Hello All!
My name is Miriam Griffith and I’m beyond pumped for the next chapter of my life to be written on the World Race!
A little about me (which I guess is appropriate considering you’re on the “About Me” page…):
I grew up in a small dirt-road town in Los Angeles County, California. I spent the majority of my childhood attempting to finish early, in everything, because I’m competitive… I graduated at 16 years old, shyer than your average homeschooler and quieter than most. I dove into completing my Associates Degree at a local community college (shout out to COC), taking classes every semester including summer and winter, tackling the degree and moving on to a 4 year college in Western New York. When I meet people, they ask me how the heck I got to live in central Pennsylvania from Southern California. Well, here’s the short story: during my last semester at COC, I started to look for colleges with three things: 1. Christian, 2. had some sort of Intercultural Studies degree, 3. was on the East Coast. The reasoning behind these stipulations is as follows:
1. I wanted to attend a Christian college because, although being raised Christian, I didn’t feel particularly like a Christian and I wanted to grow deeper through my education and by surrounding myself with like-minded people.
2. Intercultural Studies was a must! Back in 2008 at the ripe old age of 14, I went on a missions trip to Uganda with my church. At the time, my Mom was working to start a Nonprofit in the place we were going to (loverowan.org – shameless plug). One day she came home from a meeting about the trip and nonchalantly asked if I wanted to go. Before this, my world was small. I read about the history of other places and crushed it in homeschool Geography trivia, but my worldview was constrained to the places I knew of and had been (i.e. Southern California). I thought and prayed about the trip for about 13 hours and then made the decision to go; there had to be more to the world than my little piece of it. This trip changed the entire trajectory of my life (and I’m not being dramatic about this). This trip to help and serve people in the small village of Mwanga Uganda made me open my eyes to the vastness of the world and the complexity of different cultures and peoples. Hence me wanted to commit my educational career to expanding my knowledge of the world and therefore be able to help make a positive change in it.
3. East Coast; why trade sunny Cali for wintery New York? Logistics. My thought was, if I could establish my college and post-college years on the East Coast, logistically I would be closer to reaching other places in the world.
These three stipulations led me to attend Houghton College where, not only did I get to study abroad twice in SE Asia and Tanzania (a-ma-zing), I also met some of the best people. After college, I packed my bags and bought a one-way ticket to Ohio (and then carpooled to Houghton and then carpooled again to PA, ya gotta do what ya gotta do, right?).
I don’t want to make it sound like everything was hunky-dory. I, like most recent graduates, couldn’t find a job in my field to save my life. After submitting my resume around 140 times, my friend’s dad told me to apply for Amazon as a warehouse associate. So I did, some money for those loans is better than nothing, am I right? After about a year, I was promoted to manager. I’ve been working at Amazon for 3.5 years now and I was able to pay off all of my student loans (praise hands).
Now that that barrier (to use an Amazon term) has been removed, I feel led by the Lord to continue my work at being a change agent for the world.
When in Thailand, a good friend told me that “if anyone is crazy enough to think they can change the world and actually do it, it’s you.” That was the best compliment I’ve ever received.
And I intend to do just that: change the world. Being on the World Race is something that God has called me to do, just like I felt Him calling me to go on that missions trip to Uganda. I can’t wait to start out on this journey. Will you join me?
