BY KYLEE HIGGINS<\/p>\n
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The lives of people around us are often viewed at surface level, but seeing people on a deeper level, everyone has their own story of how they came to be who they are today.<\/p>\n
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For Caleb Sager, a 20-year-old hospitality & culinary arts student at Lincoln Land Community College, his story starts from his childhood in Lincoln, Illinois. According to Sager, his mom is someone he\u2019s always looked up to.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy mom [and I have] always been pretty close,\u201d Sager said. \u201cShe\u2019s probably the nicest person in the world. I remember being a kid, and she\u2019d be driving me home from school, and I\u2019d be like, \u2018La la la. Is this annoying? Is this annoying?\u2019 and she\u2019d be like, \u2018Nope, nope,\u2019 and because she said it wasn\u2019t annoying, I\u2019d stop, so she taught me some life lessons there.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As for his dad, Sager said he is quite the opposite from his mom.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMy dad, he\u2019s a little different,\u201d Sager said. \u201cI\u2019ve always had a weird relationship with him because you could just say something, and that\u2019ll set him off. Then he\u2019ll freak out and cuss \u2026 and then he\u2019ll drive off for hours.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Despite that, Sager said he holds fond memories of his dad when Sager was a child.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe was a really good dad when I was a little kid,\u201d Sager said. \u201cHe was supportive, and as I grew up \u2026 I would do bad in school or something like that, and that would set him off. But now I\u2019m doing good in school, so life is better.\u201d<\/p>\n
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As for his brother, Sager said they both tend to follow their mom in resolving things with patience and care.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe\u2019ve never ever argued. We always got along pretty well, so that\u2019s weird because everybody talks about how they butt heads with their siblings,\u201d Sager said.<\/p>\n
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According to Joshua Sager, Caleb\u2019s brother, though they have never fought, a consequence of growing up and moving out has left them more distant.<\/p>\n
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\u201cUnfortunately, I sense that our relationship has waned over time simply due to me moving out of the same house and not being able to spend day to day with him,\u201d Joshua said via email. \u201cThis is inevitable with most families, but I am thankful that we often find time to enjoy each other\u2019s time and are able to share various interests.\u201d<\/p>\n
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In addition to his family, something Sager routinely did was attend church in his hometown every Sunday.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ve always gone to church since I was a kid,\u201d Sager said. \u201cI\u2019ve never been apprehensive about [believing in God].\u201d<\/p>\n
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Though he attended the same church for several years, that changed in 2016 with the break up with his girlfriend at the time.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI dated this girl for like two years or so \u2026 from when I was 16 to when I was 18,\u201d Sager said. \u201cOne day, I found out that she wasn\u2019t who I perceived her as. She was big into drugs \u2026 was always partying, and she had a thing with my best friend at the time, who went to my church.\u201d<\/p>\n
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After learning of his ex-girlfriend\u2019s and best friend\u2019s relationship together, Sager said he started spiraling downward.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI was being really destructive, and it was a really rough time when you feel like the two people who are closest to you aren\u2019t who you thought they were and betray your trust,\u201d Sager said.<\/p>\n
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While Sager was dealing with this, a friend from high school, Matt Langdon, contacted Sager and reconnected with him.<\/p>\n
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\u201cMatt reached out to me [and said], \u2018Hey, I help out with this new church. Would you like to come with me,\u2019 Sager said. \u201cIt was a really good thing of him to do.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Before going to church together, Sager and Langdon\u2019s friendship began through playing in the same high school band.<\/p>\n
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\u201cIt kind of started in summer band camp. We would have these popsicles, and they\u2019d have little jokes on the side of the stick, and I would walk over and hang with those guys \u2026 and I\u2019d say the joke,\u201d Sager said. \u201cThen, we had lunch together with everybody, and we started hanging out with our friend group. It was me, [Matt] and three other guys. We were all band geeks.\u201d<\/p>\n
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According to Langdon, Sager\u2019s personality clicked with everyone else in the group, which led to them hanging out more often.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe was super light-hearted [and] loved to joke around,\u201d Langdon said.<\/p>\n
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With Langdon being a year older than Sager, Langdon eventually left to attend college at Bradley University, and they grew apart as a result of the distance.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe would text every now and then, [but] Caleb is a really caring person with all of his friends in that he regularly checks up on them, and that\u2019s just really nice,\u201d Langdon said.<\/p>\n
But when Langdon eventually saw the result of Sager\u2019s broken relationship, Langdon said he felt like he had to do something to help Sager.<\/p>\n
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\u201cWe met up for coffee one morning, and he was just broken,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cI just had the idea to invite him to church because I feel like that was what he needed at that time.\u201d<\/p>\n
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From Sager\u2019s breakup, Langdon said Sager\u2019s motivation was crushed.<\/p>\n
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\u201cHe just seemed like he didn\u2019t want to do anything anymore,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cHe just needed people in his life.\u201d<\/p>\n
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But since then, Sager said he has looked back and changed for the better, and through that, he has noticed the difference in who he was versus who he is now.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI was doing poor in school. I was content with where I was in life. I didn\u2019t have any drive \u2026 And now, it\u2019s like, why was I even worried about this? I\u2019m glad it happened. I\u2019m not glad it happened the way it happened, but everything\u2019s worked out.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Joshua also said he has seen a change in his brother since then.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI would say that Caleb has matured a lot, especially in the past two to three years,\u201d Joshua said. \u201cI feel that he has experienced a lot in that time that has shaped his attitude towards life and how he perceives others and their interactions with him.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Langdon said, despite seeing Sager destroyed from his past relationship, he thinks it changed him for the better.<\/p>\n
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\u201cEver since then, I feel like he\u2019s taken his life and tried to improve it,\u201d Langdon said. \u201cHe\u2019s taken up so many more hobbies and has so many more interests now, and I feel like that\u2019s a big change from where he was from a year and a half ago.\u201d<\/p>\n
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One hobby that Sager said he enjoys the most is traveling.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI\u2019ve been a lot of places,\u201d Sager said. \u201cIt\u2019s hard to remember them all. I\u2019ve been to like 12 countries \u2026 Hopefully, I\u2019m not done yet.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Because of his penchant for traveling, Sager said he wants to travel the world, but he can\u2019t do that in his hometown.<\/p>\n
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\u201cThere\u2019s no future for me in Lincoln,\u201d Sager said. \u201cI see people who live their whole life in Lincoln, and that\u2019s all they\u2019ll ever do. There\u2019s nothing wrong with that, but I have bigger dreams than Lincoln, Illinois.\u201d<\/p>\n
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Instead, Sager said he wants to do the opposite.<\/p>\n
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\u201cI feel like the more you travel, the less close-minded you become,\u201d Sager said. \u201cI want to be eclectic. I want to pick up things from everywhere I go and pick up friends from everywhere I go.\u201d<\/p>\n