Musings On The Week Gone By

The DC Semester is two-fold in that students are required to do an internship and take 6 credit hours worth of classes. My internship is still rocky, but I will update on that another day. Thursday was the first day that I had class. I will have class every Monday and Thursday. On Thursday our class was informed that aside from the "normal" class assignments we are required to journal about our experiences. Our journals are graded and due every Sunday. I'll be the first to admit that I think this is a dumb assignment. As the semester goes on and things get busier I am confident my dislike for this assignment will grow. However, despite my opposition, I was refreshing to journal about the past week. Perhaps what I dislike about journalism most is that it is void of personality. You report the "facts" and leave the rest out. I prefer personality, so I am posting a portion of my journaling that adequately sums up my feelings about this past week. Enjoy!

Life in DC is very different from what I am used too. The pace of life is much faster. The level of professionalism is much higher. The expectations for success are much greater. Though this is not my first time visiting DC, the reality of residing here is intimidating. I am no longer a tourist visiting the District for a few days. Instead I am an inhabitant. I will be living and working in this environment for the next few months. It is an exciting prospect, but intimidating nonetheless.

This first week is reminiscent of previous “first weeks” that I have had. I think of how new everything is, and at times how uncomfortable I am. How unattached I feel. Then I remember that anywhere I would now feel comfortable in began with these very same feelings. New. Unfamiliar. Far removed. All of these words can be ascribed to times past and present. The saving grace is that new always passes. Once that occurs, familiarity is not far behind. This is not to say that I am unhappy here. I am enjoying the experiences that I have had thus far. It is interesting to be in a brand new city, filled with new people, trying to forge my own way. However, I would be remiss to say that I do not long for familiarity. I miss home. I miss the effortless comfortableness that can be found there. I miss Cedarville. I miss living daily life with friends who I have come to regard as family.

Nevertheless, I know that there is much good that will come of this semester. I will build new relationships. I will become established in another location that I could go back to and find familiarity. I expect to learn a great deal about myself. I expect challenges that will test who I am and shape who I become. This week has not been easy. There have been many ups and downs, challenges and moments spent holding back tears. But I am excited. I am undoubtedly confident that the Lord has led me here. I do not see the whole picture now, but he does. I anticipate the journey and the destination as different pieces of this puzzle come together and the picture becomes clearer.