What Kentucky taught me about love life and ever after. . .

I recently spent a week in Kentucky, doing something I do every summer, loving every moment of it, even the moments that didn't turn out quite the way I planned it. Normally, my trip to Kentucky is an emotional roller-coaster where I have revelation upon revelation. This year, although I was hoping for it to be something huge, turned out to be the exact opposite from what I expected and really needed it to be, or so I thought. Don't get me wrong, I still had an amazing time, and I experienced moments that I will forever carry with me. In fact, this trip made me realize that I want to spend the summer interning at Red Bird Mission as opposed to spending the summer in South Africa. Big changes, not so big revelations. That is, until I got home. I remember telling myself, don't let this week not being what you expected it to be get you down, because once you give all the experiences time to marinate, you'll see what it really wound up meaning.

Even though I thought I was going crazy, the more I realized that this trip really taught me much more than I thought it had upon leaving. This week taught me more about what I wanted my life to be then I thought it was ever going to. I always thought my life was going to go a certain way- spend the summer in South Africa interning with an orphanage, go to Israel for a semester, graduate, go back to South Africa for a mission trip, head off to seminary, marry the man I thought I wanted to, get ordained, have kids blah blah blah blah. This past week though changed my thoughts on a lot of those things though. First off, I wont be spending the summer in South Africa, but instead interning at RBM. I've realized that in order to change the world, I've got to first start looking in my own backyard. It's making me think about what I really want out of my college experience and what I want to do while I'm in school. I need more than what I've spent my last year doing. Things need to change. I need something else.

Then the love thing came. I thought for a very long time that it wouldn't matter to me what my future husband believed in/thought about/did with his time as long as he loved me. However, upon meeting someone on our trip, I realized that I want someone who I could share my Kentuckian adventures with. I don't care if the future Mr. believed in the same God as I did, but I would expect that my future Mr. would want to spend time helping other people, that he could have an intelligent conversation about religion. I want someone who realizes that my faith is of the utmost importance to me. I want someone who wants to do for others and give completely of themselves. I want someone who I can go to Kentucky, South Africa, India, California, Louisiana, anywhere that the need is. I want someone with whom I can share these experiences. I don't want to spend my life living for other people while my husband sits on the sidelines and watches.

For a while I thought I had found someone for me. But all things considered, its not worth pressing onto something that's not meant to be. Instead I'll search out for someone who can be my mr. right instead of my mr. settling. Kentucky taught me that I've been settling too much in my life instead of working and going after not only what I want but also what I deserve.

So here's to grabbing back the steering wheel of my own life. I will no longer settle for things that are beneath me. I will no longer mope about being single, nor will I allow my self to fantasize about a life that is not going to make me as happy as I want to be in my life.

<3 <3 <3 <3 <3 <3