Ever since I was a little girl, I have had pretty big dreams. I have always had an ambitious (and maybe optimistic) view of the things I am going to do in my life and the person that I am going to be.
A lot of my dreams have come from this urgency in me to see the world. I know this desire to travel is in me for a reason, and after thinking about it for the past few years I’ve figured out a few reasons why…
1. I have always been enamoured by foreign people. I am a major people person, and I love nothing more than to sit down with someone who has grown up entirely different than me, and hear all about it. People from different cultures have always inspired me, and it’s always been my dream that I can somehow inspire others in the same way.
“The voyage of discovery lies not in finding new landscapes,
but in having new eyes” – Marcel Proust
2. Being from a small, Mennonite town, I grew up with such a limited view of who God is. Knowing that there are people across the globe worshipping the same God that I do… in millions of different ways that I am even aware of.. has to be one of the most encouraging things for me. I want to experience God in all different cultures so I can get a better understanding of His real character.
“I’m shaking the dust of this crummy town
off my feet and I’m gonna see the world” – George Bailey
3. When I was younger, I had this dream that I would one day jump onto a plane with absolutely no plans and “see where I’d end up” and see where God led me. This dream came from the understanding that if I was alone, and had no one to lean on, I would have to learn to trust and depend on God. “You don’t know that God is all you need until God is all you have” kinda thing. Common sense is something that has always bothered me haha.
But anyways, I waited anxiously till I could get out of high school so I could start that life. It’s been a few years since graduating now, and A LOT of searching for something. I have turned away from God, and back to Him more times than I can count and I know now that figuring out that part of my life is by far most important thing. In the world’s eyes, doing something like the World Race would be getting behind in life. In my eyes, going ahead with life without knowing who God is would be getting behind.
“Don’t do anything only to get ahead” – Philippians 2:3
So I want to do this trip because I want to change. I want my heart to break and I want to learn to love people in the most real way possible. I want to learn to have faith like a child, and come to know God again with a clean slate.
Ecuador 2011
