So I've been hung up on this life dream of mine to become world dominator. It's been a dream of mine to rule the world since I was...well, young enough to say "bow before me" in a dramatic voice. As I grew older, sport athletes and Dinsey channel stars inspired me to hold on to that dream.

How did these celebrities inspire me, you might ask?

It was all because of their cheesy slogans.."Follow your dreams," "no dream is too big" and "don't let anybody say 'no'"- well, at the age of seven, I wanted to be two things...world dominator, or a famous stage magician. My reasoning with being a stage magician was that it was the closest I could get to doing magic while not being a pagan. However, I stunk at doing magic tricks (though I did love the capes) and I was terrible at shuffling cards, so I opted for world domination instead. Besides you get more publicity as a monarch than you do stage magician.

I remember laying in bed at night, dreaming of magnificent castles built just for me in Europe with the whole world attending my birthday party (which-at the age of seven-included huge pokemon decorations). I dreamt of standing before the U.N. with a golden laurel leaf crown on my head wearing a long flowing red cape and a whole lot of medals for pomp and circumstance. The U.N. would have to do what I told them and give me presents at every meeting. Yes, I know...it all seems a little egotistical-but when your seven you can dream as big as you want without any reprucusions.

Oh yeah, and I also dreamt of having a super-awesome robotic army with all sorts of laser weaponry and a profile of my face with laurel leaf crown (Roman Emperor style) on their chests-it was the ultimate peace keeping force.

I still like to dream about what it would be like to be world dominator. Just for those who think of me as a war-mongering despot-wanna-be, I have no intention of mongering any sort of war-in order to gain power I would simply hypnotize the U.N. and ask if I could have the world very nicely (perhaps do a little brainwashing here and there but nothing excessive). I've given up hope of world domination sadly and moved on to more "realistic" endeavors such as being a famous novelist. I guess there a whole lot of people out in there world who think having a world dominator would be a bad thing.

Anyway, you might be wondering what the title of this blog has to do with what I'm writing-well I was reading an article online the other day about what is called the Bilderberg Group-which is suspected of being a world council much different from the U.N. that meets behind closed doors and you have to be a Major V.I.P. to get into this club. Some suspect that it is controlling world-affairs.

This group was started in 1954 by some unheard-of Netherland Prince. It contains some very influential people, members of the U.S. Senate, European royalty and the guys from Google. To check out all of the famous people like Condoleeza Rice and Henry Kissinger who have been apart of it and for further reading check out http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1085589.html

So basically these people have been called the "kingmakers" of the world-some claim that the winner of the U.S. presidency was decided at last year's meeting in Virginia. Though that sounds a little far-fetched-these people do operate behind closed doors and do not allow press to cover their meetins-which throws a whole Empire full of speculation on their little get-togethers.

A few British news teams will be covering some of the meeting-but no U.S. teams, which really annoys me. Even if nothing really big is going on behind these closed doors. However, why would these government and corporate power-houses take time out of their busy schedules to meet with other busy government and corporate power-houses if it wasn't for something important. And they have the nerve to not let the public know what is going on-since they are power-houses, their decisions most likely affect us.

It makes me so mad that they have a club, like some sort of snobby country club for world leaders only so they can play with us like pawns while they sip champagne and use really fancy words like "postulate".

Well, kids who dream of being world dominators don't sit well as pawns.

At least, I hope not.

Anyway, it seems a whole lot goes on in our government that we have no clue about. Everything from CIA dealings to Area 51 to super soldiers to whether or not Elvis still lives. I just wish world leaders would ask 'What does the public want?" or say "Hmm, this is pretty important, we should let the whole world know about this."

I can see life as a public gorvernment figure being a tough life-but it's not like they tell you world leading is just fun and dandy in law school.

Oh, and since this is a political rant-I want to say something else-Obama is getting way too much positive publicity. NO president should be getting this much brown-nosing, not even from ABC. I mean, Bush didn't try to spend this money in his first year let alone get a multi-billion dollar plan going. Don't get me wrong, I think Obama is guy who has his heart in the right place and has the "making of greatness" or whatever-but can he please stop spending so much stinkin' money. And if he keeps taxing the rich too much, they're all gonna move away-cause their rich and they can do that.

Well, here's my little dose of politics for the blog-what blog wouldn't be complete without a little bit of politic-ness to spice it up.

An uneventful trip between airports is a wonderful trip. Generally, an eventful trip between airports is a terrible trip.

Well, I'm having an eventful trip.

I am currently sitting at Gate A18 at the Detroit Metro Airport waiting for a flight that will not come until 5:45 in the morning. Right now, it is 10:44 P.M.

My lay-over has become a sleep-over.

That is right my faithful readers, I missed my flight to Portland-the plane from Detroit to Portland left at 9:08, boarded at 8:38. I got here from Little Rock at 8:45, which was on one side of the airport. My gate was on the complete opposite side of the airport, naturally. So, I power-walked my way from one side of a major big city airport to the other, knocking into all sorts bystanders with my body covered in bags and pillows-I forgot all sorts etiquette and manners, I was like a bull and they bowling pins. My calves were screaming, my back was cramping and my breath was getting a little worse for wear. It was one of those moments I strongly wished I was into exercise and all that active stuff.

Well, as you can see, I still didn't make it. I will not be sleeping in my own blissful, wonderful, beloved bed tonight. I will not be waking up to the sweet, delectable aroma of fresh cinnamon rolls. I will not be sleeping in after a long week of finals. Instead, I shall be waking to the sound of an announcer making sure I do not leave items unattended or they will be considered deadly devices of destruction. I will be waking up to the chatter and gossip of airport workers who do not know the meaning of customer service. ( Side Note: Why do airport workers never, ever look happy to be at their jobs? Of course, if I worked in an airport, I probably wouldn't either.) I will be waking up at 5:00 a.m., to board a plane to Boston where I will be picked up to drive 2 hours to Portland.

Why does stuff like this always happen to me? Well, I can never say I lead a boring life.

And I must say, I feel strangely grown up. Sleeping over in airports is a businessman, adult sort of thing. I got my own flight together and everything and picked what city to go to and everything. I naturally went with which ever flight was the earliest and nearest to Portland. Adulthood seems to be giving previews, or should I say trailers, of what life will be like in a few years when I'm really on my own.

Being on your own isn't so bad. It is kind of weird sitting completely by your-self in a big terminal, watching the security drive by on their segways speed by. But, I've always been o.k. with solidarity. Don't get me wrong, I am a highly-social creature created for socializing, but I've gotten used to sitting by my-self. It reminds me of 8^th grade when I first moved to Maine-I sat by my-self at these big, round tables trying to not get noticed. Being the new kid sucks. Pure and simple, but it teaches you so many things, it stretches you in so many directions. Being the new kid makes you stronger. Being the new kid tears you out of your comfort zone and puts you in the Twilight Zone. You learn so much about yourself when you are in a world without friends.

Wow, I am really starting to sound depressing and melodramatic. Have no fears, I eventually made many, many, many good friends at Gorham High School and I am so glad I went there. It just took some getting used to. Hey, I started out eating alone and ended up being elected Prom King-what a weird, unexplainable world.

I guess what I really want to say is being on your own lets God have free reign. There are no others to distract, no one to tempt you, no one to interupt the connection. God did make us to be creatures of relationships, but He likes to have us all to Him-self from time to time-even if it means making you miss that plane ride home.

So, here I am, stuck in the Detroit Metro Airport for a whole night, mad at the world because McDonalds was out of fries when I went to eat dinner and really sad because there is a great Borders just on the other side of my gate, but is closed. And listening to Celine Dion isn't really helping. I'm also looking over at this Delta kiddy playland strongly tempted crawl inside one the plastic play houses and rest easy for the night-but that might not go so well with security. Let's see if I can find a nice, clean spot of carpet to relax on.

Well, here's to Life, and all the fun that comes with it.

The end has come. The end of the beginning. The end of what might possibly have been the greatest academic year of my life. The end of the beginning of my time at Harding University.

That's right folks, my freshman year has come to an end and, my goodness, it was EPIC!

Here are some highlights of this past epic year that will live forever on in the Life and Times of J.M. Adkison, in sorta-chronilogical order:

1.My good friends Eric Suddeath and Laura and Adam and Josh and a few other people going on stage for a very talented hypnotist, who had the super-strong Eric prancing around in a princess hat with a magic wand, had Jake giving birth to his best friend, Laura just smiling sweetly, and Josh translating what an alien-girl said in a perfect imitation of C-3PO.

2.Going to Heber with Devon, Rose, Laura and Brandon-jumping from a forty-foot cliff and convincing Devon and Rose to jump into the water in their clothes (they failed to bring swimsuits)

3.PLEDGE WEEK-'nuff said.

4.Getting into BOX-a little gift from God, giving me the brothers I never had but always wanted.

5.PTP Winter Semi-Formal with the dashing Emma Poe-dancing in the car to Cascada, trying to not knock down paintings in the museum, pondering why a picture of a line was $25,000, hangin' out at Sonic and of course...waiting to see zombies at the graveyard at midnight-but no such luck.

6.Going to Colette's grandparents' farm with Colette, Becca and Daniel-getting to chase peacocks, eat REALLY good food and feeding Big Momma (the cow).

7.Going to Daniel's house with a whole slew of rock-awesome people to help clean up the charming town of Padeucha, KY. Plus, we got to watch Space Jam.

8.The Valentines Day hike with Kellum and Co., which is a delightful menagerie of kind-spirited, but mentally warped homosapiens trying to redefine their respected realities (so, naturally, I fit right in). The hike was, for the lack of a better term, a BLAST!

9.Going to the Chi-O broomball function with the delightful Darah, much earlier in the year, to play on the highly-skilled Reindeer team. My antlers were complimentary of Spencers-right next to the weird costume section, which were not for Halloween I later found out.

10.But of course, the Natick Campaign-a fun-filled mission trip to Natick, Mass with a great group of people led by the legendary Jeremy Dagget. There are many words I could use to describe this trip-in fact would probably need a whole separate post for it-but I shall put it into sub-points.
a. Directing traffic-not an easy task with limited parking
b. Meals on Wheels excursion with a bright old man who drove like a maniac.
c. Pulling/Eating organic veggies for an organic farm.
d. Singing at a BILLION nursing homes
e. Freedom Trail in Boston
f. Three story Abercrombie and Fitch!!!
g. Ice Skating in Boston
h. Natick Youth Rally!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I. "I like...to catch them"

11. Repelling with Andrew (see Hanging By a Thread)

12. Dancing at the Daily Citizen-Yes, Harding kids do know how to dance!

13. The Rescue-spending the night in the parking lot at War Memorial Stadium for a good cause-go to the Invisible Children website to learn more about the Rescue.

14. And to finish it all off on a good note, winning the dance competition at the BOX spring formal-with my signature dance-"The Lotion"

15. Oh, and how could I forget, 5:00 dinners with the crew.

And thus, my year comes to an end-an end I never thought would really come. I am excited to go home, see the family and no longer worry about finals-but the ugly creature known as Distance will once again come between friends for three months. Good thing I've got a pretty good pack of friends up in Maine. But alas, Harding University and Gorham, ME are two places that will never collide.

Time seems to be stealing these great and epic moments, taking them from the present and giving them to the past.

Time is a cruel creature-it moans and slows when we ask it to move faster and then decides to make the great, epic moments become past rather than present in no time.
We enjoy the good times, but the good times are finite things that have short life spans.

Which is one of the reasons why Heaven will be so great. It is a single, epic moment preserved perfectly in the present, no past or future, just that blissful moment we ask to stay and does. Death is not there to kill those we love, sin is not there to defeat our joy and time and space is not there to keep these moments from flying by.

Heaven gives a whole new meaning to the term "BFF."

I guess that is why this is a bittersweet ending-leaving the glorious moments of Harding for the comfort and beauty of Maine summer.