What I'm doing Fall 2013

When I was young, I would always make believe my bed (sometimes even the couch) was a giant boat about to sail off somewhere far away. The thing is, I had more fun packing my things in my purple caboodle, pretending I had less material wealth, than I did pretending I was sailing out into the world.

There's a part of me that always enjoys packing up my things and leaving somewhere. Granted, when I studied abroad in China it was somewhat of a pain only because I wasn't sure what to expect/pack... but there was something satisfying about traveling to the opposite ends of the earth with only the things on my back.

All this is to say, I wish I was traveling to some distant land - seeing new faces, experiencing new smells, eating food I would never find at home (milk tea how I miss you T_T), missing home for stupid reasons like sitting on the couch watching trash television like America's Next Top Model... you get the picture.

Am I ready to leave? Yes. I will always have this desire to leave home for some strange new environment. Not because I hate home, but because I want to expand how I view the world by expanding my world from just boring old Flemington to something so much bigger.

Am I going back to China? No. Probably not for a while. I haven't found an overseas program yet that seems to fit, so for now I'll just wait it out.

But what I'm really trying to get at here is another opportunity I came upon. It all happened when I started reading Shane Claiborne's "Irrisistable Revolution" (which if you haven't read, you should), and I went on his website to see if there were programs or something he gave the thumbs up on. The Simple Way was one group (located out in Philly) but they said if younger people were looking to sign up, they should probably check out Mission Year.

It's so peculiar, because I applied to a lot of different programs beginning from last semester senior year throughout summer. I never thought it would be so difficult just to do work with Americorps, or a similar program. But it was. And it was discouraging. Very discouraging. But when I was at my lowest point of the summer, that's when I found Mission Year, and realized how very much I wanted to sign up for it.

Anyways, in case you are wondering yes, I just found out last week that starting in Fall 2013 I will be working (if you can call it that, because I'm being funded for this, and "freeloading" carries a rather negative connotation) with Mission Year! I'm not sure about what city, but at this point I could really care less. I'm just truly thankful. For so much.

I wish I could tell you more, but for now I think it's best to wait until I have all the facts and THEN give you all the details. Consider this a sort of prologue? Maybe? That's weird. Don't call it that. Please. For my sake. Even though I told you to call it that and have all authority to go back and delete what I just wrote. Whatever man. You're the one still reading this.

Before I end this post, I think now would be a good time to mention two of my Houghton friends who will be going overseas in the near future and doing super cool things like saving the world and all that jazz. If you can, you should totally fund/pray for them! Every dollar counts. And even if you don't have money, prayer is just as helpful, if not more so.

First, there's Emily Rinehart who graduated a year before I did, and dang we had a lot of homework parties. A lot. And believe me, they were more like stress parties, or "Let's-see-what-weird-unnecessary-thing-we-can-make-off-of-stumbleupon" parties, or "Hey,-three-in-the-morning-is-always-a-good-time-to-start-playing-mario-kart" parties. She's working with One Mission Society,  and you should totally check out her blog and ways you can help her out by clicking here.

Then there's my other friend Chelsea Ellis, who I actually lived with in the same townhouse Junior and Senior year. Technically we were roommates during Mayterm in 2010... but on paper I had a single. (Ha. Whatever Houghton.) She's pretty crazy and awesome (mostly because one night, during a crazy all nighter stress party session at Emily's, I came back to my townhouse at four in the morning to find Chelsea strapping on roller blades. I mean, what else would you do at that hour). She's going to start traveling with the World Race this coming January, traveling to 11 countries in 11 months - so please check out her blog by clicking here. She also has an etsy account to help raise money by selling various kinds of jewelry which you can check out by clicking here.

Well, that's all I have for now. I'll be sure to update you about what's to come (and I'm sorry for this long post. It's annoying me there aren't more pictures, but the pictures I wanted to add weren't co-operating... so blame it on blogspot. Not me.) so for now I'll leave you with this:

You're welcome.