“What do you want to do when you grow up?”
“I think I want to be a fire fighter. Or, what if I were a scientist? Or what if I were a doctor? Or, what if I were a teacher?”
These questions have consumed my mind ever since I was little and surely I am not alone. The beginning of the question is always the same, “what if?” What if you do this or what if you do that? What if you go to college, find a degree, meet the perfect guy, get married, raise a family? Yeah, what if that happens? If you want to follow the “rules” of society, then all of that should happen.
Here is my story of how I came to join this team called The World Race.
Over winter break my mom and I were driving along just talking about everyday life. As we came closer to our house she changed the subject over to how her and my dad talked about how they wanted me to live on campus the following year again.
(For those of you who do not know me, I am currently a freshman at Appalachian State and I had been asked by three of my good friends on campus to live in an apartment next year. I had already asked my parents about this about a month ago and they said they would think about it.
***Fast forward to that day with my mom***
Earlier that day I went to church and the message the pastor spoke on was, There’s Been a Change of Plans. I have always dreamed about going on The World Race, but when I first brought it up to my parents about a year and a half ago they shut the idea down because they had never heard of it/ didn’t know anything about it, reasonable. When the pastor spoke this message I could feel the presence of God and I knew that He was speaking to me. I know that I had to try again with my parents for the race.)
After my mom told me she and my dad wanted me to live on campus I then proceeded to say, “What if I don’t live on campus?” She asked me where I was going to live and I said, “What if I do the world race instead?” I honestly had not planned on saying that, but the words just flowed out without me thinking I just had to go with it. By now my heart was beating uncontrollably and I knew the next words out of my moms mouth were going to be the make it or break it.
“Well Hannah, you are 18 years old and I can’t stop you for doing something that you really want to do.” She said a lot of other things following that about how it would be hard, but if that was where my heart was then I could do it. Also, I had to have the approval of my dad. I was shocked. That same day I was just considering The World Race, and now I had my moms permission. How could I not at least try and get my dads permission? That was the next step.
Exactly one week later, after lots of prayer, my dad and I sat down on the couch together to talk about the race. He did not know what I wanted to talk about, but he found out immediately once I opened my mouth. Our conversation ended in tears, happy tears. My dad said yes.
That was the moment that I knew for sure I was going on the race and I hadn’t even been accepted yet. The next two days all I did was fill out applications and online interviews. I was determined to finish everything, so that I might find out if I could go on the race before I went back to school.
Next, the story is pretty simple, I finished my applications and about a week later I got a phone call, I was accepted! I cried, laughed, got super excited, then super nervous. I feel like I had every emotion come over me in a period of 2 minutes. It was awesome.
All of this came from me asking my mom, “What if I did The World Race?” What if? The question comes up in your life and more often then not, you don’t end up doing what you say after what if. God was for sure by my side when I talked to my mom and dad. Even though the question is so simple, the passion I had behind the question is what made it so hard. If my parents were to have said no I have no clue what I would have done. Yes, probably gone back to App, but I knew that God’s plan for me much different.
God, thank you for providing me with the words, what if. World race, here I come.
