Its Been A Long Time

Hello Family and Friends,

I know it has been a really long time and I am so sorry about the long long long absence. I thought once basketball season was over I would slow down a little bit and have an easier schedule. But boy was I wrong. I have done so many things since the end of basketball season it all seems like a blur. So I am just going to take some time and let you all know what God has been doing in my life lately.

First off basketball season had many ups and downs this past season but I had so much fun. I think had a successful college basketball career. I was able to do something that so many people desire to do but do not get the opportunity to do. I thank God for all of my college basketball experience. I finished my Montreat basketball career with 337 points and 177 rebounds. As a team this past year we ranked nationally in many areas; 2nd in field goal percentage, 6th in 3 point field goal percentage, 20th in scoring offense per game, 31st in defensive rebounding percentage, 41st in total scoring offense, 45th in steals per game and 47th in 3 point field goals made per game. It was a fun year and I am truly going to miss playing college basketball. One of my best games of my career was on senior night against Tennessee Wesleyan where I had 16 second half points.

After basketball season I really started thinking about my future and what would be next for me. I knew that I had one semester of school left and would be graduating in December of 2012. My school advisor had been telling me about this best semester program called the LA Film Studies Center (LAFSC). So I started looking into it. Basically it is a program that is exclusively for Christian college students who are juniors or seniors. Students go out to Los Angeles, CA and take film classes and do an internship at a film or television studio in Hollywood. I got really interested in the program and applied. About a month after applying I was told that I was accepted to the program for the fall semester. I was so excited and I couldn’t believe that God had opened a door of opportunity, like this, to me. There are about 44 students in the program this semester. We live in apartments with other students in the program it will be a great time. I am going to learn so much and this will be the platform that allows me to get my foot in the door of the film industry.

Now as many of you know I have spent the last four summers interning in Greensboro, NC with Time Warner Cable. I did not do that internship this summer so it allowed for me to spend the entire summer with my family and help my parents do our Destiny Basketball camps. I was so excited about that. We did a basketball camp at Calvary Worship Center in Colorado Springs, CO and it was amazing. Then that Saturday after the camp the Waldo Canyon Fire started and our summer drastically changed. Not only did we have to cancel the rest of the camps but we had to evacuate our house. The fire ended up stopping about a half a mile from where we lived. That is one experience I will never forget. The fire came so fast I couldn’t believe it. The police were actually going house to house telling people that they had to leave. I am so grateful of God’s protection.

After the fire was controlled and we were able to go back to the house things slowed down a little bit. I helped my family move houses and the Destiny Project was able to get a new office which is very exciting so I was able to help move into there as well. Then my parents decided to go on a tour/anniversary trip. They were going to celebrate their 25th anniversary down in Florida and then travel to many states to visit with partners of The Destiny Project and to gain new partners. They planned for just the two of them to travel to these states and many people were disappointed that my sister and I would not be with them. But as many of you know God works in mysterious ways. One of our family friends in Colorado Springs was going to be moving to Orlando, FL, they have five kids and needed help. They needed someone to dive their truck while the husband drove the moving truck and the wife would be driving their other vehicle. My dad asked my sister and me if we would think about helping the family and then him and my mom would pick us up in Florida and we would do the rest of the tour with them. My sister and I accepted and helped them move. I drove the truck and she helped with the kids. We had some truck trouble along the way but we had so much fun. I got so attached to the kids I feel like their big brother or uncle or something and I plan on being in their lives and seeing them grow up.

So then our parents picked us up and we did some serious traveling we went to Georgia, North Carolina, Maryland, Virginia, Kentucky and some other places. Then we drove across country, stopped in Colorado for a night and then drove out to California and my parents brought me to LA to start my last semester of college. I will be graduating from Montreat in December. We traveled coast to coast in seven days.

This year and summer has been an incredible journey and I know without a shadow of doubt that God has his hand on my life and is with me everywhere I go. I arrived to LA on Saturday August 18th and I am loving it here already. The people that are in this program with me are some amazing men and women of God and I feel so blessed to be a part of this movement out in Hollywood. Like I said I am living in an apartment with four other students from the program. All the expenses are paid for through my tuition except for food. And I know God will continue to provide for me. But if you feel led to send a care package or anything like that do not hesitate to send me an email. Because if any of u know me you know I love to eat (lol). So please be in prayer if you think he is leading you to help me out in anyway while I am out here because my internship will most likely not be a paid one.

Now I have to talk about something that is very important in my life. Monica Wheeldon she is my girlfriend of 1 year and 9 months. We are doing the long distance thing right now, like serious long distance, literally coast to coast because she is in Wilmington, NC (the beach) and I am in LA (the beach). But I am so in love with her and I am truly blessed to have her in my life. I miss her very much but I was able to see here while my family and I were in NC.

I will try to do my best to update my blog regularly, but as you all know I have a tendency to get very busy but I will do my best. Please keep me in your prayers and in your thoughts. Also if you would like to see some of the videos I have made over the years here is my YouTube channel link (Christian's YouTube Channel).

Thank you all for reading my blog and remember You Have A Destiny!

Happy Thanksgiving

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all had a great a wonderful Thanksgiving. I had a good one and I was able to cook a lot so it was fun. This semester is quickly coming to a close and I keep asking myself where has all the time gone? As of now we have about three weeks left of class. For the most part I am enjoying my classes but I am ready for a break. Thanksgiving break was good and all, but I want to start some new classes.

Basketball is going pretty well also. We are not off to the start we would like to be, be we are getting better every day. We are currently 2 and 5 and we also lost to exhibition games. One of those exhibition games was against Western Carolina University, the school I used to attend. This is what Western had to say in preparation for the game, “Montreat's roster features a familiar face in Christian Tonkins who played for the Catamounts during the 2008-09 season prior to transferring. Tonkins appeared in three games that season, scoring three points on one made 3-pointer.” It was fun seeing my former teammates and coaches and even some of the students that I used to hang out with.

We have some big games coming up this week and we have our first conference game this week as well. If you live in the Winston Salem/Greensboro Area, we will be playing in Winston Salem Tuesday night at 7 pm. We will be playing against Piedmont Baptist College. (420 South Broad Street Winston-Salem , NC 27101-5197) http://www.pbc.edu/ If you can make it I will be glad to see you.

Also if you would like to see pictures from our season so far you can see them at http://www.danielbrunson.net/f258879260

Have a great week and remember You Have A Destiny.

Fall Break

Hello Everybody,

These past few weeks have been very busy, I have been going nonstop with class and practice. It is amazing how fast this year is going we are already half way through first semester.

This past week we were on fall break. But it did not feel like fall break because we had two-a-days (two practices in one day) during fall

break. Then Saturday we held a coach’s clinic here at Montreat.

Also My dad was in North Carolina this week. It was really nice to be able to spend time with him.

We have our first two games this week so we are really excited. We will be playing two games in the Tampa, FL area.

I hope everyone has a good week and remember, You Have A Destiny.

First Two Weeks Of Practice

Hello Everybody,

I hope everybody is doing well. These past two weeks have been really busy and crazy, but fun at the same time. We just finished up our first two weeks of practice and we are looking pretty good. Don’t get me wrong we still have a ways to go, but we are far ahead of where we were at this time last year.

As a team we are getting along, and coach is really pleased with how hard we have been working and our effort every day.

This past weekend was homecoming here at Montreat. It was really nice to see people who have graduated from here. We also had our first scrimmage this past Friday. We played against the alumni basketball players of Montreat. It was a lot of fun, we lost but as always the officiating was extremely slanted toward the alumni. But it is suppose to be a fun time and that is what it was.

Also this past Saturday we participated in a coach’s clinic in Charlotte. The clinic was held at Providence Day High School. This clinic was for high school coaches, and college coaches came to talk to them and show them different drills. When the speakers talk about drills we, the basketball team, demonstrate the drills. The coaches that came to speak were; Duggar Baucom, head men’s basketball coach at Virginia Military Institute, Mike Peterson, head women’s coach at Wake Forest, Sylvia Hatchell, head women’s coach at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Stephen Silas, assistant coach for the Charlotte Bobcats and son of Paul Silas, Mark Byington, associate head coach at College of Charleston, and Alan Major, head men’s coach at University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

It was a great experience and a lot of fun. It was an all day event and we received many compliments from the coaches. Our coach was very pleased with us as well.

We are coming close to our first game of the year. It is October 29^th. We are working really hard to have a good season this year. Monica and I are still doing well. We are coming up on 11 months of dating, it is exciting.

Please keep my team and myself and my family in your prayers.

And Remember You Have A Destiny.

2 Weeks Of Conditioning

Hello Everybody,

I hope everyone is doing all right. These past couple of weeks has been so busy that I have barely had time to breathe.

As far as basketball is concerned, we just finished up 2 intense weeks of conditioning. In the past the conditioning has consisted of running and nothing else. Running outside and inside the gym, this year we did a different type of conditioning. We did a lot of defense and agility training. It was hard work and it got us in shape. It was hard but still better than just running. We also did a something called cross fit workouts, which is the combination of conditioning and weights.

Twice during the 2 weeks of conditioning we did something called a plate workout. If you want to get an idea of what that is check out this link and watch the video. http://www.flowrestling.org/speaker/1510-Shawn-Charles/video/200195-ASU-Insane-Plate-Workout

We start official practice this Monday the 19^th. You can find my basketball schedule for 2011-2012 season on the right of this page.

School is going well also, nothing to major going on right now. I am having a lot of fun hanging out with my friends and just enjoying the college life. Monica and I are still doing well and we are having fun as well.

I am excited about the rest of my year; I pray that everyone has a great and week. And till next time remember You Have A Destiny.

A New Year

Hey Everybody,

I Hope everybody is doing well. I had great summer, this summer I interned with Time Warner Cable for the fourth year. It was a great summer, my best one that I have had. The team over there really kept me busy and that is the way I like it. I worked on numerous projects and was very successful in everything I did.

As I mentioned earlier in the summer I have a girlfriend now, and her name is Monica. We are still doing really well and have been dating a little over 9 months now. After I finished my summer internship Monica and I went out to Colorado to be with family for a week. We had a great time, my family really likes her and she likes them. While we were there we went on vacation to Winter Park, CO. It was so beautiful there and the weather was really nice. We even went on a bike ride one day. When it came time to leave, Monica and I were not ready to go.

School started August 23, and it has been really good. My schedule is the best I have ever had, on Mondays I have one class at 6 pm, on Tuesdays and Thursdays I have three classes, one at 9:30 am, one at 12:30 pm and one at 2 pm. Then on Wednesdays I have one class at 7:15 pm. On Fridays I don’t have class at all. It is really nice. The classes that I am taking are; The Writing Process, Advanced Acting, World Religions, News Editing and Web Studies & Design. I am enjoying all of them so far. It feels really good to be back at school and back with all my friends. We are all getting back into the swing of things and it feels as if we never left. We will start basketball conditioning in a few weeks. Please continue to keep me in your prayers, and have a blessed week.

Long Time No Blog

Hello Everyone,

I know it has been a long time since I have blogged and I am very sorry about that. To put it simply life happened. It seems like I am always on a move. I was joking with someone not to along ago and I said that I am ready for school to start so I can have break.

But a lot has changed since the last time I blogged. As far as basketball goes, we had an ok season. It was a lot better than the previous season, but we still kind of had a rebuilding season. I am really excited about this upcoming season. We should be really good and we have a good group of guys coming back. One of the big games I had this season came against Division 1 Texas A&M Corpus Christi. “Hayes finished with 16 points to lead Montreat, which competes in Division II of the NAIA. LaBris Adams added 13 points, Matt Rushing and Steve McBorrough had 11 apiece and Christian Tonkins scored 10.” (http://espn.go.com/ncb/recap?gameId=303642410)

Also, many of you know that in the fall of 2010 I was a part of a play. The play was called Terra Nova. It was so much fun and it was very successful. I made some great friends while doing this play. It kept me busy with class, basketball and rehearsal. An average day for me, until the play was over, was Class in the morning, practice at 4, rehearsal 8 to 10 and then homework, sleeping and eating somewhere in there. “Montreat College Presents Ted Tally's Terra Nova. This November Montreat College presents four performances of Ted Tallys Terra Nova, a play directed by Montreat College theater professor and professional actress Ms. Callan White-Hinman. Set in the frigid Antarctic winter of 1911-12, Terra Nova is the story of five Englishmen and five Norwegians who raced each other to the bottom of the earth. Only the five Norwegians returned. Terra Nova tells the account of the Englishmen.” (http://www.biznet-nc.com/firms/2874910/)

In October I began talking and hanging out with a beautiful young lady, who I am now dating. Her name is Monica and we have been dating 8 months since November 22. I am very thankful to have her in my life she is amazing. During spring break I went with her to her home town to meet her parents and family. We had a great time up there and I really liked her family. In August she will be traveling with me to Colorado to my parents and family. I am very excited and you will be hearing more about her in the future.

Currently I am doing my internship in Greensboro with Time Warner Cable through the Emma Bowen Foundation. It is going really well so far. They are keeping me busy everyday by giving me various projects and assignments. This will be my last summer interning with the company. It has been great four years and I am not sure what will come next.

Thank you to everyone who has supported me through the years and who continues to support me. I am trying to do better with keeping up with my blog.

God Bless and remember…You Have A Destiny!