For the first time in 18 years, I won’t be starting school this month. It hasn’t really hit me until now as what would be a normal summer vacation is winding down. I’m a huge nerd, like Hermione Granger level, especially when it comes to science but I pretty much enjoy everything aside from English (but I love to read), so not going school is actually a little bit sad- and because I LOVED my college experience (Go Frogs).
Going on the World Race was a difficult decision for me because it meant putting my dream career on hold. I have wanted to be a vet for basically my entire life. I have been working towards this goal for so long and this time last year, I was completing vet school applications and had just started on my World Race application. The first few months of my last semester of college was packed with vet school interviews and a great deal of prayer for discernment from God. Was I supposed to go to vet school next year? Was I supposed to go on the World Race? Was I supposed to do something completely different?
I still remember getting the phone call in January from my Mobilizer Austin telling me I had been accepted to the World Race while I was visiting a friend in Fairbanks, Alaska. I’m pretty sure I said “OK” or “cool” or something else very nonchalant. Austin even called me on it saying I didn’t seem excited. And the truth is, I wasn’t, not yet. I couldn’t let myself be excited about it until I was sure I would be able to go on the trip which meant I still needed to hear back from vet schools about acceptances as well as possible deferrals. I knew that there was still a lot of pieces that needed to fall into place before I could say yes to this journey.
The next three months went by and I had interviews, got acceptances and rejections and started the process of asking for deferrals. In the end, I was granted deferrals from two schools and I committed to the World Race on March 30th. I knew that God had given me a clear sign that this was what He was calling me to do for the next year. He gave me the opportunity to have my dream career when I come back from serving and loving His people for a year. Now, as I sit on the floor in Colombia I realized that God didn’t call me to take a year off to serve Him and then go back to vet school. He called me to go on an incredible adventure while sharing His love all over His green Earth so that I can live the rest of my life serving Him and loving His people. See, He is teaching me how to fully live for Him and He just needed to get me away from my “normal” to really get to my heart.
So I won’t go to school this year but there will be a great deal of learning, and not just because I might be studying virtual dog anatomy- learning about myself, about other cultures, and about God. Vet school can wait, it’ll be sitting there for me in August 2018 but as for August 2017, I couldn’t be happier sitting on this floor in Colombia.
