Perspective

So I know I posted a blog earlier today, but I wanted to share some things that have happened that have caused me to think about my views. Like I said, I want to be able to keep you updated with what I’ve been doing, but I also would like to share how I’m being challenged mentally, emotionally, and spiritually as well, if you’re up for it!

Just a word of warning, though, this is a long post, so feel free to read as much or as little as you want/can.

Sunday I went to Latin Mass at St. Aloysius, which was my first time to attend a Catholic service. It was definitely an experience. The format was not something I was used to, but it wasn't that hard to follow along with everyone around you. I’m not sure it would be something I could do every Sunday, but it was a sensory experience for sure: the repetition of phrases, the continuous standing, sitting, and kneeling, the overwhelming scent of incense. It all added to the introspective nature of the service. This is partly due to the fact that as a non-Latin speaker, I didn't understand 75% of what was said, so I spent a lot of time in personal reflection and prayer anyway. But I think that’s something everyone needs from time to time.

It was very personal in terms of reflection, but rather impersonal in terms of the interaction you have with the people around you (which is basically nonexistent). The more I think about it, the more I realize that that was how I felt at St. Aldate’s as well, but it was just an overall different atmosphere. There was a very set structure for the order of worship, what the clergy did and said and the congregation’s responses. Non-Catholic churches have an order of worship as well, coupled with routines, but I feel like the Catholic liturgy is a lot more rigid than the order of worship at my Baptist church back home. However, something that my friend Ethan said helped change my attitude towards that. He commented on how cool he thinks it is to be able to say things that have been said for thousands of years and feel that sense of connection to a long line of past generations through worship, by speaking those same words. Again, I don’t think it’s something I could appreciate every Sunday, but it does give it a new feel for me. Their prayers were also very world-aware, like at St. Aldate’s. I just love the global prayers they have here. Not that we don’t in the States, but it seems a lot more prominent here.

Not only am I learning to respect and appreciate the ideas and traditions of denominations other than my own in Christianity, but the Cross and Crescent class that I’m in is also working on shifting my attitudes towards other religions, specifically Islam. Dan McVey has such an appreciation and respect for the Islamic community and is trying to share that with us. Don’t hear me say he’s trying to convert us because he is not a Muslim himself. But we are learning about Islam and Muhammad from a non-negatively biased source, and it is fascinating. I am being stretched (in a good way) to consider the beliefs of others and how to deal with that in my own faith and translating that into my relationships with others. I have had Muslim friends in the past, but we never really talked about religion. I feel like I could have a more informed discussion with them now, which is always something I value.

Yesterday was probably my favourite day of the semester so far, though. Dan and his wife, Brenda, are taking French with the 6 of us students, but they missed class on Friday because of a prayer meeting they went to. So to make up for it, they had us over for dinner last night, which I thought was really sweet. I hadn't had a chance to talk much with Dan and Brenda so it was good to get to know them on a more personal level. They are both very sweet people, and I’m looking forward to getting to know them even more over the semester. Our discussion was really easy, but more personal than I’m used to with faculty. I love that about the community we have here. We aren't restricted to traditional boundaries when you’re living with the same people. And while that can be a challenge in and of itself, it is also incredibly satisfying to delve deeper into getting to know people.

A really great example was what happened right after dinner. I went to Kimberly’s room to chat, and we must have talked for at least three hours. She is such a sweet woman, and I am so glad she’s on this trip with us. I don’t think it’s weird or uncomfortable at all having a woman in her 40’s here with us. There may be others here who feel differently, but Kimberly has been such a joy to get to know. Our personalities are very compatible, she’s so nice, and we have a lot of the same travel interests. Sitting in her room tonight, just sharing our thoughts about the semester so far and life in general, was such a wonderful experience. I feel like I've gotten to know her so much more and I just like her all the more for it. Plus, being in different stages of life but experiencing a lot of the same thing brings new perspectives to the table that we are able to share with each other. It’s pretty crazy how similar those perspectives are, though.

I think I mentioned that there is a small group that I've gotten to know really well so far as well. And seriously, if I don’t get to travel with any other people but them, I will leave at the end of this semester completely content, without regret. Where I travel is so much less important than who I travel with. And so far, my travel group has been very successful and fun all around. Traveling in groups can be a challenge because the more variables there are, the more the possibility for dissent arises. Yet that’s just another challenge that we’re all learning to overcome. Compromise is all a part of growing up and learning how to love the people you’re with, sometimes over yourself.

We haven’t even been here quite two weeks and I've already experienced more emotionally these past 12 days than I did all last semester. I've gone from feeling socially inferior and unwanted to finding that group with whom I can just be myself and not worry about coming across as “cool”, from freaking out about being in a foreign country without my normal familial support to learning how to navigate transportation to different cities and planning without going completely mental. I’m already growing so much, but I've got to give credit where credit is due. From a young age, my mom taught me a lot of the essentials of life (basic cooking, laundry, planning for the unexpected), basically teaching me to be self-sufficient. I’m feeling very proud now that I actually get to put that into practice.

Sometimes I forget or brush it aside, but so much credit also goes to God, Who watches out for me, even when I’m not paying Him attention. Sometimes (and really, if I’m being honest, most of the time) I don’t have a servant’s heart, but that’s why I’m loving these worship services I've attended. They’re providing me that much needed time to reflect on all that He has done (and is continuing to do) for me. It’s hard not to love life right now, and it’s only Week 2…

Thanks for reading (if you made it all the way through), and I’m really excited to continue to share my journey with all who want to take part. I hope to be able to bless someone or simply be an encouragement. Again, feel free to comment or start a conversation. I’d love to have a dialogue with any who are interested!

Journey 1: Bath and Stonehenge

At the train station, getting to see
the sun rise (our first time to see the sun since we've
arrived in England)

This weekend was such a blast. I went with a small group out of Oxford to Bath. It was our first trip out of the city and our first experience with the train station. For the most part, it's really simple and we didn't have any problems. The only word of note I have is the way they list the trains: you have to know the final destination of the train you need to get on, not just your own stop because they don’t list the individual stops of each train. We had to ask around to find our right trains to get out to Bath, but coming back we were pros.

You can see the steam rising from the baths

We left the house at about 8 a.m. and walked to the train station, took the 8:37 train and arrived in Bath around 10 a.m. Our first mission was to find where the tour bus taking us to Stonehenge later that day was going to be and then we headed to the Roman Baths. That was a really neat place to see. (I’ll put a couple pictures here on my blog, but most of them will be on Facebook, so feel free to check that out if you feel so inclined.) Touring around was interesting. We split up and walked around more or less individually, which is sometimes the best thing for me. I like to be on my own sometimes. The really cool thing, in my opinion, was that Bill Bryson did some of the audio commentary. (For those who don’t know Bill, he’s an author who has lived in England for 20 years, but moved back to the States a while back. He’s written several books, one of which I started before heading to Oxford. He has quite the sense of humor and a really easy writing style.) Anyway, so for personal reasons, that was really exciting. We all got to have a sample of the Bath water to drink, and I’ll just say that I’m glad I did because it wasn't as terrible as I had been told it was. It has a high mineral content and it just tasted strongly of iron. I didn't feel the need to spit it out though…

This is supposedly where they
filmed the scene in Les Mis where
Javier jumps off the bridge.
We thought about reenacting it,
but decided against it.

At noon, we went to the Abbey courtyard to eat the peanut butter and jelly sandwiches we had packed. While we were there, a guy came and started playing classical guitar. It was really soothing, and I could’ve stayed there all afternoon. But we had a bus to catch.

Our view from the bus

We were able to get closer
than I though we would

The 6 of us were the only ones of our group that were able to go to Stonehenge that day, which for me made the trip that much more special. The tour we took to Stonehenge was well worth the money we spent, and the bus ride was excellent. We saw Bath from atop a hill and drove by some gorgeous countryside. I saw the Chalk Horse, which was neat. Stonehenge itself was fun. I had been told it was kind of lame in person, but we all had a great time walking around. I took so many pictures from different angles… The only downside was that it was super windy, so I didn’t listen to most of the audio tour just because I didn’t want to hold it up to my ear. But the coolest thing was that in the last segment, they mentioned the TARDIS. (No, it didn’t have any connection to Doctor Who as far as I know, but it was a pleasant surprise!)

Photographic evidence that
I was there!

When we got back to Bath, we were all exhausted so we didn't stay much longer. We went back to the train station and headed back to Oxford. A rugby match had just ended on our way back to the house though, so the train was pretty crowded. All around a really great first travel experience. I’m ready for London this Friday.

The Week That Felt Like a Month

This has been one of the longest weeks of my life. As of Thursday, we have been here for one week. Yet I feel like we've been here so much longer than that. But despite all of that, I survived my first week of classes! I love them all so far. It’s weird only having one or two classes a day since I’m used to having more like four a day. A neat component of the course load of Study Abroad, though, is that some of the work we have to do involves outside traveling. This next Friday (1 Feb), our INTS class (which is everyone in the group, all 34 of us) is going to London for the day, and while we’re there, we’ve been split into groups to each investigate a specific borough of London. How incredible is that? My group got Brixton, so I’m excited to do research and explore our borough! Then in late March/early April, our group is going on a week-long trip to France to do some work as well as explore. I absolutely love being here!

So you might be interested to know what a typical week will look like for me, with my classes and exploring the town (and if you’re not, well feel free to skip down to the next paragraph, but I’m not sure why you’d be reading my blog if you weren’t interested…). On Mondays I have the Cross and Crescent (a Bible Missions class focusing on the relationship between Christianity and Islam, a really fascinating class so far) at 10 am. Tuesdays I have INTS (International Studies: Intro to Great Britain) at 10:30 am and French at 2 pm. INTS is good so far, but we haven’t gotten into a whole lot yet. However, this next week will be leading us into our London trip, so I’m sure Jacque will have lots of interesting things to tell us. I have English (Major British Writers II) and the Cross and Crescent on Wednesdays, but this is my longest day, in terms of being in class. Since we only have English once a week, it’s a 3-hour long course. I was really excited about taking it (and still am, especially since it’s our only class taught by a British professor), but it’s going to be a lot of poetry, apparently, and, well, I’m not a huge poetry fan… Thursdays I just have INTS at 11:30 am, which is great because I get the whole house to myself in the mornings while everyone else is taking Core. It’s marvelous. Unfortunately though, since I’m taking French, I do have class on Fridays at 2 pm while everyone else has the day off. There are 6 of us in the class, which is great because I really like all of them. And being a more introverted person, I prefer smaller class sizes in general. But it is a bit depressing to have to head to class while others are headed out of the city. However, I’m enjoying French. I love language classes, even if French is so complicated. But seriously, pronunciation in French makes no sense. Absolutely no sense. I am also taking two online courses (Message of the Old Testament and Walking for Fitness), but I don’t think either of them will be really intense.

When I’m not in class, my friends and I are either playing games (Bananagrams is a popular choice), or doing homework, or walking around Oxford. It’s been pretty cold outside though, so we've mainly wanted to stay inside, but we force ourselves to go out and about at least once a day, sometimes to Tesco (the local grocery store) or to get a sandwich or something. Oxford is just a gorgeous city. The architecture is magnificent. I personally just love to walk and look around. It snowed most of the early part of this week, but it’s been melting these past couple of days. I’m ready for it to warm up at least a little bit. Or at least just have the clouds dissipate a little so I know the sun is at least still in the sky. I've barely seen it since getting off the plane…

Natali and I made a snowman on our way back to the house one night. We wanted to add arms, but the twigs were too soggy...

This is a church just a street over from our house. I pass by it almost every day and I think it's the church we can see from our kitchen window. I think it's beautiful.

My favourite part of this week though was definitely Thursday night. A group of us went to Student Night at St. Aldates, an Anglican church here in Oxford. They had a really nice dinner at 7 pm, and then we went into a time of worship with a short message/sermon in the middle. It was a freeing time of worship for me. The songs were wonderful and well played. I knew most of them, which always gives me a sort of sense of comfort. I think it’s natural to look for the familiar in the new. Even in a room full of roughly 100 people, it was a very personal type of worship. The lead guitarist/singer at one point simply stopped singing and just played, but as he did so, everyone else kept singing. Some sang the same song, others did their own thing. I just closed my eyes and listened to the multitude of voices all harmonizing around me. None of the individual voices were distinct to me; it was all just a hum of music in my ears. But the incredible thing, in my opinion, is that God heard every one of the songs they sang. God hears the cry of our hearts, and it doesn’t matter if we’re English or American or any other nationality. We are all united by our Creator, and I don’t know about you, but that thought always brings a smile to my face.

Most people think (and this is what I was always taught) that England (and Europe on a broader scale) is a rather God-less place. They don’t take religion or Christianity as seriously as Americans, or that it’s just not as big a part of their culture as it is in the States. Yet, though parts of that are fundamentally true, there are so many churches here (such as St. Aldates) with thriving evangelical programs to spread the Word. There’s a big revival movement growing, and I’m excited to see it happening.

I have also been participating in Morning Prayer with a few people in House 10. Kelli, a sort of RA here, is going through the Book of Common Prayer in the morning and invited any of us who wanted to join her. I did it most of this week, and at first it was a little weird for me. Sometimes reciting things as a group seems cultish to me, but after giving it a week, it’s been a nice way to start off my day. I’ve adjusted my attitude towards it as well. I feel more like it reinforces a sense of community among our small group, which is something I think everyone needs.

Speaking of community, though I haven’t connected with everyone in the group, there is a number of people here I’ve been consistently spending time with and I am so blessed to know them. I’ve grown so much closer already to my friends I came with as well as getting to know some pretty awesome people I didn’t know as well beforehand. It’ll be interesting to see group dynamics once we start traveling, but I think I have a pretty good core group right now that have similar interests. I know I keep saying this, but it’s just because it’s so true: this is going to be a great semester!

Well, I’m off to Bath and Stonehenge in the morning with Natali, Morgan, Laura, Ethan, and Josh (and several others as well, but the six of us are for sure traveling together) and I’m absolutely stoked! We bought our tickets on Thursday at the train station. I feel like such an adult. I’ll let you all know how it goes after we get back tomorrow night, and I’ll hopefully have some pictures to share. For now, I should get to bed. Got to get up early in the morning. Again, thanks for reading!

'Snow' Day Like Today

There is nothing quite like waking up after your first real sleep in two days, walking into your kitchen, and finding a view like this. 

Snow outside our kitchen window

I am a born and raised Texas girl, and yes, I realise there are some places in Texas that get snow. But honestly, nothing like this. It’s been snowing since Friday, and despite what you (and I) think, this is not a usual occurrence here. All the locals are talking about it. It’s not supposed to snow for much longer, so I’m definitely enjoying it as much as I can.

Today I went out for a walk by myself around town. It was my first time to go out alone, and it was rather enjoyable. I didn’t do much, except for a couple errands I had to run. I just rambled for a couple hours as it snowed. I went out pretty soon after taking a shower (and for those who don’t know, I rarely, if ever, blow dry my hair). Obviously not the smartest thing to walk around in the (literally) freezing cold with wet hair, but the falling snow just got my hair even more wet, so it’s not like it mattered. Plus, I’ve mastered this whole layering thing. I wore a long sleeve shirt with my sweater and my raincoat, along with my Wellies and gloves. To be honest, I actually was a bit uncomfortably warm, if you believe it!

I also went to Port Meadow with a few friends, the open fields of pure white just stunning. There’s still more of it to explore, but I’m excited to see it after all the snow has melted away as well. It’s apparently one of the prettiest parks in the area.

Someone had just left this in the middle of the field!

These past few days have been very relaxing. Everyone has just been orienting themselves with the city. It’s pretty easy to navigate, and I already have certain routes memorized. I’ve been to several pubs, but I’m putting the brakes on that for now. It’s just too expensive and not as healthy to be eating out as much. I need to plan out my meals, but I’m excited to cook for myself!

One of my favourite places we visited these past few days was Blackwell Bookstore. I am such a bookworm (and with not being able to stream video in the house, I’m sure I’ll be reading a lot when I’m not traveling, working on homework, and hanging out with people), but that’s not the only reason this place is fantastic. This store has not one, not two, but FIVE floors. Yes, five whole floors. The ground floor has most of the books I’m interested in, but there’s a basement that in and of itself has several small staircases leading to different levels, and then three more floors above the ground floor. I didn’t even get to see it all when I was there, and, kind of embarrassingly, I got lost… Not lost lost. I just ended up in a room that didn’t connect to the main part of the building, so I had to do a lot of backtracking. It was fine. I’m sure I’ll be paying the shop another visit in the coming weeks.

Another fun thing I hope to experience while here is something Natali, Morgan, and I are trying to do: get a milk man. It would be so unreal to have glass bottles of milk delivered to our front doorstep every week. I’m not sure we even still have milk men in the States. However, apparently someone else has already signed up House 9 for the delivery route. We just don’t know who… It’s a mystery we need to solve. And soon. Also, the three of us will hopefully be starting a “Mystery Solving” blog, recording all the mysteries around town and in our house that we solve. We just need to find some good mysteries first…

Tomorrow we start classes. I’m feeling really pumped. I just want to have a steady schedule and get going with everything. This is already a great semester, and I can’t wait for it to get even better!

Missing you all!

Stick the Landing

Today has been an extremely long day. I woke up at basically 6 a.m. on Wednesday morning and have yet to go to sleep officially. I’ve had a few short, kind of restful naps, but I will be so happy to lay down and sleep on an actual bed. From bus rides, to airports, to surveying our new surroundings, it’s just been one thing constant thing after another. Fortunately I haven’t felt very tired because, really, there’s been no time to be tired.

The flight was relatively uneventful. I didn’t sit by any ACU people, but I sat by a very nice British-Indian man who I chatted with when I wasn’t trying to squeeze in a few moments of shut eye. Plus, they served us dinner and breakfast, and I must say that British Airways treats their customers right. I was impressed by the food. Once we landed, it was pretty smooth sailing. Getting through passport check was simple, though it did take quite a while for the bus to Oxford to come pick us up. But nothing leads to bonding more than freezing in -5ᵒ weather!

Our bus driver, David, was very friendly and funny. I think my favourite thing he said was, “We had a beautiful sunrise this morning, which probably means it’ll chuck down raining or snowing later on today…” It’s cool when things you always hear about certain people actually turn out to be true!

House 10: the cool arch!

It's pretty, but boringly rectangular

For those who don’t know, ACU owns two houses in Oxford: house 9 and 10. Both have their pros and cons. I (some would say ‘fortunately’) am in house 9, the house with the pretty blue door. Honestly, though, while it is cool that the door is blue, I think house 10 has a cooler door. I have a thing for arches though.

I am on the top (3^rd) floor. Our room view is not anything spectacular since it simply faces the construction going on in our backyard, our kitchen view is gorgeous. As my roommate has already gone to bed, I am actually sitting in our kitchen by the window as I write this. In terms of architecture, it’s probably not the most interesting house, but I think the house across the street is adorable!

Our kitchen view!

We were discouraged from napping at all during the day. It would only make any jet lag we were experiencing that much harder to overcome. In an attempt to prevent this, we were shown around the city of Oxford this afternoon. There are a lot of really neat areas just a few streets from our houses, and City Centre is only about a mile and a half away, a really easy walk. We had our first sandwiches from On the Hoof today, though I don’t believe any of them were the Cole Bennett variety so that’s still on my list. As we toured the city, we passed by the Eagle and Child pub, famous for hosting J.R.R. Tolkien and C.S. Lewis back in the day. The coolest thing though was when it started snowing as we walked around. It didn’t “chuck down” as David predicted, but a very light drizzle made the walk gorgeous. My friends, Natali, Morgan, Laura, and I went grocery shopping today. I’m still getting used to using the credits cards with chips that you don’t swipe, but I’m learning.

Along with learning how to navigate around town, I've almost met just about everyone studying abroad with me and know most of their names. They seem like a good group of people, but it’s definitely going to take some getting used to being around the same 34 people every day. It’ll be a good growing experience.

We have class orientation tomorrow (I believe we officially start classes on Monday), and I am ready to actually have things to do. I think having something productive to do will also help this place feel more like a temporary home, instead of vacation. Plus, it will help me to get to know people better.

For now, I’m going to crash. Cheers for now!

Of course I got in

P.S. I saw several phone boxes while wandering around! Still looking for that police box though…

The First Step is Always the Hardest

With any exercise regime you begin, getting started is usually the hardest part. It’s not just about sticking with what you’re doing and establishing the routine (though that’s hard enough on its own). All the preparation that goes into it can be such a hassle. It sometimes has a tendency to wear you out before you’ve even actually begun.

Some of you might know that before I came back for the semester, I had homework over the break. While that may shock and distress some of you, especially my fellow students who understand that a break should be just that, (I also understand some of you couldn’t possibly care less), I must admit I complained more about it than the work actually warranted. We had to write a 6-9 page paper including a statement of our goals/objectives while abroad and specifically how to accomplish them, a section discussing two major news stories/current events affecting the country to which we are traveling, and finally a specific itinerary for two trips (a 3-day weekend and a week-long trip). Along with that, we had roughly 200 pages out of our travel guide to read, which is what our test on Monday was over. So, it wasn’t an assignment that could easily be done in a day, but if I had stretched it out a bit more than I did, it probably wouldn’t have seemed so daunting.

Somewhat ironically, the part I was least looking forward to doing was what I found most interesting, and the one section I was most interested in became the section I dreaded the most. I’m not sure how well you know me, but I’m not a history person. In high school, it was always my worst subject (one of the few subjects in which I consistently made B’s). For whatever reason, I hated being tested over dates and wars and leaders, and I just simply lacked any motivation to try very hard. However, strictly speaking, that does not mean that I don’t like history. In fact, quite the opposite. I love learning about the past and the evolution of cultures. Just don’t grade me over my knowledge. I am also not a politics person. My dad says there’s no such thing, that politics are a part of everyday life. So I’ll clarify by saying that I’m not big on discussing current events and what’s going on with the government. This is for personal reasons as well as a little apathy mixed in (though I’m working on the apathy bit). With that being said, I didn’t think writing about two news events would be all that interesting to me. But, in fact, I found it most fascinating and kept reading articles even after I finished that section.

Side note: If you don’t know about what’s going on with Scotland and their petition for independence, you should check it out. BBC has a lot of interesting facts in very succinct, yet detailed, articles and various other writings.

What I did not particularly enjoy, though I thought I would, was the trip planning. I mean, let’s face it. Getting to travel around England, the UK, and Europe in general is the major reason I wanted to study abroad. If I didn’t want to travel, I could have just stayed in Abilene and taken almost the exact same course load… While I do like to keep accounts of what I’ve done on a day-to-day basis and if I’m going to get together with people, I like to know in advance, I hated planning and mapping out two trips. The requirements were just so specific, and it felt so rigid. My mom calls me her duck because I tend to just go with the flow of things, riding the waves wherever they take me. That’s how I like to travel. I don’t want to plan out restaurants or what I was going to do that day. Granted, it was a good exercise in trying to find best prices on train and air fare, as well as looking at hostels in areas I want to visit. And now I have a better idea of attractions around the area and do feel more prepared. I’m not saying the assignment was pointless, I just didn’t like write-up portion, detailing every little thing I was going to do each day. I prefer to float with a basic idea of where I’m headed.

Then there’s the packing. Trying to decide what to bring, what not to bring, making sure paperwork is all in order. It all has to be done, but it is a tedious process. I am very fortunate to have the mother that I do, though, because not only is she an awesome packer, she has a solid head on her shoulders and could help me out with things that I’ve never dealt with before.

But I had to say goodbye to her Sunday night. It’s a depressing (and somewhat terrifying) thought that I won’t be seeing her for four whole months. I’m close with all my immediate family, but my mom and I have a particular connection because we are so similar. We do so many things together that this first step by myself really is the hardest. I have to make my own choices (which I’ve mentioned before is not my strong suit): food, trips, balancing school and extra activities. It’s all on me.

I try very hard to come across as secure in myself, a confident young woman making her way in the world. But the truth is I’m a huge chicken. I have self-image issues and am honestly not all that confident. I am terrified of making a wrong decision or making terrible mistakes along the way. Doing this by myself is utterly petrifying.

Which is why it’s amazing that I don’t have to do it by myself.

You may have noticed that I wear jewelry, but what you may not have noticed is that I always wear this one set of rings. It looks like one single ring, but is, in fact, three. Each ring has one word inscribed on the inside of the band: love, joy, and peace. If you don’t know, these are the first three fruits of the Spirit. These serve as a reminder of the God I serve, the one who sent his son so that I don’t have to be frightened. It’s through Jesus that I can love others, share the joy of life, and have an internal peace to comfort me through any situation. Does that mean I always feel like I have those? Definitely not. I am nowhere near perfect, and I still struggle daily with internal battles over how I feel about myself. Yet every step I take is shadowed by my Saviour, who is looking out for me, no matter how many times I stumble.

Before I left home, my mom gave me a ring inscribed with a well-known statement: the journey of a thousand miles begins with one step. It’s so simple and so true, but sometimes it’s the hardest thing in the world to do. This Wednesday I hop on a plane. In a day and a half, I leave my friends and family behind. I leave what’s familiar to me and enter a world that I have never before experienced. Am I excited? Absolutely. Am I nervous? Most definitely. Yet I couldn’t be happier to be able to have this experience.

Thanks for slogging through this ramble! I promise they won’t all be this long, but I appreciate your interest in my journey. And again, if you have comments, I’d love to hear from you!