So there’s something interesting that happens to your brain when you’re stuck in the car in a 15 inch space with your knees in your face and only one window to see out of for 12 hours… My parents and I started on the trek across the east yesterday morning with my car piled to the brim. Maybe I shouldn’t have as much stuff as I do but you accumulate a lot over the course of your college years! And maybe I should have left more at home but let’s be honest, I’m kinda hoping to make DC my home for longer than these 4 months.
I knew the trip was gonna be a long one when we pulled into Discount Tire to fill up the tires with me in fetal position with my nose pressed against the glass. You’d think the attendants there see a lot of strange sights working there but apparently I was quite the spectacle. I got the first of many “you’ve got to be kidding me, the Beverly Hillbillies are Back” looks so after a while I just cushioned myself with pillows and fell asleep as I so skillfully can. It was only when I woke up for brief moments that I contemplated opening the car door at 80mph and rolling out or yelling profanities at the top of my lungs. No, sleep’s the better option. Might as well cuz I couldn’t even reach down to my feet to grab my laptop or journal.

We pulled in and today we moved in my truckload into Crystal Towers, Arlington VA. Not as easy as you might think when my dad’s in charge of wheeling in the cart piled with my valuables. Once again, we were the spectacle. But Ho-ly cow. This place is AMAZING. Prolly the nicest place I’ve ever lived. We have a pool, a gym, my own washer and dryer J 7 of us girls pent up in the 12 floor penthouse. Talk about bachelorette pad to the extreme. My roommates are great (those that I’ve met anyway) and I have the prettiest view of Costco out my bedroom window. Who could ask for anything more. But really, there’s a straight shot view of the Pentagon, the Patomic… it’s really beautiful. Well, maybe furniture would be a nice added touch, we’re all sleeping on the floor and eating off the back balcony but you can’t have it all.
I checked out the location of Duke Ellington today before church and it really got me excited to be here. I really can’t decide what I ever did to be this lucky, to get this chance to teach in the nation’s capitol, to be afforded all the blessings I have. My parents are great to help me out here, to drive in the luxurious, roomy front seat of the White Wonder and get me moved in; my friends just keep telling me how much they know I’ll be able to accomplish, how much they believe in me. My Heavenly Father has given me comfort and peace of mind this whole way through deciding to come teach and I’m feeling pretty confident. Nervous, sure. But I know I’ll learn a lot and as long as that happens, this is certainly a success. Faith and fear can’t exist in the same place. Good advice.
Emily sent me a little poem in a letter from Hong Kong that went something like this:
Come to the edge.
No, we will fall.
Come to the edge.
No, we will fall.
They came to the edge,
He pushed them,
And they flew.

So I guess I’m off to go grow some wings.


Pictures to come, gotta find a way to get them off the camera.