It’s Sunday, September 10, 2006 at 2:23 PM. The Eagles are currently beating the Texans 13 to 10 at the end of the 2nd Quarter and I just ate a satisfying meal of Italian stromboli and wings. Tomorrow I’ll fight rush hour traffic journeying to my job over 25 miles away and the week will start all over again. When I look at my life and where I’m at in my Spiritual Journey, I see myself in Phase 3. Because I don’t look at where I am in my job or the size of my apartment to give my life meaning. My number one goal right now is to work my way through graduate school and receive my Masters in Urban Studies.
My spiritual growth in this journey started years ago when I started to gain interest in social problems and injustices around the world and lead me to my current phase. Over the next couple of years, this journey will continue and hopefully allow me to complete my goal, which in turn will prepare me for the next journey of my life. I believe that there have been all sorts of signs and nudges along the way, pushing me towards the choice of going into this line of ministry and service. Little things from my childhood, up to life-altering experiences have all lead me in the direction of the program and in choosing what to do with my life. All along the way, God has been visible in changing my heart and desires, along with giving me the space to discover what it is that I want to do. And so, here I am, in Phase 3 of my graduate journey, parallel with my spiritual one.
As a child, I was being prepped for the future without even knowing it. I always figured that missions trips and community service projects were just fun things to do. I didn’t realize the impact that these things would have on my future career path and life interests. In fact, I never really saw the care of impoverished people as something I could do as a job full-time. I figured that it would be a week-long trip here, a weekend there and maybe a donation every once and a while. Certainly not a job. I went off to college to major in music business, eventually changing majors to journalism.
It was in the middle of my junior year of college when I got the opportunity to travel to Brazil and Uruguay. I had become friends with a group of South American students at my college and was exposed to all sorts of new culture. I had always loved the city growing up and now I was becoming interested in international cities and the people in them. As I traveled through those countries, I realized several things. First, people in America and people in Brazil, Uruguay, Argentina and all around the world are not that different. We all share the same dreams and desires for our families and loved ones- to live peacefully with health and happiness. But we’re different in many ways too. Things that are acceptable down there would never fly here, such as the amount of street children begging every day for food or money. The sort of government and private care that people get around the world is not up to the standard that we would find adequate. They are on their own.
And so, with my eyes open and my heart heavy, I went back to my comfy life, graduated college and began to look for a job in the “real world”, always feeling that there was more out there than the 9-5 corporate rat race in which I found myself. Graduate school had always been a distant thought of mine and I began research on various programs around the area. Peace and Conflict Resolution attracted me because of all the wars and fighting in the world, along with International Studies. I applied, waited and prayed. None of the programs seemed to fit into exactly what I wanted, which was a degree that would educate and prepare me for non-profit work in urban cities locally and around the world. I started dating my boyfriend in January of ’06 and he happened to attend Eastern University. At his suggestion, I looked into Eastern’s graduate programs and discovered the Urban Studies program. It fit in perfectly with what I was interested in and what I wanted to learn. I was accepted three months later.
Which brings us up to Phase 3 and my current place in my educational and spiritual journey. Working 32 hours a week and taking 9 credits of coursework is an adjustment and it hasn’t always been easy. Sometimes I question why I chose this line of study and how I’ll ever be able to pay off all my loans and find a job in something meaningful that can support me as well. It all comes down to faith in the end. I know that once Phase 4 is complete, I’ll be happy, relieved, sad and scared. But hopefully, God willing, the things that I will learn throughout my course of study and the people that I meet at Eastern will lead me into the next phase of my life- the phase where I put everything to use in order to bring about change.
When I look back, there are so many things that prepared me for the decision to attend this program and do the things that I feel called to do. As I continue in my educational journey, I am more aware that every little thing that happens in my life has a place in my overall spiritual journey. Just knowing this makes me want to live in a way that will only improve myself and allow me to grow so that I may be prepared to some day help other people with their own journeys.
No comments:
Post a Comment