There, but for the grace of God, goes I.

2007 was my 10 year Hemet High school reunion. When I graduated from high school I had some pretty lofty goals that I had set for myself.

1) Have a clear career plan set in stone.
2) Be married and have started a family.
3) Own my own home.

In 2001 my family and I opened up a retail store that consisted of selling all of our strengths. My mom sold beads and crafting supplies, my dad sold native american art and "trinkets" as he likes to call them, and I sold Musical Instruments. In 2003 I married the most wonderful Godly woman in the World and in that same year we bought our condo for $78,000 on a 30yr fixed mortgage at 6.5% interest. It seamed like I had met all my goals when 2007 rolled along so I was prepared to meet my fellow classmates and see how they had fulfilled their hopes and dreams.

What I didn't expect was how much nothing had changed since high school. The names and faces hadn't changed, only the places had. People still followed the in crowed like they always had in the halls of Hemet High, and now it was legal to drink instead of keeping it hidden from view. I had brought my wife and newborn son to High School drinking party, and I was ashamed. I figured that these people would have wanted to do something with their lives. Instead these people where professional students with a license to party, get drunk, and generally waste their precious and meaningful lives away.

Didn't they teach my generation to make something of themselves? To apply themselves in some way to make an impact on their world around them? Life is too precious and too short to waste it getting drunk and living for the next party. Had my generation forgot this important teaching? Then it hit me like a ton of bricks. My generation had never been taught this. Most of my friends where lucky if they made it out of high school, let alone college. And the hardest pill to swallow was the fact that "except for the grace of god there go i." -John Bradford

On April 19th, 1999 I gave my heart and life to Jesus Christ. He took my wrong way of living for myself and replaced it with a bigger vision. A vision to make some kind of an impact on earth while I still had the chance to do so. And until my high school reunion I thought everyone believed this who had grown up. I still believe that, but what was the shocker was how many people hadn't grown up yet. Later I learned that some people never grow up.

November 4th, 2008, America had elected its first african-american president. While this is a great and wonderful feat in and of itself, what alarms me is the platform on which he got elected. Promising a lifestyle and lack of responsibility that no man can deliver on President Barack Obama was swept into office on the campaign slogan "Hope and Change." This generation, including my own, fell for it hook, line and sinker.

I refuse to believe that my generation is nothing more than a bunch of party animals. I am not willing to lose them to ignorance and self indulgence. We can still continue the traditions laid out by our founding fathers and keep the America we know and love going for the next generation. I vow to keep fighting and screaming from the roof tops until America is safe from the evils of Hedonism and the methods stealing liberty known as Liberalism.

-Emiliano Pando