Greetings friends!
It’s been 6 months since being home… feels like forever, ha! Soooo, what have I been up to?
Not much really…
One of the biggest concerns after the world race is so what’s next? Some racers go on to squad lead. Others lead the short term trips. Few have jobs lined up for when they return. The fortunate ones find jobs shortly after returning. The lucky ones get engaged (got 4 wedding invitations this wedding season)…and then there’s the rest of us…
So what have I done? aside from sending countless job applications and doing some interviews… I spent a month in Costa Rica and worked on my grandpa’s banana plantation (best time ever!!!). I also am a volunteer with the American Red Cross on their Disaster Relief Team.
But mostly I’ve been waiting… for something, anything to happen.
We have this idea that success is measured by how much money we make or the status we hold in a job. I go back and forth with what I think the definition of success is. Sometimes I think that I’ve had a very successful life thus far. Sometimes I feel like I haven’t achieved much at all. Somehow after taking a life changing adventure you expect things to magically change everywhere. So when you return to nothing…you’re just confused. You’re left wondering “what’s next?…what’s my next BIG thing?”
I never imagined my life would turn out the way it did. According to my plan (and that of all the expectations around me), I was going to graduate college, go to law school, be some hot shot lawyer for a couple years, become a Supreme Court judge, make millions and retire in my beach house in Costa Rica. Needless to say, my life is looking drastically different from that plan. Most days I don’t feel like I was capable of making that plan happen. Most days I feel like a failure. Not only to myself but to all those around me who had such high expectations of me… I mean, shouldn’t I have delivered? Miss Valedictorian voted “Most Likely to Succeed”… I was “that kid” who was going to #besomebody.
Sometimes it’s not about us and our accomplishments or the expectations set out for us. There is a greater purpose we are meant to live out. It sometimes seems smaller than what we would have expected. It sometimes is bigger than what we could have ever imagined. But as always, it is God ordained.
So… I don’t have some big announcement or news on the next “big thing” that’s happening. I’m just in Brooklyn…and if not going to Law School meant that I would go on the World Race instead to come home to nothing and babysit my neighbor’s kid every morning so she can go to work to provide for her family, then I’ll take it… Sometimes life is worth more than the prescribed life of the “American Dream”.
To the future alumni racers out there: know that it’s ok if you don’t have a next “big thing” after the World Race. However, do not be discouraged. “And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.”- Galatians 6:9
Stay Blessed
Kim =)
P.S- my friend Shirletha has said yes to the Lord and taken the challenge to be His hands and feet. Would you consider supporting her race? You may do so through her blog: shirlethajordan.theworldrace.org
Thanks friends =)
