel like someone truly understood how my mind works at times. It’s easy for me to lose focus. This is especially so when I don’t have structure in my life. A large part of this has to do with me having worked from home for these last few months — no structure. So, I get bored and lose motivation.

Another part of me feels like I’m living in the wrong place.

Where my passion lies

Since about the time I could hold a pencil, I’ve been writing. This mostly started because I wanted to be like my father. He’s a song writer. This has neither brought him fame nor fortune, but that’s not what it’s really about.

When I talk about losing focus, I’m mainly talking about my writing. But, my writing is a reflection of my life. If I had to choose a number one goal in life it would be publishing a novel.

I haven’t been working toward this goal as much as I’d like. I understand that there’s no one to blame but myself. I’m the type of person that says, “If you want to do something, then do it.” I try to apply this to every aspect of my life. And, I tell anyone that says they wish they could do something the same thing.

I need to simply tell myself, Write a novel, Justin.

Home is where the heart is

I left my hometown (Highland Home, Ala.) nearly six years ago for college. I had my own apartment within a month of my high school graduation. I was ready to step out of that world and never return. If you’ve grown up in a small town, you can probably relate to that feeling of needing to leave, to explore the world, to have a life outside of where you grew up.

Something’s always drawing me back there. So, I’m packing my bags. Alabama, here I come.

Part of me feels like I need to return. I feel like I’m out of touch with my roots, and that hinders my writing. I don’t know if I’ll find what I’m searching for there. There’s probably no great mystery of the soul that I’ll unravel. I understand that one can never go home again.

Alabama is peaceful. I hope it at least gives me a chance to reevaluate my goals and focus on the important things in life.

It’s not all about my goal of writing. I have a family that I haven’t truly spent time with in years. A little brother and sister that are growing up too fast. Friends that desperately need me for Friday-night bonfires.

Making a change

Since I’ve already decided on this change, I’m not going to wait around. I should be completely out of Georgia and back to smalltown Alabama in a few weeks.

Sure, I won’t be living five minutes from Wal-Mart anymore, but I can live with that. I hope.

He also said he was a “Christian,” and he “has to listen to loud-mouthed women every day.” That was Wednesday.

Today, he was shouting back at Auburn University students who were traveling between classes or ones that simply had nothing better to do than listen. He stood on his two-foot high wall just past the concourse (a place for hanging out and club recruitment and other stuff for you non-Auburn students). I would argue that he had more than a hundred students at several points during the day.

They were shouting back at him.

The highlight of the day? The The Gay Song (It’s Not Okay To Be Gay).

He is Micah Armstrong. He is the “Open Air Bible Thumper,” according to his website. He is radical. He is in your face.

He’s been on campus all week long, every day from around 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. He’s been preaching the “Word.” He’s been preaching against homosexuality, masturbation, and sex. Those are apparently our only sins.

Today, just after 2 p.m., he was escorted off the campus by police.

The crowd was riled up. Some were merely taunting the preacher bearing dark news (I like to think of him as the Dark Preacher). Others were preaching back at him. He was telling them about hell. Others were telling him about Jesus’ compassion, freely masturbating, and being openly gay.

“Every girl that has premarital sex with a guy is a W-H-O-R-E,” he shouted at the laughing young adults. “Every masturbator is a potential homosexual” because it is sex with the same sex.

He was there today to make sure we knew we were going to hell for the things we’re doing. He was there to tell us that Martin Luther King Jr. is in hell. That Ghandi and Mother Teresa were burning too. And, about the only person on campus today that wouldn’t burn would be himself.

The students took that message well.

Of course, there were a few opposers to stand on the wall with him.

This student reads an issue of Cosmopolitan. The story was something about how to gratify your partner sexually. “You can’t get your own audience,” Armstrong responds. The student then goes on to lead a group of students to another spot to read the issue, but they were few.

This is not an uncommon event. We usually get one radical preacher every semester who tries to scare the student body into religion, which is entirely the wrong approach. He was preaching against the Christians there that were trying to go with the Jesus’ love angle. No. That’s not allowed, that kind of preaching. It’s all fire and brimstone. That’s the only way to preach it.

My favorite person to take a stand against Armstrong is this guy, sporting a shirt that reads “Plays Well With Self” and an arrow pointed toward the man. This fit so well with Armstrong’s rampage against masturbation that you could not help but laugh. Well, and the t-shirt guy just looked funny.

“Your problem is not your testosterone or gender. You got a wicked, perverted heart. You’ve masturbated one too many times, you’ve watched one too many porno movies, you’ve had premarital sex,” continued Armstrong.

He never let up until the police arrived. I guess he was lucky he didn’t make a scene about “freedom of speech” at that moment. He was clearly harrassing those students who were gay, Muslim, Christian, women, and well…every one else. One seemingly devout Christian was near tears arguing back at him. This was what he was doing to his brothers in Christ.

Aside from the t-shirt guy and The Gay Song, the funniest scene of the day was when a student poked Armstrong in the butt with a stick. “Don’t turn your back on this guy,” Armstrong fired.

I’m not condoning this kind of childishness from grown people, but what Armstrong said incited an uproar of laughter.

It’s been a war all week. Christians vs. Armstrong. Muslims vs. Armstrong. Athiests vs. Armstrong. Students and Faculty vs. Armstrong.

I should make a Facebook group. I wonder what I’ll call it…

This in no way is an anti-Christian or anti-religion post. It is simply a post about a man who made a scene.

Here are some files I’ve uploaded for your viewing and listening pleasure. I would’ve uploaded the hour worth of recorded audio I got today, but it’s hard to hear since there was so much noise. Enjoy.

• The Gay Song Youtube Video – Link provided by Daniel Morgan
• The Gay Song (It’s Not Okay To Be Gay)
• Pictures from today’s events