to everything (turn, turn, turn) there is a season

I promise that I attempt to update sometimes, but it just never actually gets published. I am working on a masterpiece, and I still haven't finished it. It will be long, but it will be about my newest favorite subject, religion and politics, and my newest hero, Jim Wallis.

Anyway.. on a totally unrelated note.

My season of waiting has come to an end!

Just as I was beginning to accept my fate as having to default to my Plan B, or maybe even my Plan C, I got the best news ever. I will be heading to Spain again this fall. For a school year. To teach English in a public school. I am thrilled.

Annnnd....I am so incredibly nervous. I need to go dig out some old journals, because every time I am about to leave for Spain I get overcome with anxiety. The only thing is, every time I have gone, it has turned out wonderfully. This has become my cycle.

I definitely have high expectations for this next year. But I am not naiive. I know that it will come with its fair share of trials and its days filled with loneliness and feeling like I am misunderstood or incapable of expressing myself. All of those, unfortunately, have been familiar feelings before. And I am sure they will be familiar again. But all I know is this.... whether this turns out to be the best experience ever, or the most trying experience ever, good things will come. All of the biggest risks that I have taken have led to the biggest rewards. And I'm not sure I've ever taken a risk of such proportions.

The only thing I know so far about this whole ordeal is that I will be in Castilla la Mancha, the province where Toledo is located. I don't know what city I will be in yet, but I am praying that it will be Toledo. As much as Sevilla was my home in Spain, Toledo was even more so. I feel like I was more independent in Toledo, I made my own connections there. Not necessarily with American students, but with Spaniards. If I go back, I want to volunteer at the place I had my internship. I want to stay in touch with my friends. I know the city, I am comfortable there. (And, for this reason, I would not be surprised if God sent me somewhere else. After all, what fun is life if we never leave our comfort zones?!)

To be honest, there are still a million emotions running through my mind. At random moments of my day, I may be elated, or really contemplative, maybe a little nervous, a little sad. I get really hopeful, and my mind wanders to the thousands of possibilities that await me there. I think about my friends who will be on that side of the world, and the opportunities that I will have to travel. I am truly bless to have this opportunity once again.

This is such an exciting time. Please keep me in your prayers as I try to work through the logistics of the whole thing. Pray for my family. Pray that I have an open spirit. And most of all, pray for me, because I don't really have the first clue about how to teach English in a public school. :)