There’s a little over a month left of this thing. This adventure, like all things eventually do, is coming to a close. I’m playing with the kids and filling out scholarship applications. I’m doing street ministry and deciding whether or not I want my mom to clean my room for me before I get back. I’m sucking the last of the marrow out of this journey and trying not to let life steal it away from me. I told my friend on the bus earlier, “I’m not ready to think about this ending in a serious context yet, I want it to stay dreamy.” The reality is, endings are scary, especially when they double as beginnings and you aren’t really sure what’s on the other side of that shiny new doorstep. So, like all of us, I’ve been asking the question, “How am I going to leave this place and these people?” Recently, however, I’ve been reminded that these last 9 months were just another 9 months of my life. It was a long season of accelerated growth but not separate or apart from the big-picture journey that keeps on keeping on. While I’m figuring out how to say goodbye to here, I’ve also been learning how to say hello to what’s coming and daring to ask, “what’s next?”
So… (drum roll, please) here’s my unofficial plans and big dreamy goal list for the adventure that is the year following the race!
- For the two weeks directly following my departure from the field, I’m going to be fulfilling a life-long dream of mine and hanging out in Europe for a bit. I’m excited for the change of scenery, but also for the fourteen unscheduled days of rest and play. Ed Sheeran’s new album and I will be exploring Dublin, London and Barcelona. La Sagrada Familia, I’m coming for ya!
- This girl touches American soil for the first time in 9 months on July 13th. Upon returning to the States, I’ve chosen to accept a 3 month event-coordinating internship in Indiana. This could mean August to October or September to November, I’m not 100% on details (but then again, am I really ever?). I’m looking at this time as being somewhat of a one-country extension to my race, adding America to my list of countries and it’s simply ironic that the job happens to be 3 months long. I’m hoping I can get a feel for what it’s like to live missionally at home, meaning I’m going to take the mindset I’ve had for the last 9 months of looking for opportunities to serve no matter where I am and realizing that serving isn’t something that is dependent on being within the time constraints of a mission trip.
- Good ole family Christmas will be spent with all my loved ones in Arkansas and I couldn’t be happier about it.
- In January, I’m starting the year off with packed bags and a move into Hog country. Yep, Fayetteville, you’re getting a wild one. This is something I’ve been looking forward to for a reaaalllllyyyy long time. I love school and learning and college and all the other nerdy things tied up with a big red bow. If all goes as planned, I’ll be studying English and Pre-medical studies, the two things my heart beats for. Speaking of heartbeats, the Lord has really been pressing this community of Northwest Arkansas on my heart lately. It’s humbling coming from the girl that, by high school, was dead set on getting the heck outta the homeland. I suppose sometimes you need to leave a place to realize how much you really need it. Distance does make the heart grow fonder, doesn’t it? In all seriousness, this place has become something that I believe the Lord is going to use to remind me what it’s like to plant down roots and invest long-term in one people and one place. To be so deeply devoted to a community that when things get hard, it’s not an option to uproot and go to a new place.
- Personally, I want the next year to be a time that is spent diving even deeper into this beautiful grace (the blog and the literal thing). I want to really invest in this page and grow a community here. I want to put my pen back to the paper in a literal sense and open up a t.b.g. etsy shop for my calligraphy. I want to keep up a grateful journal and watch it grow and grow with all the gifts in my life. I want to commit to staying in Fayetteville for 4 consecutive years and becoming a part of the life that happens there. I want to make bike riding a normal part of life and I kinda want to start an unofficial book club. I want to continue my trial and error journey toward brewing the world’s best cup of coffee and when I finally get it, I want to drink it nice and slow, remembering what it feels like to grab hold of a moment before it’s gone. I want to take the sense of gratitude I’ve acquired from living with a little and integrating it in the same volume to living with more than enough. I want to be a person that lives every day from the overflow of this beautiful grace that is the reason for everything I am and everything I do.
This is a little sneak peek into what the next year will look like for me and for the things I’m working toward. People who have supported me in prayer, if you continue to support me past the race, you can pray for clear direction in these things and for opportunities to come in abundance. I’ve never felt so blessed than to be a part of an adventure that doesn’t end after what is, so far, the best 8 months of my life. Month 9, bring it on.
You can find This Beautiful Grace blog, my personal blog that will continue to be updated past the end of the race, heeeerrrreeee.
