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| Competing for Utah Valley University's Track & Field Team Weber State University Track Ogden, Utah Spring 2003 |
I do not personally know Charlie Kirk. Nor do I have any direct connections to him or his associates.
But I do have a number of connections to Utah Valley University, the sight and setting of yesterday's calamity, and it is in a spirit of genuine sadness and disappointment—on behalf of the love that I have for my Alma Mater, my birth State, and my Country—that I write this article today.
As a non-political private educator and blogger, I am not here to comment on Charlie Kirk's politics.
Moreover, the purpose of today's blog is not to preach about how one should respond to a crisis like this.
No matter what your politics are, anyone in possession of even a modicum of civility, humanity, compassion, or love, instinctively abhors and categorically condemns what took place yesterday.
Indeed, the husband and father in me are horrified by what Charlie's wife, kids, parents, and close family and friends must be experiencing right now. I send my sincere prayers their way, and echo this same sentiment for similar sufferers from past calamities, including all those negatively affected by the storming of the Capitol on January 6th, 2021; the violence in Butler, Pennsylvania last year; and the assassination attempt on Congresswoman Gabby Giffords in 2012, to name just a few of the more prominent examples.
I see no need to lecture or attempt to teach anything about how to properly respond to such a catastrophic and regrettable incident.
If you are reading this blog, chances are YOU already know how to do that.
My main objective on this dark day, which just happens to be the 24th Anniversary of the terror attacks of 9-11, 2001, is simply to mourn with those that mourn, comfort those who stand in need of comfort, and pray for our troubled nation, where political violence from all extremities of the political spectrum has become much too common and far too violent and deadly.
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| My Student ID card at UVU |
However, as my life unfolded, I made choices—influenced by my OCD, my personality, and my penchant for athletics over academics—that led to my being rejected from BYU when the time came.
I'll never forget my father's warning to me in high school about my grades. Dad respected my agency and rarely lectured me about anything, but he did take an opportunity once when I was in high school to pull me aside and explicitly warn me about my grades in school. He did not beat around the bush in his counsel.
Said he:
"Jordan, one day you will pay the consequences for the decisions you are making right now in school."
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| Graduation from Utah Valley University May 2003 CNN's Larry King spoke at my commencement services. |
Well...
It turned out that Dad was right!
I applied to BYU during the last few months of my mission, naïevely hoping that my full-time 2-year missionary service to Western Canada from 1999-2001 and my above average essay writing skills would compensate for my average grades and test scores.
I was sorely mistaken!
BYU rejected me out of hand, and I don't blame them. I would have rejected me too had I been on their admissions committee. I had not earned the right to attend a competitive university and I was paying the price for my subpar academic effort and performance—just as Dad had told me I would.
The unvarnished truth is that I was a pathetic shadow of my gifted and talented wife when it came to my pre-collegiate academic performances and I just hope and pray my kids follow in her footsteps, not mine!
Fortunately, I was still able to attend BYU as a "Visiting Student" during spring and summer terms. Back then they would let in just about anyone willing to pay tuition during the much less popular spring and summer terms when most of their full-time student body returned home for summer jobs or vacations.
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| After graduation, I got a job as an Assistant to the Director of the Center for the Advancement of Leadership on campus (2004-2005). |
The other place where I ended up getting my bachelor's degree in English in 2003 was Utah Valley State College—now Utah Valley University.
Despite my deleterious academic decisions and lazy homework habits in high school, Serendipity unquestionably had my back in college and I ended up getting handed a lot of grace and mercy throughout my undergraduate college experience.
In fact, I ended up getting the best of both worlds for my university journey. I got to attend four terms at the prestigious BYU campus as a visiting student and lived in off-campus BYU housing, thereby getting to still have the "BYU Experience."
I also got to attend four semesters at UVU as a full-time student and gain experiences I likely would not have had at BYU, such as earning a spot on varsity athletics teams, earning a half-tuition athletic scholarship, and performing in a campus production of Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew.
BYU was too competitive for me to have thrived in these same areas had I gone to school in Provo.
Orem and UVU was the perfect fit for me!
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| I played "Curtis the Cook" and other minor roles in this memorable campus production. Fall 2001 |
To this day, I have many fond memories and tender feelings in my heart for Utah Valley University, and still "bleed green" even if I cheer for the Florida Gators Football Team. UVU does not yet field a football team and I live in South Florida and married the daughter of a Florida Gator whom I met the night of the Florida v. Tennessee game in 2006, so I feel like I can lay claim to a legitimate exemption here.
Given these wonderful experiences of my past, I am saddened that yesterday's tragedy will now be inexplicably entwined with such positive memories. To underscore the nature of this interweaving process, consider the fact that the very spot where Kirk was gunned down was the outdoor "Stage" where I spent so many hours rehearsing and performing in The Taming of the Shrew all those years ago in 2001.
I echo words spoken by Utah Governor, Spencer Cox, yesterday in recognizing that there is nothing I can say or write on this blog that is going to magically fix the problems in our Country that trigger the tragic personifications of evil we all witnessed either first or second hand yesterday.
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Freedom Focused is a private, independent educational organization. It exists to increase the personal and professional FREEDOM of persons everywhere. We accomplish this through positive cognitive-behavioral changes influenced by Self-Action Leadership principles and practices, which are, in-turne, rooted in the SAL Theory and Model. |
Insofar as humankind possesses agency, evil will always exist in this world. May we each do our "bit" whatever that bit may be to ensure that such evil is confronted, apprehended, and where possible, prevented in the future.
Sincerely Yours,
The SAL and FREEDOM guy
—Dr. JJ
Author's Note: This is the 481st Blog Post Published by Freedom Focused LLC since November 2013 and the 270th consecutive weekly blog published since August 31, 2020.
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