- Unsweetened ice tea from The Millhouse (Angie is the best)
- Plans to head to Atlanta tomorrow afternoon to hang out with Shelby for the weekend
- Motor World (because Daddy got me completely hooked on this pointless game)
- Remembering that I have Oreos in my room from Calle (sweet)
- The possibility that Jordan and I will be heading to TN for a day to see Amber, Jake and Ellie at CWS and then spending the weekend with friends in Atlanta in a couple weeks
I need to move again. I'm back to being antsy and unsettled and frustrated. I need my own boundaries, privacy and a clean kitchen. It's time to face everything I'm truly scared of at this point, and move out on my own.
For years now I've just figured my life would follow the path that seems pretty traditional in my family (and for many of my friends as well) where I would just go to school and live with family and/or friends until I found the right person and settled down. At that point I'd expect to move out and deal with all the joy and wonder of normal rent/housing everything, but I'd also be facing it with the person I plan to face all my future challenges with. This is not my life.
It's kind of hilarious when I start thinking about the fact that there has ever been a hope that my life would follow a traditional pattern. Nothing I do seems to go by any cultural/social norms within my family or just the circles I am a part of. I am, instead, a gypsy. A nomad. A wanderer. Mind you, this is not strictly by choice in any traditional sense, but rather, I begin to get comfortable or use to a place, and I find myself being nudged onward. Always onward. Packing my bags, my life, my car back up and heading to the next place.
I don't regret the places and people I've been introduced to along the way. I don't regret following God's leading to new places. I don't regret any of that. I've lived a life few can claim. My locals haven't been exotic. I haven't gone to new countries or had to learn new languages, but I've lived in different cities among different people in different states. Each place is a new culture to learn with new stories and traditions, and in each place I have met people or grown relationships that have helped me to continue to grow into the woman I am trying to become. I've learned new skills and learned about my shortcomings. This life grows me and stretches the bounds of my heart. It tests my trust in God, and it scares the living daylights out of me.
There is a longing in me that wishes I could've lived that other life. Lived the life where I went to a secular college, become a psychologist or a librarian or taught literature or art history somewhere, found a normal guy, got married, had kids. My folks were married with 2 kids at this point. One of my brothers is married. Most of my close friends are married with little ones. If I'd have picked my life out of a stack, that would've been the life I chose.
But God knows better.
Lord knows I'm a wanderer by nature, and I love the travel. I just really wish I could find home again. Maybe moving out on my own after all these years will find my heart at rest, or maybe I'll just realize I'm beginning the next step onto a new path and into a new adventure. Whatever I'm facing, I'm holding onto God's goodness and praying that I'm discerning enough to see where He's leading and brave enough to follow.
Here I hold to Elizabeth Gilbert's words defining faith as "walking full speed into the dark." Here I go.
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