It's been a while. The countdown is at 80 days until I fly to LA for training. A week later, I will be overseas. Thought I'd give an update on how I'm doing...
It has been 7 months since I have left grad school. It has been 4 months since I have accepted the invitation to serve with Teach Overseas. My life in these past few months has been quite possibly the most challenging it has ever been (I've had darker, more trying years, but less challenging, if that makes sense), but I wouldn't trade a minute of it.
In this time, I have put my plans on pause. When I graduated college, I thought that I was going to spend the rest of my life holed away in my lab. I was going to spend my life reading, experimenting, and scribbling. In this time, I am coming to terms with the idea that that might not be my life. I am not concerned so much with leaving chemistry as what I'm leaving it for. I'm considering leaving it for things I had never imagined. Teaching. Advocating for students. Things I have dismissed as possible for little me. And now I find myself volunteering with InterVarsity and preparing to teach overseas. Both of these have been challenging in and of themselves. I have had to exercise my leadership muscles that I have hardly used, and I have had to let go of my pride and ask people to come alongside me for this journey, for both personal and practical support. Despite these challenges, I am certain of my place here and now. I'm just concerned about where it leads. I am concerned about where it leads because it does not lead back to the lab. I have no doubt that it will be a far better road, it's just scary. And I know it wouldn't require trust if it wasn't. It is with trust that I even step on the road to begin with.
Overall, I've been fairly overwhelmed. With hope, with excitement, with fear, with anticipation, with details, with thoughts. But I love my life right now. And I am grateful for every minute.
