I
am T- just a few days, and I think it's safe to say my house is a disaster. My
ambition is ever so slightly ahead of me. For instance, "A memory quilt
won't take us that long"... Note that it is still sitting unfinished on
the dining room table. Alas, ambition, you shall not get the jump on me this
time! All of my water treatment gear, toiletries, miscellaneous stuff
(including my sketch books) weigh in at just under sixty pounds, the quilt is
in the finishing stages, my clothes are washed and being pressed, and the pot
roast is in the oven. See, ambition, I've got this!
Everyone
keeps asking me if I'm freaking out yet... The short answer: yes. The long
answer: my life is changing. I'm giving up my world. I am packing my life into
150 pounds, ready to leave in just a few days, and I don't even know what I am
teaching or where in Bamenda I will be living. I have faith that it will all
work out. This is an adventure, but no adventure is without trepidation. That's
part of it.
My
mom, my grandmother, my aunts and I celebrated my adventure with a weekend to
Avalon, Catalina Island. It was three days of laughter and relaxation. Part of
going on mission is connecting and making lasting memories with those that you
love. Three years is a long time, but it isn't a goodbye. It's a "see you
again on the shores of Avalon". It's a promise that even though everything
changes, the relationships will still be there, the connections still very much
alive. So in three years, we will once again travel to Avalon (hopefully for
longer than three days) for laughter, relaxation and reconnection.
"Though
we travel the world over to find the beautiful, we must carry it with us or we
find it not." -Ralph Waldo Emerson
-Ashley
