It's Been Quite the Year

Wow.

Here I sit in India, typing away in my little brick hut,

When it suddenly hit me that it has been exactly a year since I was accepted to grad school.

Until a year ago today, I had absolutely no idea what direction God was going to take me; in fact, I was feeling pretty stuck. And look at me now, two-thirds of the way done with my Master’s degree and living in India!!!

Looking back, I can’t believe that it has only been a year!!! And what a year it’s been:

A year in which I temporarily moved away from the most near and dear people in my life...and found that the distance only made my heart grow closer to them. A year in which I met and was inspired by some of the most incredible people that I know. A year in which I visited 6 new states [Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Hawaii]. A year that I lived in Vermont [now, how many people can say that?] and had many, many adventures on the Greyhound bus between Brattleboro and Boston. I showed my mom Chicago in a whirlwind day. I got to go on vacation with my family…twice. Oh, and I also lived with five girls in a one-bedroom apartment in Manhattan…that was an adventure in and of itself J I learned Italian. I wakeboarded. I fell in love with Kolb’s experiential learning cycle. I went to the biggest pumpkin festival in the world. I cohabitated with a snowman named Steve [that was for you, Sabs]. I developed a deep affection for pitted prunes [now, before you grimace and say gross, I want you to try one]. I was honored to stand up in my best friend’s wedding, and later my soulmate’s [and celebrated with many other precious people through their engagements and weddings, too]. It was a year where I was stretched and challenged way beyond what I ever thought possible emotionally, spiritually, and intellectually…and also physically: I committed to a gluten-free lifestyle, I tried to become a runner [emphasis on try; I’m still working on that one], and, for the first time in my life, I woke up with bags under my eyes [sorry for the ugly truth…I have social change class to thank for those. And for a lot of greater things, as well]. I learned even more about who I am and what it means to love Jesus more than anything. I uncovered many new dreams and desires [who knew that going back to school would only make me want to keep going back???] and I’m pretty sure that I should have six-pack abs as proof of how much I laughed.

Wow. [again.]

To think that I worried, that I stressed about “what I should do with my life”. God knew all along that I would be sitting here today…and if all that happened in only a year, I can’t wait to see what this next one has in store. As Jennie Mather [now Anderson] and I used to say [while sitting on a bench in the Plaza Mayor in Segovia, Spain], “I wonder what God knows that He’s smiling about right now?”