I have been getting a bunch of questions from all sorts of people about what life has been like for me on the Race, as well as tips and tricks for future Racers. I posted asking for people to ask me questions, and here they are!! If there are any that I missed, feel free to message me and I’ll get back to you!
- What was the country with the best food?
Personally I LOVED the food in Thailand. My favorite was cashew chicken mmm, but I also had a lot of fun exploring the street food at the markets. Our host cooked every meal for us, so it was fun to really taste local cuisine. I ate crickets in my rice, fish head and pig skin that month! (Tbh… we watched the whole slaughter of Stanley the pig, so it was a little sentimental to eat him after.)
- How did you come to know our Father?
This was a really cool question, because I don’t think I’ve ever really shared this! I actually grew up in a Christian household my whole life. I always knew about Jesus, but was never really following an “on fire”, intentional relationship with Him. I prayed when I needed something, and basically ignored him if my life was going the way I wanted it too. I’ll be honest, I’ve been pretty lukewarm most of my life. It wasn’t until after college and uncovering some suppressed memories from my teenage years that it finally clicked, “I don’t want this mediocre life anymore.” Jesus offered me freedom, and redemption and an abundant life now. I started to realize that Jesus didn’t want me to just follow the rules and “get by” but He wanted me to just hang out with Him, talk to Him, make mistakes with Him and love Him. After discovering that.. well the rest is history.
- What made you decide to go on the Race? How did you know that it was right for you?
I decided to go on the Race after moving home from South Korea. I was in a transitional phase in my life and I didn’t want to just sit at home and do the normal 9-5 job. But I also didn’t want to teach abroad again and feel purposeless, living for myself. I discovered the World Race through a Facebook sponsored ad saying, “something you might like”. I clicked on it and started sobbing. By that afternoon, I had applied. I knew it was right for me because I decided it was right for me. Sometimes you just have to exercise your free will with God and trust that He’s going to open doors and bless those decisions, and He did just that, and more.
- What are your best fundraising ideas for the World Race?
Fundraising sucked. I’ll just be honest. And truthfully, I’ll probably be fundraising for the rest of my life now. Yay! God works in funny ways. Fundraising was so challenging because it’s so out of the norm of society where you’re expected to work hard and not take hand outs, (at least for me). Although it was the hardest thing I’ve ever done, it was incredible because I got to invite so many people on this journey with me, have crazy conversations with strangers and see God provide in miraculous ways! Here are some ideas that I did, as well as some of my squadmates!
a. sponsor letters!!!!!!! (DO THIS!)
b. T-shirts (Fun the Nations)
c. Poker tournament or any tournament
d. silent auction – for both of these I went around town and got donations from local restaurants, salons and businesses! A lady I knew auctioned off her cabin in the mountains for a weekend retreat!
e. raffle
f. eat something nasty if you reach X amount of $$ (McD’s through a sock/live goldfish)
g. pie in the face
h. spare change jars
i. adopt a box
j. car wash
k. “a-thons” jump rope, running, exercise related
l. sell things: bracelets, Go Rings etc.
m. garage sale** what are some of your favorite fundraisers!?
- Which country was your favorite?
I have two favorites!!
Rwanda has stolen my heart. Just taken it. Kept it. And now I have to go back to get it back again. Everything about that small and powerful country has changed my life completely. Trust me, there will be much more on that in the future.
and Thailand! Not just for the food, but for our amazing host Pat!! I would love to take a team of high schoolers out to his farm somebody and let them carry around their poop water each morning… I think it would build their character.
- Would you encourage others to do the Race?
Yes! But be warned.. it’s not for the faint of heart. This year has been the hardest and most challenging year of my life. I’m not just saying that.. I’ve cried more, aged more, needed to sleep more, talked about my bowel movements and parasites more than ever before in my entire life. You give up everything to do this and it will change your life completely. I don’t regret a single second, a single tear, hard moment or sad story I’ve heard because I’m so much more full because of this experience.. but man it was hard!!!
- What tips/tricks do you have that you wish somebody would have told you beforehand?
Idk I did a lot of research and I don’t think anything can fully prepare you for this journey. Buy the expensive gear,
Whatever you’ve packed- bring half,
Be open minded,
Pray double the amount that you’re praying now,
Have fun, spend the extra $$ and buy the souvenir and go on the adventure. - What are the most necessary items you packed and what are the things you maybe didn’t need?
DO NOT FOR THE LOVE BUY AN OSPREY AIRPORTER!!!! haha but seriously. Heed my warning.
DO BRING A FRENCH PRESS!!! If you’re a coffee drinker.. this has been the bessstttt.
People are going to vary on what they think is necessary. I literally didn’t pack any clothes or toiletries.. you can buy EVERYTHING overseas, don’t worry. I also didn’t pack like any medication.. pharmacies EVERYWHERE.. and you won’t get malaria, don’t be a baby. And if you do.. go to a doctor. Truth is, you’ll probably have worms, lice, parasites and blood in you stool like the entire race so you’ve got other problems to worry about besides mosquitos. #truth
Don’t skimp on a sleeping pad. Spend the MOST money or your sleeping system. If you have bad sleep for a year, you’re sort of screwed so pillow, sleeping bag/liner, pad.. do it right!
I loved my headlamp for late nights reading.. and my kindle…
other weird things I was thankful to have was a little bottle of perfume and my nice face lotion.At this point in the Race I’ve pretty much gotten rid of everything and don’t think anything is necessary haha MINIMALISM! But after seeing poverty and starvation for a year, your perspective will change too.
- What do you think readjusting back to life in Colorado will be like? What will be hard/ what will be easy?
I’m so nervous to move back and start life in Colorado!! I think the hardest thing will be leaving this community. Doing life so close to these people for 11 months was really challenging, but so awesome at the same time. I really want to have that back home, too and I’m nervous that I won’t find it! I also get scared about what people will think of me when I’m back.. I’ve definitely changed and fear of man is REAL.
I think jumping right back into old routines will be easy… aka eating Pho, sushi and going to concerts on the reg, so excited for that!! But truthfully, I’m just ready to be home and to jump right into my church and start building a new community for the long haul at home!
- What was the craziest thing that you’ve eaten?
I’ve had a lot of weird things on the Race. I think the craziest was a duck embryo thing at a street fair in Cambodia. We named her “Veronica”. She had a little eyeball and everything! It was pretty insane. I also ate snake that night and almost barfed (worst thing I’ve ever tried, ever.)
- What was your favorite food that you didn’t expect to like?
Honestly… I really liked Veronica. She just tasted like a hard-boiled egg, but eh, I’d eat it again! Was NOT expecting to say that!
Either Veronica or these fresh snails in Vietnam where you’d suck them straight out of the shell.. sometimes you got snail and other times you got ocean water/dirt.. snail roulette!
- Knowing what you know now, what spiritual and practical advice would you tell yourself back when you were preparing to launch?
This is a really great question. There are some things I really got into a good routine of doing during the Race and I wish I would have started even sooner. I read my Bible every morning and journal about everything. It’s become a staple to my day and I’ve really felt the Lord move in my life through studying His Word. I also got into Scripture memorization for a while (should probably do that again) but it was a really good tool to grow spiritually.
Honestly though, I would tell myself to be more open minded, to not get offended, to be joyful in all things, even when things really suck, or people suck or the world sucks. Jesus is awesome and there is still so much joy to be had, most of the time we’re just caught up in the negative to see it. I would tell myself to do the hard things more often and do one thing each day to make myself uncomfortable. I’ve found comforts on the Race are traps, and only real growth can come from doing the unexpected, hard and unknown.
- What is your favorite city in the U.S./ in the world?
Favorite city in the U.S. is DENVER!! Biased. Honestly other than that I’d say Napa or Sonoma because… wine country. 🙂
Favorite city in the world SEOUL!!!!!! Once again totally biased. - Worst moment on the Race?
Honestly, I don’t have many terrible moments. Many heartbreaking things.. but honestly the worst moments would be moments when I was really struggling emotionally or internally. I think there was a lot I had to dig up and heal from this year and ripping open those old wounds was a really painful process.
- What was the most surprising thing you learned about yourself?
I AM A LIAR! Haha… but seriously. In Ethiopia, Month 7, I read “Braving the Wilderness” By Brené Brown (GO READ IT NOW!) and there was a chapter all about bullsh*t and how it’s ruining the world. While reading that chapter, I realized I was the biggest liar and bs’er of them all! Such a hard but awesome revelation. I literally ran around the house telling everyone I was a liar haha. And let me clarify, I don’t lie about big things, but little things. I do it because I’m insecure and I want to feel heard and seem cool and be noticed. But since Ethiopia I literally don’t think I’ve lied…. that’s insane.
- How many times do you shower on the Race?
Ha this question really made me laugh because it’s so real. Honestly, it depended on the water situation. If we had hot water, I’d shower regularly. But tbh we typically had bucket showers with cold water in dirty bathrooms.. with cockroaches. I wore hats, took baby wipe baths and sprayed perfume on many-a-days in a row to avoid the cold bucket showers. Longest I’ve gone is 6 days no shower….. yikes.
- How has the Race changed you?
I can’t even begin to talk about the ways the Race has changed my life. I’m more disciplined, I’m much more patient, I understand really hard things because I’ve seen really hard things. I think my heart has grown 10 sizes bigger and I’ve become a servant to those around me. I love Jesus more than I ever have and I will never ever ever ever stop going to the ends of the earth to share about his great love. I’m happier, lighter and frankly, I think I’m more sarcastic and hilarious. Oh! I’m humble too… 😉
But seriously, the Race has changed me for the better and I’ve never been more thankful to have been stripped down and built back up and refined.
- What was the hardest/most challenging thing you had to walk through this year?
Personally, I had to dig up some really painful wounds and let go of really difficult relationships. I wish I could say I have it all together, but I’ve got a really tough story and this isn’t the place to keep things like that bottled up or hidden. The community around constantly made me dig and dig and dig and sometimes I just wanted to quit working on “me” and do anything else. Pouring into others and into ministry comes naturally to me. Looking inwardly at all the ways I’ve screwed up and how to recorrect and align myself in Truth.. that was much harder to do.
- How will you take what you learned this year and make it applicable to life back home?
There are SO MANY things I want to do when I go home! I want to be super involved in my community #1! I have loved being in constant intentional community this year and I have loved being discipled as well as discipling others. I want to start small groups, and volunteer in my church’s high school ministry, I want to be interruptible and take breaks to unplug and be in life away from my phone and “wifi”. I want to do even bigger things internationally!! (But that’s for another time.) I want to continue in the same disciplines I’ve learned this past year and use them to pour into other people.
- What are your plans when you return to Colorado? In the church? In your community? In general?
Plans. Yikes. No plans right now. I’m going to finish the Race well and then go home and be with my FAMILY!!! I’m going to take about a month to really debrief, process and reflect and just enjoy my people!! Then I’ll start looking to bigger picture things. I’ve got a million plates spinning, don’t get me wrong, I’m a planner. But right now, I just want to finish this season.
Thanks everyone for these questions!! It was so fun to see everyone respond and be curious about life on the Race! If there’s anything else you want to know, feel free to email me or comment below and I will answer!! Love you all so much, and THANK YOU for all of your support over this past year. I couldn’t have done any of this without you!
