You can ask most high school students (of any grade really) what question they get asked most frequently by adults and they will probably all come back with the same answer. “Do you know what you want to do?” Also known as “What are you going to study after high school and where?”. For all the planners out there, like me, you hate this question if you’re not 100% sure of your future plans. Most likely you answer with the fact that you are going to a school of some sort. That was me my junior & senior year always answering with something along the lines of “I’m thinking of a private university or maybe a community College.” When God is a part of your life things can sometimes change. When you actually feel God, know him, and want to know his plans for your life….well, that’s when your world gets flipped upside down.

     My senior year I was having a BLAST. I loved Edison High School, my friends, my church, my final season of field hockey, and all the activities that went along with it. When it got closer to time to apply to colleges and start mapping out my life for the next 4 years, like everyone else I knew, I thought I had it down. Go to a private university, study, maybe travel, meet someone, graduate, get a job, and do what everyone else does. Here is where it gets interesting…  Many of you know I have been on mission’s trips in the past & that I loved them. After going to Peru in 2010, Panama in 2011, and Ecuador in 2012 I thought I wouldn’t go anywhere for a while, but rather go to college. It’s the normal thing to do…right? Well in March of 2012 I was at church when something changed. That night at church they were talking about missions. I was excited because I love hearing about what others are doing, what is going on in the world, and how God is working international. That night at church I prayed during worship because I had been feeling like doing missions work maybe wasn’t the right thing for me. That night I felt it on my heart that I would be going somewhere and doing something. I cannot really describe the feeling, an overwhelming passion I guess, that engulfed my heart. I knew that somehow, in some way, at some time, I was going somewhere. I knew it. I still wasn’t ready to let go of everything.

Have you ever tried to walk the wrong way on a busy sidewalk?

Have you ever tried to get into a room when every single other person in flooding out?

Or maybe tried to take a certain class when everyone you know is taking something different together?

That is what it is like going on this trip. You’re a fish swimming upstream, you’re the person walking the wrong way, and you’re the one doing something different. When you walk the wrong way it requires letting go of everything.

Is it hard to do something different? Yes, very hard. From goodbyes, to doubts, to worries, to fears, to the unknown. It’s very hard.  I can only imagine that it will be the best time of my life. After all, Gods plan is better than my own.