I was looking back through the blog I had my first year in Illinois (2007). That was a time of transition, learning a new job, meeting all new people, new church, new school... you name it, everything was new. It is interesting to look at my life now, 3 years later. This is a time of transition. However, my job is not new, I am surrounded by people I know and who know me, I am a member of my church and completing my second graduate program in this place. It is interesting that we are in a deep season of transition when life around us has remained relatively similar!
One aspect of transition for me is learning to
stay. Until coming to Wheaton, I had moved almost every summer since I graduated from High School in 1999. I lived in Edmonton, Calgary, Minnesota and China, constantly packing and unpacking, saying hello and saying goodbye. This is my fourth year in the same apartment. I haven't had that since living in my parent's house! It is funny to me that staying is what is unfamiliar to me! I am also learning now what it means to be a wife and a roommate... but I'll save that topic for later!
I found this picture on my old blog of me and my friend Melissa. We both started at Wheaton at the same time as students and GRA's. This was taken within the first weeks here. She moved from California, I had moved from Canada. Our friendship grew over studying at Starbucks and talking about the culture shock we felt! I also love this picture because it was taken at the Wheaton Public Library with our old on-duty pagers. (Thank goodness... I no longer have "Pedro" but have moved up in the world to using our cell phones and google voice!)
"Everybody has to change, or they expire. Everybody has to leave, everybody has to leave their home and come back so they can love it again for all new reasons." - Donald Miller, Through Painted Deserts
You finally got rid of those wretched pagers???! Thank goodness! Remember we always (or was it just me) felt like drug dealers??? ha ha
ReplyDeleteGood memories :)
Dear Katie,
ReplyDeleteWhen I left my birth home in 1970 to live on my own, I moved at least once a year sometimes more often. I think I had 10 or more addresses until Gordon and I bought a little 900 sq foot home, 816 Pacific Ave., Santa Rosa with a 9% -30 yr loan. The process of growing up for us both took years of vagabond living. Change was hard, very hard on me. I had lived in one house for 20 years. In my dreams, I never dream of my "homes" since then, my "home" is always my little room in Chinatown over a chinese restaurant looking out onto asphalt streets.