Our team usually throws out the phrase “real world” when we are talking about life after the Race. I wonder how the things I’ve learned will translate over to life back in the States. Here are a few habits I am forming and some that I am choosing to quit:
1. Feedback – KEEP – I honestly can’t figure out how I’ve gone my whole life without feedback. It’s as simple as communicating to the people you love. Positive feedback allows the person who is receiving to be recognized for whatever it is they deserved praise for. Constructive feedback is a gift for the other person to have an outside perspective on something that they could be doing better. I want to be told if I’m doing something wrong. I want growth!
2. Eating Habits – QUIT – Something about the race makes you want to forget all of your healthy eating habits that you had before you left. It might just be the idea of seeing a candy bar and thinking you won’t see another one until you’re back in the States. In reality, you’ll see one tomorrow at the convenient store around the corner. Don’t get me started on Cokes (AKA soda, pop, cola, etc. for the northerners on my team). I NEVER drink coke at home, yet when my host mom pulls out Coke at dinner, I drink it. Just… Stop.
3. Seeking God in day to day situations – KEEP – World Race introduced me to something called ATL (Ask The Lord). God wants to speak to us; we just have to be willing to listen. I give a video testimony here about an ATL that led us to a woman who we got to tell about God’s love for her!
4. Not working out – QUIT – There’s always going to be an excuse. Whether its at home and you don’t want to wake up early before you go to your 8 to 5 job or you’re constricted by a “buddy rule” and you can’t go for a quick run on your own. No excuses. This is something I’m not waiting for the end of my Race to change!
5. Packing Light/Living on little – KEEP – When I get home, a weekend trip won’t require a bag full of a week’s worth of clothes. I’ve learned how to keep a minimal amount of clothes in my possession because I’ll be carrying it on my back every 25 or so days.
6. Personal growth that depends on others – QUIT – I got in the habit of only thinking growth could come from feedback given by my teammates. Sometimes the best feedback comes from you. Another team told us how they started giving themselves feedback before other people gave feedback. It’s important to recognize in myself what I can grow in because once I get home, sitting down daily with the people I’m closest with for feedback time isn’t reality.
7. Ability to adapt to different scenarios – KEEP – Month in and month out we’re packing up, saying goodbye to the faces we’ve grown to love, and journeying to the next country. I’ve learned to trust that whatever unknown plan God has for me around the corner that it will be good, maybe hard, but will always have a purpose. I will be heading home before I know it and my plans after I return are about as clear as the smoky air on a Chinese train. Trusting in God’s plan for my life to a point that I am walking in faith and have NO plans is very new to me. Whatever it may be, I will be honing in on the skill of adaptability that I’ve acquired these past six months.
8. Trying new and different foods – KEEP – From moon cakes to roti to tarantula to butter chicken masala to sushi to salep, I’ve grown to LOVE trying foods that I wouldn’t normally consider, and typically end up liking them. That’s right, the tarantula was actually good! I’m looking forward to hosting a dinner party once I’m home and cooking all of the delicious foods that I’ve gotten to experience! (No worries friends and family, tarantula won’t be on the menu.)
9. Doubting that God will move in big ways – QUIT – Well thankfully this has already been in the process of being nixed from my life. Even after all the ways God has come through for me; I still take on my sinful nature and begin to doubt that God is bigger than my misconceptions of him. You would think that after deciding to pick up and leave all comforts and see how God provided for me to be on this adventure alongside him that I would have learned by now. Nope. Still is a process. Daily.
10. Talking to strangers – KEEP – I’ve always enjoyed talking to random people, but this trip has shown me how open people are to having good conversations, deep conversations. People want to share their story, and people want to hear your story! God has used this in incredible ways on my trip. Why is it that we’re so okay with staying in our own bubbles and not so much as saying “hello” or complimenting them on what you notice but keep to yourself? Be willing to break through those comfortable bubbles. God calls us to. Be willing to love people with the short conversations. Be willing to love people with the long conversations that take away from the plans you had that day. God might have bigger plans for you.
11. Owning my strengths – KEEP – My team has poured so much love into me. A big way they’ve done so is by telling me the things that they see that I have strength in and make an impact with. My teammate made a good point the other day; “We will be in the learning process until the day we die.” This means that even if you see ways you can still be growing, don’t let that stop you from using those gifts God has blessed you with NOW.
