Comm 2320
Basic Reporting for the School of Communication at ECU

Carteret Crusader

Wouldn’t it be nice to find someone who is an amazing listener, great friend and an outstanding person? In this world today it’s hard to find a person with the qualities I just described. Luckily for us, people like this still exist, or at least according to East Carolina Junior, Mandy Nichols. These are just a few kind words which Mrs. Nichols used to describe fellow classmate, and East Carolina Univeristy Junior, Joshua Michael Pake.
The past few weeks I’ve been following Josh and getting to know him a little better. It seems no matter who I ask, they always seem to have nothing but great things to say about him. After talking to others, and spending time with Josh, I seem to fully understand the old quote; whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger.
Josh was born July 18, 1988 in Carteret County. He grew up in Carteret County, which is mostly a “small housing community.” What Josh meant when he said this was, that the majority of Carteret County are just small little towns, made up of small family owned stores. There are not really any chain restaurants or stores in Carteret County, most everything is locally owned. Josh also had the privilege to grow up beside two brothers, who were born in 1982 and 1985, and were there to help him along the way.
Josh said most of the county is pretty close, everyone goes out to sporting events, hangs out and just shoots the breeze. Kyle Johnson, a good friend of Josh for two years, says that Josh still spends time in Carteret County during the summer, dressing as a pirate, doing ghost tours. These ghost tours are related to Beaufort, North Carolina, and have to deal with Black Beard, the famous pirate. The tour goes throughout Black Beard’s house, and talks about him and a girl he killed. These ghost tours seem to be extremely popular in Carteret County, since there is a large group of tourists that comes through the area every summer.
During Josh’s high-school years he spent a lot of time working with school productions and high school theater. Josh enjoyed working with these school productions and donated a lot of time and energy to them.
Josh grew up in a Christian household but didn’t really start living the “Christian life until he got to high-school. Josh was faced with several tough battles through high-school, which made him start to look deeper into faith. Because of this Josh realized that if he wanted to call himself a Christian, he had to start living out the true Christian life. This includes helping others, preaching the gospel to others and allowing his faith to allow others to have strong faith in Christ. His faith in Jesus Christ got him through many struggles, trials and tribulations. Josh will be one of the first to tell anyone that he may have not gotten through many of the struggles he encountered in high school without Jesus Christ.
In Josh’s senior year of high school he faced two of the toughest storms that he ever had to face in his life. It all started when Josh’s longtime preacher and friend passed away. This was one of the first people Josh every really knew that had passed on. Less than one month later Josh lost his best friend to a bicycle accident. Many people would have thrown in the towel, given up and most certainly lost their faith in God. Josh was the complete opposite. He found sunshine in this dark time, praised God and kept on being everything that he could be. This experience put enough burdens on him to kill but he didn’t let it get to him. It made him stronger.
Josh started attending East Carolina University fall of 2006. Freshman year was a great year for Josh because he met some great people and what will probably be lifelong friends. I got to speak to a few of his friends through cell phone interviews and email interviews. These friends are Junior Mandy Nichols, ECU alum Kyle Johnson, and Junior Joseph Fuller.
Josh met Mandy Nichols through a class they had together. Mandy encouraged Josh to come out to CCF (Campus Christian Fellowship) and he eventually did. They’ve been tight ever since. Mandy told me several things about Josh; Josh loves to eat at the dining hall, adores kittens, and so on. She was quoted saying “Josh Pake is an awesome person. Like, if you ask him for ANYTHING, he will do it without a grumble or a complaint. He is a GREAT listener, and he has really great advice. He’s a great Christian.”
Through CCF Josh has met close friends Kyle Johnson and Joseph Fuller. When Kyle was asked to describe Josh, he replied by saying “He is a very sincere and sweet guy. I would say that his personality is a result of him being a follower of Christ and having the mindset and heart that Christ has for people.” Just to reassure everyone what kind of great person Josh is, friend Joseph described Josh as “Josh Pake is a great friend he knows a little bit about any and everything. He is a country boy. He loves god, his family, and his Church.”
After talking with these three, and Josh, I also found out what Josh likes to do in his spare time, besides spreading the gospel. I learned from Mrs. Nichols that Josh likes to run and has won several medals doing so. Josh also likes to play sports, hang out to get to know others and help others as much as possible. Josh is a huge DUKE basketball fan and ECU football fan. Josh has told me that he really loves to play basketball, and according to friend Kyle Johnson, he’s pretty good at it as well.
Josh hopes to be graduating East Carolina in 2010, with a degree in Public Relations. With this degree Josh plans on preaching, working with youth ministries and going on mission trips to spread the gospel. Josh hopes to live a Christian life that can persuade others to start living a Christian life. Josh hopes to guide others to the lord, just like he was once guided.
After doing these interviews, and talking with Josh personally, I truly have been moved and inspired. As anyone who has read what is above, Josh seems to have nothing but high praises and would be a great friend and help to anyone. There are not too many people who would have lost two close friends in less than a month and still found something to praise God about. There is an old quote that says “you have to learn to stand in the rain without an umbrella,” and I think Josh has most certainly learned to do that. He has learned to go face to face with adversity and still find goodness in every situation. Maybe everyone could learn and thing or two from the Carteret Crusader.

Filed under: 2008 Fall, Classmate Profile