On September 7th I will fly to Georgia to complete the final 5 days of training before we officially launch with a flight to India on the 11th.
To many that sounds super super exciting and crazy. Lately, my entire squad of 42 have been writing blogs about how pumped and excited they are. They are sharing their fears, expectations, excitement, nervousness, stress and joy.
I cannot relate.
I have been thinking about and prepping for this journey since I was a sophomore in high school. I have been obsessing over blogs, videos, and pictures of other people doing the world race, I have been praying over this, making lists of gear I need, mentally thinking about fundraisers, and so much more. I even stalked the world race to the point of messaging two people I didn’t even know to talk about the world race (shout out to Logan and Bo who happen to be on my route… awkwardddd). The minute the routes were released I applied within the hour…. I was actually the first to apply!! When I got accepted a month later I was SO PUMPED! I immediately started fundraising and blogging. I made it a point to blog frequently and to update through social media about fundraising often. After 7 months of prayer and generous support from you all, I became fully funded in June! WOW. I was over the moon excited! I felt so blessed and grateful. Then I went to Training Camp and was PUMPED PUMPED PUMPED! I met my squad that I had face-timed and messaged with for almost 9 months prior and was filled to the brim spiritually and emotionally with love.
I came home from training and felt so dead. Not only was I dealing with being super super sick, I also felt bored. I had just spent 16 days with the people I will be spending 9 months with on a journey I have been obsessing over for years now… and now I have to wait. I have all my gear, I have no more fundraising to do, I have my spending money all worked out for while I’m on the race, I have my plane tickets booked…. And now I wait.
Don’t get me wrong… the amount of joy and peace I feel about going on the World Race is immense! I am so excited and I feel so so so extremely blessed by the opportunity! God has directed me on this path so clearly and I am excited to see him work in me and my team! But I have never enjoyed waiting. I enjoy working for things, planning for things, and dreaming about things… but I despise waiting. I feel extremely pushed right now by God in these moments leading up to launch on the 7th of September. I feel God pushing me in my relationships with friends and family, my work situation, my mental and physical readiness, and seeing the big picture. I am very much of a spontaneous person in my thoughts and actions so having to go weeks and weeks of “doing nothing” before I leave on the biggest adventure of my life thus far… is like dragging nails across a chalk board for me.
God is working inside me.
I feel God truly moving inside me and morphing the way I see and do things in this waiting process. It is hard… but it is GOOD. I am having to change the way I see certain situations and I am having to change the way I act in certain situations because of this. God is teaching me that when I lean on him and trust his path it isn’t always smooth and easy, sometimes there is confusion and frustration… and that is okay. God didn’t promise me a smooth and easy path going on the World Race! He promised me that he will walk with me and bless me through all of it because of my obedience… but he never said it would be easy.
In 4 weeks I will be at launch with my squad and I will be filled with more excitement than I have ever felt in my entire life. I will be doing my final preparations before heading to India and starting this crazy, insane, blessed journey… and until then I need to use this time to focus on preparing myself mentally and spiritually and spending time with my friends and family.
We all know there is joy in arriving to your destination… but I need to learn to find joy in the journey too.
ALSO…….
I have uploaded a few YouTube videos on my YouTube channel about Training Camp and my Tattoos!! It would be super cool if you went to my Youtube channel and watched those videos! Here is the link …. https://www.youtube.com/user/cupcakecrj
I haven’t come up with a set plan on what kinds of things I will use my YouTube Channel for specifically and Blog for specifically yet… but I will be blogging and uploading videos at least TWICE a week while on the field! So subscribe if you haven’t already! 🙂
Thank you agin for all yalls support and prayers thus far!!
I love you all!! 🙂
