Today is the end of life as I know it.
Tomorrow, I get in a car, drive for about four and a half hours and move into an apartment with five other girls in the heart of our nation’s capitol. We will all be participating in the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities’ Washington Journalism Center program or American Studies program. In early September, I will begin a journalism internship with the Religion News Service, “a non-profit wire service delivering current, unbiased coverage of religion, ethics and spirituality from around the globe.”
This semester isn’t just about professional development, although that is an essential part. This semester, will be different to say the least. I will have no option other than to be stretched. I will learn/grow life skills such as budgeting and cooking my own meals. I will form new relationships, both personal and professional and I’ll have to learn how to tackle transportation (and just life in general) in a city larger than any I’ve ever lived in before. So by the end of the semester, I will hopefully be a better writer and a more mature, self-sufficient, confident adult.
These experiences are not the only ones that are shaping my new life; the people around me are changing as well.
Perhaps the biggest change is that exactly one week after my parents leave me in D.C., they too will be packing their bags, uprooting their lives and starting over in a new place. My dad’s company has given him a 16 month assignment in Wisconsin. They will be moving back to home just before I graduate from Gardner-Webb. This means that for the rest of my time in college, “coming home” will either consist of short vacations with my family in Raleigh, or coming home by myself. It also means that I will spend some holidays in the “Cheese State.”
Another change is that my friends’ lives are changing as well. Between marriage, grad school and internships, my core group from Gardner-Webb has dispersed across the Southeast. My roommate of two years will no longer be there and hopefully, I’ll be taking an RA position when I return.
At home, two of my best friends graduate from college this year (one in December and one in May). Neither of them are really planning on staying in the Raleigh area after graduation.
I have no clue what I’ll be doing next summer, or where. Living in Wisconsin with my parents is one option, as is living in our house in Raleigh. Of course, nothing is really tying me down to either place, so that opens the door to explore internship opportunities in other areas.
After next summer comes my final semester of college, graduation and–the real world.
I normally don’t do well with change. I don’t like not knowing what’s coming next, but surprisingly, I’ve been at peace about the changes. I know that these next few uncertain weeks, months and years are an adventure and the start of something new.
Remember not the former things, nor consider the things of old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it? I will make a way in the wilderness and rivers in the desert. Isaiah 43:18-19
While I'm Waiting 