Let's get trained

 Canada eh? 

Before I am allowed to go serve in the DR, the KidsAlive staff sent me to yet another country for my "cross cultural training". For two weeks in the middle of August I was to head up to Calgary, Canada, in the province of Alberta. I learned a lot while there, possibly the most beneficial was the fact that Canada has provinces, not states. Nevertheless, I learned much more than just Canadian culture and geography. Every day we had 4, one hour classes, separated by breaks and meals.We had a ton of down time, which was put to very good use since the place we were staying was out in the middle of nowhere and was beautiful. We went hiking, swimming in the river, had bonfires at night, and played lots of card games.  

Me, Shane, and Hilary exploring the beauty of Canada. Hilary will be serving in the DR with me

I won't lie, I was skeptical at first. I wasn't too excited to travel to another different country for two weeks right in the middle of when all my friends were leaving for college. I was bitter about being there when I arrived. But, that quickly changed when my extroverted personality couldn't hold back any longer. There were 12 people attending the training and 4 adults leading it. It was a small group so it didn't take long to make friends. Once I began to know these incredible people more and more, I was worried less and less about what my family and friends were up to back in the South. Out of all the "cross cultural" lessons I learned here, that was the most impact. We discussed how as life happens, change happens. Change is good and exciting but change is change. Change requires you to let go of the past. It's impossible to pick up new adventures and a new life, if you're gripping so tightly onto the old life. Not to say that I have to forget about my highschool life, but I can't continue to live life as if I'm going to back to highschool in a few short months. I look back on Wesleyan and my time living at home as a wonderful experience. The past year has been the best of all 18 years of my life. That's what makes it so hard to let go. I guess that's a good thing. My transition is so hard because my life is so perfect.
My two weeks secluded from my little Johns Creek world was a perfect way to accept this new change and deal with it. I entered that training program bitter and unhappy, but by the time I was back in the airport, I found myself wanting to stay. There isn't another place I would have wanted to spend those couple weeks.

Hilary, me, Kristen, Jenna, Shelley, and Shane at the end of the course banquet

I have since returned home. Back to the normality of the suburban life for another short period of time. On September 10 I will officially be headed to my new temporary home in the DR.