And the Journey Begins

I feel like I should have a dramatic starting sentence, followed by a glowing description of the months ahead, simply because I’ve titled this with a somewhat dramatic name.
Ahh, “And the Journey Begins”
.....… What journey?

Well, to tell you the truth… I have no idea.

I know the basic foundation of this “journey”, which have been what I’ve shared with most of those who are reading this right now:

I’ll be in Europe for two months. (Yeah, what a way to start of my senior year!)

I’ll be living with my aunt, uncle, and two of my cousins who live over there full-time as missionaries.

I’ll be completing math from my junior year, (Math: the bane of my existence…)

I’ll be singing with… some sort of choir; (which will be absolutely amazing.)

I’ll have the opportunity to write content for a website created by a friend of mine, and hopefully I’ll be able to write some with my aunt too!

And all I had to say to most of my friends here at home was, “Yeah… I’ll be in Europe for two months” and I had people telling me everything from, ‘keep in touch!’ to, “Write! Tell. Me. About. Everything!!” to, “Send me pictures!” to the almost guaranteed, “TAKE ME WITH YOU!!!!”. Most everyone seems to be convinced that this is the trip of a lifetime! And... I think I’m in agreement with them...

As promising as all of that sounds, I truly feel that this trip will be more than what I’ve just mentioned. I feel that it will be a foundational point in my life, during which I will experience God, worship, people and life in a way I never have before.

I feel like God will take my hand during this time, and tell my soul to rest. And then I feel that He will gently lead me into a deeper knowledge of Himself.

So, this journey will be, I believe, so much more than a trip halfway around the world. (Not that there’s anything shabby about that!) And I'll post regularly to keep those of you who want to be updated, updated on what God is showing me! When I come home, I feel like I’ll be stronger. I’ll be firmer in myself. I’ll be firmer in the Lord. And all this weakness, hurt and pain will have melted away, and in its place there will be standing… Me.

As of right now though, I’m sitting on the floor of my room. I love this room… I’ve plastered the pictures of family and friends all over the walls, and spread amongst them are little plaques with inspirational, (and for some) mildly cheesy sayings that very from, “My greatest fear is that there is no PMS, and this is just my personality” to Bible verses that speak to my soul. My fan is blowing, and I’m actually getting really cold. I don’t have socks on, which is weird for me. The keyboard makes a noise with every key I press, and I just realized for the zillionth time this week that my fingernails are in desperate need of a paint job. (Why can’t I ever remember to paint my fingernails at a convenient time?) (And why can’t I ever spell “convenient” without the help of spellcheck?) (Because those two sentences were totally relevant…)

My iPod is playing very quietly in the background. This is a new song that I just bought, and I don’t think I’ve heard it play all the way through yet…. I honestly just got on this laptop to if I needed to charge it before I left for the airport tomorrow. Naturally, it needs to be charged. It lives in a constant state of needing to be charged, (so what did I expect?)

My bed is at my back, and my newly cleaned room is rather dim, and since it’s 12:33am, the darkness does make sense… Only a few things are out of place. My Bible is tucked away securely in one of my carryon bags, instead of sitting on top of my pile of special books near my bed. By the door, there’s a pile of some of my second-favorite clothes that had to be removed from my suitcase because I’d originally packed too much and my suitcase exceeded the airport’s maximum weight-limit; so tomorrow morning I’ll have to hang all those clothes back in their normal places and say goodbye to them for a while.

The walls are smiling at me with the faces of the people I’m writing to… the people I’m about to leave behind.

It’s not that I don’t want to go on this amazing trip, because I do! I really do! But I’ve never been gone from home for more than 2 weeks before. I love my home. I’ve always loved home. I know it’ll still be here when I get back. It’ll still be waiting. But right now, as I ramble about the random little things that make up my reality, the time on the clock is ticking… it’s 12:38 now, and I know I have to go. I’ll have to finish up this little post, get ready for bed. Then I’ll have to crawl into my bed, after removing my hamster’s little wheel from her cage, (because she makes so much noise with it in the middle of the night), then I’ll go to sleep. When I wake up new experiences will be awaiting me, and time will only tell what those experiences will be…