This is a time of new experiences and challenges for me.

For those of you who don't know, I moved from my home for the past 18 years in beautiful Muskoka, to live in what I consider the city, in the small town of Newcastle, Ontario.

I spent my first year out of high school living at working at camp as a full time year-round instructor hosting guest groups. I did Spring Crew in May and June, and then was there for all last summer also. By the end of the summer however, I still hadn’t decided what I should do in the fall. My options were limited as I could either commit to a second year working at camp, or I could work elsewhere from home. Through many conversations, I ended up talking with a guy, Josh Linkletter, who was in the same position as I was in not knowing what to do for the following year. In what began as a simple joke, became our plan for September. He invited me to live with him and his family here in Newcastle. I thought about it, talked about it with family and friends, and prayed about, and it seemed like it could be a pretty fun and new experience for me. It would be a big change in pace and environment for me, but I was ready for it.

I moved in on the 9th of September to be with my new family for the next few months. Josh, his younger brother and sister, his parents, two foster girls, and one out-of-control golden retriever. This would be a challenge. Little sheltered Ben Pavey from the boonies living with his parents and sister, was stepping it up. Josh and I quickly got to work trying to find a job so we could begin making our big cash. Well, we thought the best way to wait for this great job would be to suffer through some factory work. Bad idea. This place was a mistake. We worked on windshields for vehicles, 8am-4pm with one half hour lunch. It was torture! But they loved me; they saw some great potential in me because I was learning so fast, so they decided to begin training me on everything so that I could be on staff for a long time as one of these hoppers that relieved others for breaks. Word quickly travelled however that I wasn’t planning on being there for much longer so they sat me down in an office and tried to convince me to stay and even offered me some a financial incentive. I turned it down, said there was nothing they could do to make me want to stay there, and that I was essentially just taking advantage of them till I found something better. That, along with calling in the next day and lying to them saying we had no ride cost us our job. We received a call the next day telling us that they no longer required our help. What a glorious day! What a joyous time to celebrate! Things were good again. We weren’t making money… we got fired after only working one week… but it sure felt nice.

Luckily for me though, I had an interview lined up at The Brick in Whitby and I scored a full-time position as a merchandiser just a couple days later. A few days after that, Josh got a job at Good Life Fitness and after much training he is now a personal trainer there.

We all have journeys. We all have stories. What is yours right now? What’s been going on in your life lately that can make a story? Just tell it how it is, it doesn’t have to be inspirational, it doesn’t have to have a captivating underlying message.

To conclude, I’ll tell you one last short story from within the first few months I was living here. Josh and I were leaving a friends place and as I was getting in to the passenger side of the smart car… yes, a smart car… Josh was asked to pull the vehicle up for people to take a closer look. The thing was however, that he failed to wait for me to get completely into the car; I had one foot safely in the car but still had the other outside on the ground. Now with a regular size vehicle, you often have plenty of time to react to such a situation by jumping in to the car before it’s too late. Unfortunately, being a smart car, the back tire is directly behind the door. And without another second I tried pulling my leg in to the car, but it was too late. The car jetted forward sucking my right foot under the car. Perhaps not as heavy a car as most, but the way it yanked my foot under on its side, caused it to twist my knee in the wrong direction and I was whipped to the ground before I knew it. I rested there for a moment wondering if my ankle was broken. All I could think was, Is it broken? I’ve never broken anything before… this is kind of cool… And it doesn’t even hurt that much… Hmm, I would’ve thought breaking a bone would hurt a bit more… Well, it turned out I didn’t break anything, however it had lasting effect on me and my future career with NBA basketball. Either way, I wasn’t angry with Josh, he apologized, and we kept going, although my knee hasn’t completely healed yet. I couldn’t believe my friend just ran me over… but like I said, it makes for a good story, and adds a little bit more to my journey.