My future will be comprised of hot humid days, filled with a sweaty stench. Freshly blistered, bloodied hands, and shoulders that ache from lugging around a pack the size of my dog. I witness the most breathtaking, crimson sunsets and the day’s gunk vanishes. My evenings are spent alone, in reflection of my mission. I rest in a tent, on a sleeping pad, 1/16th the size of my mattress at home. These are just a few things that I will come to encounter while traveling the world next year; things that will force me out of my comfort zone.
I slowly forget my cool, air-conditioned room, a safe space I once inhabited. Leaving behind junk I once accumulated, I will set off on an expedition, in hopes of solidifying my future. As I take my first steps after graduation, I will choose to stray from the traditional collegiate path. I will, instead, begin my adventure across the world. Stepping off each plane, onto a new country’s soil, I will be catapulted out of my comfort zone completely. My palette, captured by the dancing delicacies, will boogie with each bite. I will be witnessing the world through new and child-like eyes, and my iPhone camera- of course. Joining in fellowship, new relationships will be formed, as I travel across 3 continents.
While serving alongside 54 loving, passionate, and humble, young adults, I will learn many new things about myself and contrasting cultures. My eyes will have captured things I could have only dreamed about seeing, and my feet will have trekked across rugged terrain. I will have left my mark, my impact, on someone.
This experience is something no education, no degree, and no professor can teach; this is something that people has to seek out for themselves. My legs will be tired, and my arms will be worn, and I will be uncomfortable; this is my mission. I will be uncomfortable with some of the things I will see, like youth that have been starved for days at a time, families crammed together to stay warm under a single blanket, and mothers who sob for their young ones, and long for a better life. My eyes, by far, will be the most uncomfortable at times.
My prayer for my life next year is that I will continue to be uncomfortable and challenged by the life outside of America, and my suburban bubble. My prayer for the individuals I meet is that they would have open minds and hearts to the willingness that I, and many others, have to serve them. My prayer for society is that we would live outside the box and pursue things that seem a little uncomfortable.
