Small Town Excitement

The new semester begins tomorrow so as per OBU custom, we had registration today. We have to wait in line and get signatures on the schedules we made up before last semester ended. It's a wholly frustrating process that all of the upperclassmen dread. Today was completely and totally different. About 10:30 this morning some idiot decided to rob one of the banks downtown. The guy then stole a car, drove it about 4 blocks and abandoned it right beside my apartment!! He then took off on foot around the outskirts of our campus and over the nearby river. He was caught roughly two hours later on our soccer fields, which are at least 2 miles from my apt. Our school has a really sophisticated warning system so they sent out texts, emails, and other messages telling students to get inside the nearest building and remain there until further notice. I was in the shower at the time this all started, and when I got out and saw the text I figured it was no big deal and got dressed and got ready to go register. When I stepped out my front door I was absolutely shocked to find 3 or 4 state trooper cars outside my apartment. They were combing the abandoned vehicle for evidence, and right after I snapped the above pic on my iphone from my balcony, they pulled the suspect's pistol from the front passenger seat. It was completely and totally surreal. At no point was I, or anyone else on campus in direct danger, but it was still a pretty scary thing. I had planned to register at 10:30 which would have put me outside my apartment at about the same time this all started. I've never been so glad I decided to sleep in for 10 more minutes! I snapped these pics on my iphone and sent them to the school paper and to a friend's online paper which covers all of Southern Arkansas. You can check out the story there if you want. I've been guilty in the past of kinda ragging on the Arkansas State Troopers (police) and comparing them to the much better equipped and trained Texas Troopers, but I was so thankful to have those guys here today. I just sat out on my balcony and watched them search the car, and search all the cars coming from campus, as well as not letting anyone go towards campus. I also got to overhear them talking and their walkie-talkies, so I was passing information on to my friends in the dorms, who had no real idea what was going on. I just thank God that the situation was resolved without anyone getting injured, although there were reports of gunfire on the street over, and that I was later leaving the apartment than I had planned. I'm not one to dabble in what-ifs, but I could have very easily been in the wrong place at the wrong time this morning.

So we had our first exciting start to a semester ever. Classes begin tomorrow and I'm pretty excited about this upcoming semester. I'm taking a bunch of really fun subjects: Christian Ethics, Christian Theology (examining the different theological viewpoints on many issues), Crisis Counseling, Senior Seminar (YAY!), Women in Ministry (exploring different views on women's roles in ministry), and a class on Romans. I'm looking forward to playing devil's advocate a bit in some of these classes, especially Christian Theology, because they are more discussion based and I have a little bit more liberal view than most of the other students. The one thing I really love about my school is they don't tell us what to believe, but rather present us with all the different views and allow us to debate, discuss, and decide for ourselves what we think. I can't believe I'm starting my official senior year!! And what a way for it to start!

LOL: Just realized that as a photographer, it's kind of ironic that my first "published" photograph came from my iphone. The photo was picked up by The Magnolia Reporter, and will hopefully be used by the campus paper and/or news bureau. Not exactly how I thought that would go down.