my future: the next 12 months...

so i've realized that a lot has changed since my last blog post. i don't know why it's taken me so long to finally post again, but for some reason it has. last time i wrote, i was trying to decide between a potential job teaching violin next year and going as a student missionary. now looking back on what i wrote i realize how much has happened between then and now. i decided against the job even though it would have been a great opportunity, because i didn't want to compromise my wish to serve as a student missionary. if i didn't take this chance now, then i think i would have a harder time trying to make my missions dream a reality in the future after i had already got settled into a post-graduate life. so all in all i feel at peace with my decision to let the job opportunity go and instead spend my upcoming year at a location very far away from home, doing something i've never done before. things have fallen into place quite nicely. yes, it's taken me a long time to get all the student missions paperwork in and get the process merrily on it's way, but i finally did, and now i'm looking forward to spending 12 months in egypt! i know it's going to be very different from what i'm used to. i've traveled a lot, but none of my trips have been anywhere near this extensive in length. i think the longest trip i've been on has been probably somewhere around 3 weeks, and the longest i've been away from home has been a semester, which i've done 8 times throughout my years at southern. but nothing will quite equal the experience of being in a foreign country for a year. i'm really excited about what's to come throughout the next year that's coming upon me so fast i can hardly believe it, but i also am getting a sense that this may very well be the first time i experience homesickness. i never felt homesick in the least while i was at college or on mission trips i've been on, but i'm wondering if the feeling is going to rise throughout my year. i really hope it doesn't, because i enjoy new experiences and being independent, yet i just have this feeling that my world is going to be so far from what i've known that i'm going to be feeling things i've never felt before. it doesn't help that my favguy will be across the atlantic ocean from me for an entire year too. i'm gonna miss him immensely, but i hope that with God's help i will be able to get through this year and come out a better person from the things i have experienced. i also want to be a witness to those that i meet in egypt, but i realize that it may be hard to witness in the typical sense of the word since egypt is predominantly muslim, and i may not be able to speak freely about God. yet i want to serve as humbly as i can. i will be in charge of running a preschool...something which i've never experienced, and which i have no professional training in. i've worked with children in different areas of my life and i've love it, but it has never been in a school setting. i just hope i'm able to do the job and be the willing person that God will want me to be. this year will be tough i'm sure, but i hope it will also be the most rewarding of my life thus far. i'm looking forward to it with a hesitant eagerness, if that makes any sense at all. i just ask for your prayers as i venture out into this new life that lies ahead of me...

new developments...

i am currently at a loss for what to do with my life next year. i thought i had a plan, and i did, but now there is potential for more than one pathway that i could take next year. my plan for as long as i can remember was to be a student missionary, if possible the year after i graduated from college. so i have kept this idea in the front of my mind all throughout my college experience. i was planning to figure out during this coming semester where i want to go as an SM next year. but now it seems that i have to decide what i'm going to do in a very short amount of time. i got a message from a girl who used to take violin lessons from my former violin teacher. she's been teaching at the community music school in my hometown of kelowna for the past few years i believe. so she told me that saw i was studying music and graduating this school year, and then she said that the music school is looking for a new suzuki violin teacher for next school year...to start teaching in the fall. the music school is apparently having a meeting in a couple weeks to discuss this issue, which means that i need to make a decision pretty quickly. i realize that it's not a job that i for sure would get just if i say i'm interested, but if i do say i'm interested then there's potential for me to get the job. so now i don't know what to do. i hadn't wanted to come back to my hometown right away after graduating, but since this opportunity has come to me, i'm wondering if it might be an opportunity from God. my first thought was that although it was pretty cool (seeing as that's exactly the type of work i would want to eventually do) i still wanted to stick to my plan of being an SM. but after thinking about it and talking to my family i'm wondering if maybe i should tell them i'm interested. then i can leave it up to God...if i get the job then that will hopefully be what he wants me to do, for the time being at least...and if i don't then that will be my sign to be a student missionary next year. anyways that's the new news in my life recently. my plan for now is to pray about it this coming week and see where that takes me...

new himym site from last night...

video on the website:



the website:

http://www.itwasthebestnightever.com/

anthem by 6, 7, and 8 year old singers...

check out this video...

canada's got talent...

because of the popularity of britain's got talent and america's got talent, maybe there should also be a canada's got talent. this could be a great act for it, haha. i'm sure some of you have seen it, but i'm also sure some haven't. oh and we don't say "about" the way she says it. i don't know why that stereotype even exists. anyways enjoy the canadian 90s...

blogging time: random things...

it's time to blog again. i miss southern! i can't wait to go back, except for facing the humidity. it'll be nice to get away from the smokiness of kelowna though, due to kajillions of fires in the area. well ok, not quite THAT many, but everywhere you go there seems to be another fire. the weird thing is that the biggest fire currently in bc is at this mountain which i quaded to the top of a mere 5 weeks ago. when the fire started it was only 2 weeks after i had been there. anyways at least i have pictures on the mountain proving i've been there. on another note, im sipping the world's biggest slurpee right now. tyler got this humongous slurpee jug at 7-eleven and filled it up the whole way. he couldn't drink it all so he passed it off to ali and me. by now it's basically orangey water. at work i'm inserting a bunch of new cabinet sizes into spreadsheets. extremely thrilling i know. oh well. my playlist just changed to owl city, so that's a bright spot in the day. which reminds me that a bunch of us are going to an owl city concert in atlanta in september! it's gonna be AWESOME! what isn't awesome is that i have my rcm music history 4 exam in 2 days. when i did theory and history in high school i always did the courses in lessons over the span of a year. but this time i'm doing it on my own and i started about a month ago...ya procrastination loves me. so i'm a little freaked out, but i hope it'll go ok. once the exam's done (if i pass) then i can finally get my official certificates for my grade 10 violin and grade 10 piano exams...so yay for that! anyways the last random thing i have to say is that i ate some watermelon the other day. that's it for now, so goodbye till next time...

logoeing...

ali and i created a new sport called logoeing (basically canoeing, but on a log and paddling with your hands), we logoed halfway across this lake on our faithful log steed henrietta, from an island in the middle all the way to one of the ends...it took us about 45 minutes, (it probably would have taken less than 5 if we were swimming)...