Hello Again,
My name is Tori, and I’m from Harleysville, Pennsylvania. Currently, I am a sophomore at Temple University located in Philadelphia. Before enrolling at Temple, I accepted a lacrosse scholarship to Marquette University. During my time at Marquette, I learned a lot about myself. While I formed some incredible friendships and had some fun times, I realized that Marquette was not the best school for me. After trying to juggle the responsibilties that come with being a division one athlete, I realized that I was chasing after a dream I no longer wanted to puruse. Playing lacrosse at the highest level possible was a dream 10 years in the making. And when I finally achieved this dream of mine, I realized that it was not in God’s plan for me. During my last weeks at Marquette, I went through a deep funk, and I was not in the right mindset. My schoolwork and athletic committments were piling up, and I felt as if the world was collapsing in on me. It was at this time that I realized I needed to make a change. So after many sleepless nights and constant debate with myself, I decided to leave Marquette and puruse another avenue of God’s plan for me. After officially dropping out of school, I was a wreck. I had no idea what to do with my life or how I would recover from throwing away a dream I had worked so hard to achieve. When I arrived home, I took a week to decompress to sort my life out. I contemplated leaving the country and working abroad, and even backpacking solo somewhere in the world. All I wanted was to escape life and to escape responsiblity. Well, I quickly learned that I had to take responsibility for my actions, so after a week, I began working. No, it wasn’t fun or in any way how I imagined my semester turning out, but sometimes you have to deal with the bad before you get to the good.
Working 50-hour weeks, sometimes 60, was difficult to adjust to when you’re used to just going to school and studying for a fraction of that time. Anyways, I decided that in the spring I would travel somwhere far, very far, away. After hours of reasearch, I stumbled upon a gap year organization that offered a semester of travel to the South Pacific. Hook, line, and sinker, I was sold and immediately jumped on the opportunity to explore Australia, New Zealand, and Fiji. Australia was my main focus, but how could I pass up the opportunity to visit two more beautiful countries? Now that I had the prospect of travel in the back of my mind, suddenly work became more fun and less monotonous. My program began at the start of February, so that meant I was to depart in late January since Australia is a day ahead. With each new day, I became more and more anxious to leave the country. During my time at home, I spent a lot of time with my family. I became closer with my siblings and established stronger bonds with them. It was also at this time that my youngest sister converted to Mormonism. I started going to church with her more frequently, as I was curious about the religion. I figured that by exposing myself to other religions, it would ultimately help solidify and strengthen my own realationship with God. Although it was often difficult for me to sit through some of the services, espcecillay the three-hour ones, I learned a lot about Mormonism and my sister’s role in the church. While I don’t agree with certain aspects of Mormonism, I was able to gain a greater appreciation for religion itself. At college, I felt like I had lost my connection with God and veered off the path that God had intended for me to follow. But as I sat on the Milwaukee waterfront with tears streaming down my face the day I left college, I felt God’s presence within me. I knew that the road before me was not going to be easy and that I would have to persevere if I wanted to live by God’s new plan for me. Leaving college, and so many amazing people, was one of the most difficult things I’ve experienced so far, but it helped me gain clarity in my life and motivated me to pursue new passions. Travel has always been a passion of mine, so I knew I wanted to take the opportunity to explore as much of the world as possible.
Before entering college, I would say that I had a good realtionship with God, but not anywhere close to where I wanted it to be. During my childhood, I was brought up in a fairly religious environment. I attended Sunday school every week and recited my prayers every night. However, after the death of my brother, I cut off my relationship with God. I felt betrayed and felt that I had been lied to my whole life. How could God take away someone so special from my life? How dare he? I took my brother’s death hard and still haven’t fully recovered. My brother was my best friend, my partner in crime. And although we were 10 years apart, that never stopped us from learning and growing from one another. My brother was my biggest role model and was the light in my life. If I was ever down or not feeling myself, my brother always knew how to cheer me up and how to make me laugh. So, as you can probably imagine, I was shattered when he died. I went through a deep funk and resented God. I stopped going to church and never tried to gain closure or healing. I was stubborn. It was not until my sophomore year of high school that I started to rebuild my relationship with God. While I resented God for taking my brother, I never stopped believing in his power. I knew, in the back of my mind, that God was always there for me and would always be there, I just temporarily checked out of our relationship. So, yes, it was not until high school that I wanted to let God back in. I slowly began talking to God and reading the Bible. I attended church here and there, but I wasn’t quite ready to jump right back in. I will admit that my relationship with God is still not as strong as I would like it to be, but I believe that by participating in the World Race, I will be able to connect with God and serve Him in some of the most unique ways possible. Faith is a powerful force and I realize that not everyone has the same relationship with God as I do, or even one to begin with, but my goal is to expose people to the word of God and the opportunity to build/further a relationship with Him. It’s not my goal to shove religion down anyone’s throat, but to simply share the gospel with them and to present them with information. As much as I will be teaching others, I will also be learning and growing from the interactions I encounter during my time abroad. Learning from expereiences and people who differ from me is what I consider to be life’s greatest form of education, so I am excited to dive into this epic journey of ministry.
Sorry, I kind of went off track…Anyways,
When I finally did take the plunge and traveled halfway across the world by myself, I had no idea that it would dramatically change my life for the better. In my three months abroad, I learned more about myself than I did in my 18 years of existence. Travel is a beautiful teacher of life. When you learn to embrace life’s uncertainties and take advantage of opportunity when it hits you, you’ll find that there’s much more to life than the routine. The people I’ve met on my travels have inspired me to work toward being the best version of myself and inspired me to step outside of my comfort zone. At Temple, I am majoring in journalism. My passion for growing from people and learning about their experiences are what have pulled me to this area of study. I love interacting with new faces, old faces, and really anyone who is interested in striking up a conversation. Becasue one thing I’ve learned from travel is that your experiences are shaped by your interactions with people. No, not everyone is going to be like you or agree with you, but the imporant thing to consider is that differences are what make our world so incredibly dynamic and unique. As much as it may be hard to understand, I’ve managed to learn something from every traveler I’ve encountered during my travels. I don’t know what God has in store for me, and I have no idea what his plan is for me, but I know that getting to know people and helping them is something I’m destined to continue for the rest of my life.
