About

This website is a tribute to the life of Stephen Chase Mickel created by his family to honor what he loved and help others experience the same. Below you’ll find a few of his own writings and reflections. Thanks for reading!

Letter to the Reader

Dear reader,

I am extremely happy to know that you are reading this wonderful collection of my work. As you know if you are a writer, a piece of writing is never finished. However, there needs to be a point in every good piece of writing where you stop tinkering with it, and show it off to whoever will take the time to read it.

This collection encompasses a wide variety of themes. However, the one theme that comes up the most is that of my faith. I am a man who believes strongly in my faith, and it is hard to write anything that doesn’t have at least a little of that in it. As a writer I believe the best pieces of writing come from our deepest beliefs and values. So in order to make the mediocre writer that I am any good, I need to write about things that really stir me up, and that I care about.

As a writer I have developed very significantly in my writing skill during this class. I started out not being able to get anything on my page. And now I can write and write for however long I want. I’m not saying that anything good would come out of that original babble. But almost every time, I take that babble and can turn it into a cohesive piece of writing.

I hope that while you are reading this collection of writing, one or two pieces stand out to you. If at least one thing I say inspires you to become a better person, then my mission as a writer has been accomplished.

Sincerely,

Uganda

For example, last year I went on a trip to Uganda. The people there were so needy that the team and I found ourselves serving one person after another with little or no breaks between. We were either helping a widow clean up her hut, made out of sticks and mud. Or we were praying with a starving mom who gave up food for herself so that her kids wouldn’t starve, and had enough money to go to school. Doing all these things payed a huge toll on me both physically and emotionally. The only thing that kept me sane was my journal. I could write down everything that I did that day and have time to think about it and let it sink into my brain.

The Journey

I was trying to describe you to someone a few days ago. You’re not like any person I’ve ever met before.

I couldn’t say “Well he’s kinda like white rice; bland, boring, and always needing something more to add flavor.”

I couldn’t say that because you’re not boring at all, your quite the opposite.

I finally ended up describing you as a dirt bike ride I went on last summer. It was just me and my little brother on a 31 mile trek from my grandpas house, to a small ghost town called randsburg.

This was a journey that my family before me had already gone on. I had done it with my Dad before, and he was always there to guide me and lead the way. It was my turn to be the guide. Now, this was no easy adventure, and we needed to prepare. We brought as much water as we could carry in our bags, and the necessary tools we would need if something were to happen to one of our bikes.

The desert we rode through had an odd beauty to it. So many people would look at it and see nothing. They look at it and think of a boring and useless place. But I knew the real beauty in it. I had seen the sunset, the neon orange sky on the horizon slowly descending to light up another part of the world. I had climbed the highest mountain and seen the endless stretch of desert, so much that I haven’t explored yet, so much still to discover. That’s exactly what I was out to do, to discover the mysteries of this place on my own.

Now, this journey wasn’t easy. At times I wanted to give up and never come back. There were times when I had no clue where I was. I had the option of choosing so many different paths. Each one leading to more choices, it was overwhelming. There was always something that got me back on the right track through. Whether it was backtracking until I found a familiar landmark, or searching for the highway to gain my bearings.

At first the goal was the destination. But I realized that the destination wasn’t nearly as important as the journey. And the journey still goes on to this very day. The journey with you that is. You never cease to amaze me, just like the desert. I could never understand everything about you. But I know that when I get lost you help me find a way, and a journey with you is one that I will never forget.

And thats what you’re like to me.