Tuesday, January 16, 2007

Bravery

On several occasions, people have told me how brave I am for moving to Missouri. True, I didn’t know anyone, had never been here before, was starting a new job, and was 900 miles away from family and friends. To many, this constitutes bravery. I always just felt like I was doing what I had to do.

Last Tuesday night I went to a going away party for a friend who is moving to Africa. Africa. She has joined the Peace Corps, and will spend the next 2 years tending to sheep and goats in the town of Niamey, Niger.

Let’s take a moment to compare: I moved to another state; she is moving to another continent. And she’s committed to two years; I knew that my time here was a limited engagement if need be – I only had to survive until the end of the school year. Most importantly, she is choosing to do this. I didn’t really choose to start my life after college in Missouri. I needed a job and I needed to start my career, and Missouri was the only option at the time, so that’s where I went. My friend, however, doesn’t need to go to Africa. She has a job, a home, a life, right here. But she made a conscious choice to devote the next 2 years of her life to the completely unknown and unfamiliar. That, to me, is true bravery.

Thursday, January 04, 2007

Happy Anniversary to Me

Today marks 2 years from my move to Missouri. Not sure how I feel about that one. In many ways I still feel like a "newbie" to mid-MO, but then there are things that indicate to me that I'm "settled" here now.

Do I really want to be settled here?

Maybe after 2 years it's time to stop cynically wondering, "who moves to Missouri?!?" and start actually living here. Time to grow where I'm planted.