Adventures in Life - A New Journey

 I haven't posted anything on here for a long time because I honestly have been really in such a weird place of limbo for most of this year. So close to the start of this year, I had no idea what I was going to do with my life beyond the same old, same old. I was working at my parents store and living with them and my siblings. 

I thought about what I could do to jumpstart my life (in a way) or at least what I could do to make a change in some way. So I decided to apply to teach English in a foreign country. Did I know what country? No - I figured that out later. And as most everyone probably knows - I decided to teach in Thailand. 

Some people (including my parents) have asked me why Thailand? - why this job? - what made you choose this? 

The long and short answer of it is that once I started preparing for this; I just never stopped. Over the past two years after I graduated from college I have thought about pursuing a lot of different things/careers/ideas with various degrees of commitment. And this choice of teaching abroad is the one choice that I never stopped working towards. There were some moments when I second-guessed my decision and wondered if I was ready for something like this, especially mentally. But even in those moments, I still decided to keep moving forward until the day came for me to leave. 

There are also people who have asked if I have been called to this work by God and the answer I feel is I don't know. I prayed about this decision and I talked about it with my closest friends even before I talked to my parents about it and the true answer is that God hasn't stopped me yet. Every door has remained open, every opportunity has been seized so all I know at this point is that God has something here for me somewhere. 

As the second-oldest of ten children, it can be difficult to find your way out of your family circle especially a family like mine. I have never experienced a life without my siblings and while I have spent time away from them - this is the first time that I will be gone for such an extended period of time that I don't know what any of my siblings will be like when I return. The day that I left for Thailand, I had to say goodbye to the kids before they left for school as I would be gone by the time that they returned and it was something that the kids and I got through without crying although Mom did not. I asked her why she was crying and she said that it was hard for her because while the little kids knew that I was leaving and that I would not be back for a while- she felt like they didn't really understand what was happening and were just saying goodbye. Mom did cry a few more times over the course of that day too. I didn't although I was close several times and definitely had a last minute miniature anxiety attack before my first flight. 

But now I am in Thailand with no flight back - I will be spending the weekend in Bangkok and will then be traveling to Hua Hin with my intake group to start my orientation and TESOL certification. 

I'll try to be more regular on both this blog and the Facebook group so that everyone can keep up with what I am doing and learning. If you have any questions or just want to talk I would love to do so.