Always a Kid at Heart

Although my major at Franklin College was journalism, people sometimes guessed that I was going to be an elementary teacher.

In fact, my R.A. freshman year told me that I'm the "most wanna-be el. ed. major" she had ever seen. And she even said that before she saw me around kids!

I guess it's because I have an upbeat personality and "teacher handwriting" that I have an elementary education reputation. (ooh, that rhymes!) Besides, I absolutely love being around kids. (for the most part, anyway. I'm not a big fan of screaming and whining.)

As much as I like kids and teaching, I didn't major in education because I don't see that being a career for me for the rest of my life. I'd like to have children of my own one day, and I don't know that I'd enjoy being around my own kids as much if I dealt with other kids all day long, every day. I've thought that I could just be a Sunday School teacher instead. Or...maybe teach for a couple of years in another country to satisfy the el. ed. major within.

So I'm excited about being a teacher for elementary students in Japan for a little while. I've had a lot of experience with kids -- and even a little experience teaching kids in other countries. (Another reason why maybe I have a "most wanna-be el. ed. major" reputation.)

Maybe it's because I am a big kid that I like being around kids so much! I love their energy, imagination and the funny, off-the-wall things that they say.

This week I'm volunteering at Vacation Bible School at church. Yesterday, I was the story-teller, and although it was kind of chaotic at times, at least the kids understood English, which makes it so much easier! Tonight at VBS, a five-year-old named Gary was asked to pray. He said (as fast as possible), "DearGod,thankyoufor thisday. Ahhh! Ok, I'm done!" It made me smile.

I have so many good "kid stories." I look forward to having even more fun stories to share soon about the cute Japanese children I'll teach. I hope that I never lose my inner child, and I wish that for everyone.

Four of my favorite VBS kids displaying their bugs.

Surrounded by five-year-olds!

8,036 days old today and feeling great!

Arms are for hugging! Lauren and me on my b-day in our new twin shirts. :)

I didn't feel old until I found out how many days are in 22 years! haha

It has truly been a fantastic birthday! It started out well with Devon making me a delicious breakfast, and then it just kept being a fabulous day. I went to the city market with my grandma, who bought me a peach so my day could be just peachy. I went out for a BBQ lunch with my Dad and brother Derek, and the whole restaurant watched as I was sung to and presented with a piece of lemon cake. I went on a tour of the new Colt's stadium, where Derek works. Three of my closest friends surprised me by coming to my house for dinner, bringing an ice cream cake with them!

I realize that four of these five highlights I mentioned involve food! This is not surprising to those who know me. It was a wonderful day of eating a lot of my favorite things, and I enjoyed every minute (and bite) of it!

But the scrumptious food is not what really made this day special. (Although it did help, haha) What made it awesome was all of the love that was shown. I have some amazing people in my life. I thank God for my wonderful family and friends who are so good to me! THANK YOU for making not only this day, but several days and moments, so memorable and fun!

I had some fantastically fun moments at camp last week, where I was a cabin leader for 5th/6th grade girls. One of my passions in life is meeting new people, and I met some great folks last week and enjoyed getting to know them. I also enjoyed my alone times with God, when I talked to Him about all kinds of things, including my upcoming move to Japan.

I'm really not nervous about it. In fact, I have a peace about the move. First, I know that God is with me and will take care of me no matter where I am. Second, I heard from Liz Bassler, the other girl from Franklin who is living in Kuji with me. She has been living in Japan for a little over a week now and says that she is adjusting just fine to the new environment and has no culture shock. This is so encouraging to know! I prayed for her a lot while I was a camp because I knew she was traveling and making the transition to Japanese life.

I'm at peace and content about life in general. It's been a great summer so far, and I'm looking forward to more good times to come!

Me with my girls in front of our cabin at camp!

Lynette (the other cabin leader) and me

Actions May Speak Louder than Words. However...

Words are pretty important!

Although I don't intentionally hide the fact that I'm a Christian from my non-Christian friends, I feel like I don't talk about my faith as much as I should.

I've always liked the quote by St. Francis, "Preach the Gospel. Use words if necessary." So I've taken this to heart. I'll wear my cross necklace, have a good attitude and try to be as Christ-like as possible, and then hope that people make the connection.

But it's important to also tell people about Jesus. After all, what a great guy -- the perfect guy, actually. He loved everyone, regardless of what sins they struggled with. (To quote Hannah Montana, haha, "Nobody's perfect." We all sin.)

On top of being a perfect human, Jesus was also fully divine, as the son of God. Here's the most amazing part: He gave his life so that all people who believe and follow him will live in heaven FOREVER. (paraphrase of John 3:16)

For some reason, it's easier for me to write about J.C. than it is to talk to my non-Christian friends about him. It's frustrating because I talk about lots of different things! I once had a conversation in a store with a woman I didn't know about the shoes she was going to buy. But I would have felt uncomfortable asking her about her beliefs and sharing mine. Jesus is more important than shoes, for crying out loud!

I've been thinking about this a lot, especially at Cedar Campus two weeks ago because I was in the group that discussed witnessing to people -- in other words, telling poeple the good news about Jesus being the answer in our broken, sinful world.

I told my group that I'd have plenty of opportunities to share Jesus to people in Japan since the country is only one pecent Christian. (Not that I don't have plenty of opportunities now.)

Of course that intimidates me. Goodness sakes, it's intimidating to verbally witness in America, where I'm surrounded by Christian support, let alone in a country where Shinto is the main religion.

It's helpful and encouraging that there's a Baptist church in Kuji. (This is due to the Baptist missionaries from Franklin who founded the church.) From what I know, it's a small place, and the sermons are in Japanese with an English translator. But it will be good to be have Christian community, and I plan to get involved with the church and treat my experience in Japan as a missions opportunity.

No matter what, I'll be "rep'n Jesus" in Japan -- in both actions and words.

Cedar Campus photo :)

Hug and Howdy

That's what I like to do: Visit with people and give them hugs. I do a lot of that in my life, and I'm happy to say there was a great deal of that last week.

Just hours after graduation, where I received several great hugs from people I'll miss dearly (I'm writing as a Franklin College alumna -- weird!), my friend Ellie and I left for a week-long Christian camp called Cedar Campus. After 10 hours in the car and a few adventures on the way, we made it safely to Cedarville, Mich., which is just south of the Canadian border.

With the exception of three and a half people, I didn't know anyone there. (I'd met the fourth person before, but didn't really know her, so she counts as half.) So I made new friends, which is one of my favorite things to do.

It becomes evident pretty quickly to people around me that physical touch is one of my main love languages.

I met Lauren from Minnesota on the first night, when we were both outside shivering in the cold, and she gladly accepted my offer to be her cuddle buddy. Later in the week, I got two fantastic back massages from Mike, I was inducted into "the nuzzle club" by Amanda from Depauw and I was "gracefully" (as he says) tackled by Adam. And of course I gave numerous hugs all week long.

I have no problem at all hugging someone I've just met. In fact, I prefer hugs instead of handshakes. I think it's because I'm open with people and like to have fun that someone recently called me a "let looser." It's true that I like to "let loose." But as I say, I may let loose and hang loose, however, I'm not loose!

As much as I like it, I realize that not everyone is big on being touched. So I'm usually careful about bursting personal bubbles and will back off if I can tell it's not welcomed. The sad news (to me it's sad news) is that the Japanese culture, on the whole, does not show affection in public. In other words, they are not "let loosers." In addition to what people have told me, here's what I found by doing a little bit of Web research:

"As opposed to Western culture, there is little physical touch involved between people. Whereas you might hug your family or friends in Western culture, this is not done in Japanese culture. Young Japanese women don’t even greet their friends this way (although they might jump up and down and maybe grab hands). Even married couples do not usually kiss, hug, or even hold hands when outside of the home."

This is definitely going to be hard for me! But I don't want to offend anyone in Japan, so I will try to control my urges to wrap people in big embraces. My guess is that I will have to learn to bow instead. I'm pretty sure I've never bowed to a single person in my life. This is yet another (of many!) adjustments that I will have to make.

Or maybe my new Japanese friends will evntually become huggers around me. I can only hope.

Finally...my Final Finals!

Two finals down. Two to go. I'm ready to be done with them, that's for sure!

Thinking about these being my final finals makes me smile real big. I'm not a big fan of final exams, and I don't know anyone who is. However, I am a fan of learning. In fact, I love to learn. That's one of the things that excites me about going to Japan.

I'm going to be like a sponge when I'm there. And by that, I don't mean that I'm going to be soft and porous, haha. I mean that I'm going to soak up all the information I can about the way Japanese people live. I want to learn the cultural differences between Japan and the U.S., the language and the people I encounter.

I was thinking today about how much I've learned in my art history class. As much work as I've put into it and as much as some classes seemed to drag on, I'm coming out having learned a lot, and I appreciate that. I'm glad it's over though! I've had enough modern art for a while.

Even though I like learning in a classroom (for the most part), my favorite way to learn is by experiencing for myself. Traveling is such an educational thing to do! I could study the Japanese culture all I want (which I admit I haven't been doing), but the best way to learn about Japan is to actually go there.

So I'm excited for this learning opportunity. I'm excited for the great life experience I'm going to get. And I'm excited about the the new people I'll meet and the new things I'll try and see.

But I'm not real excited about leaving my family and friends. That's definitely the hardest part. It seems like it's when I go home for holidays that I'm reminded of this the most. Yesterday was Mother's Day, and I was thinking a lot about my family, especially my mom.

People often ask me what my parents think of me moving to Japan. I'm honest when I say that they are supportive, but I can't say that they're absolutely thrilled. And if they were, I'd probably be concerned that they really wanted me out of the house as soon as possible! So I'm taking it as a compliment that they're not thrilled to pieces and can't wait for me to leave.

Mom and Dad, thank you for always supporting me and for allowing me to take advantage of the opportunity to live and learn in Japan. I guess you could have said, "No way. You're not going." One of my friends told me that there's no way her mom would let her move to the other side of the world. I'm glad that you're understanding.

Thank you for raising me to be independent and confident and for encouraging me to embrace challenges and new things. You are great parents and I mean everything I said at church yesterday about Mom. (and it's also all true for Dad.) You both get really high scores--not only for being godly people--but also for being wonderful parents.

I think that me being in Japan so far away from all that is familiar won't be easy on any of us. But I know that it's also going to be a positive experience. At least, I hope and pray it will be a positive experience! It's going to be a loooong year if it's not!

I'm getting sentimental thinking about the last four years at Franklin. (I'll be a graduate in five days!) And in addition, I've been thinking about living so far away from loved ones since that's the next step for me.

As a side note (Lauren, this is for you more than anyone), I'll be in Michigan next week at Cedar Campus, so my next blog post will be in two weeks from now. I just wanted to warn you, haha. Wow, this is getting to be a long post. I guess I'm making up for missing next week!

God bless you, whoever you are reading this right now, and thanks for reading. And if you're reading, you probably are involved in my life, and I thank you so much for that, too!

Planning my Summer Plans

It's almost here. The time of year for swimming, working outside and reading for fun. And I'm so ready for it!

I'm finding it hard to work and prepare for finals. First, the weather is getting nice, and why stay inside to type a paper when you could be outside on a blanket taking a nap in the sun!? Besides that, I know that my days of living with my Franklin College friends are extremely limited. That realization makes me want to do nothing more than hang out with them and goof off. It's ironic because this is the time of the semester when I have the most work to do; however, it's also the time when I feel like doing the least amount. Funny how that works.

People start asking me about my summer plans weeks before summer arrives. This only encourages me to think about the summer even more, and not concentrate as much on all the work I have at the moment.

Honestly, I'd rather think about my summer plans because it's a lot of fun. I'm really looking forward to summer vacation because of exactly that -- it's actually going to be a vacation. I'm not planning to get a summer job, which will be the first time in five years that I haven't worked during the summer break.

Well, that's not entirely true. I'll still be working this summer. I plan to help out a lot around the house. There is always a lot of yard work to do! And after the sun sets, I'm going to scrapbook until I can't keep my eyes open anymore. Scrapbooking is a TON of work, and I have a few ambitious projects to work on.

Other summer plans include spending lots of time with my family and friends, swimming and reading. I recently wrote a list of books that I want to read. They include: Blue Like Jazz, Jesus For President (I love the title of it! I also enjoy my "Jesus is my President" pin.) and several books by Karen Kingsbury, one of my favorite authors in the whole wide world.

And of course, I'm also going to be preparing for Japan this summer, which I wrote about last week. In fact, another book I want to read is one that Mrs. Streit, the Japanese teacher at the high school, recommended to me -- Learning to Bow: Inside the Heart of Japan.

I plan to give my room the most thorough cleaning it's had for a long time. I want to go through my stuff and give a lot of it away. After all, I can't take much with me when I move to Japan. So the stuff I don't take with me is just going to sit around the house collecting dust, which won't benefit anyone. Plus, my mom despises clutter, and I don't blame her.

Then there's the packing I need to do this summer. Ugh.Thinking about it kind of stresses me out a little bit. I just need to look at it as an exciting challenge! I still need to come up with a packing strategy. I know that I'm going to pack using the cool plastic bags that suck all the air out. They're guaranteed to save a whole bunch of room in my suitcase.

Well, I need to go. There's still work to be done tonight, and it's going on midnight! As much as I hate to say (err..type) it, I need to stop thinking about the summer for now.

Getting Ready...Getting Set

With Commencement only 18 days away (not that I’m counting or anything), people like to ask, “So, are you ready to graduate?”

Well, yes and no. It’s been a great four years at Franklin College, but I feel like I’m ready to move on to the next thing. (It’s nice to know what the next “thing” is!) Plus, I’m ready to be done with schoolwork, pop quizzes and final exams. However, there are so many people I’ll miss at Franklin; I’ve definitely made life-long friends here!

The follow-up question to “Are you ready to graduate?” is usually, “Are you ready for Japan?”

Again, yes and no. While I’m excited for the next big adventure, I don’t think I’m quite mentally prepared (there’s a lot to think about!), and I know for sure that I’m nowhere near physically ready.

When I think about packing for possibly two years in only two suitcases, the task seems daunting. I will definitely have to pack strategically, taking only the bare necessities. (I’m now singing the song from The Jungle Book, haha.)

Besides packing – an obvious step in preparing to move to Kuji – I’m also preparing/going to prepare in a few not-so-obvious ways:

1.) I bought a keychain. Yep, you read that right. The keychain says, “Life is a journey, God is my guide; we travel safely together, side by side.” Isn’t that cute? It just makes me happy! But more than being cute, it expresses exactly how I feel about flying to Japan to live for a while and is a nice reminder – it’s a journey, but everything will be fine with God by my side at all times.

2.) I’m thinking that I might give up rice this summer. After all, absence makes the heart grow fonder, right!? I have a feeling I could experience some serious “rice burnout” once I’m in Japan.

3.) I went to Franklin Community High School and sat in on a Japanese class, as I wrote last time that I would. The class was learning how to write some words they already knew in the hiragana form of writing into the kanji style of writing. I was impressed by how much the students in the first-year class already knew! It was a great experience, and I’m glad I had that opportunity.

Here’s a couple of pictures from the classroom:

The front wall of the classroom

Oh, and another thing that demonstrates how I’ve been thinking about Japan: I got some more Japanese body art on Saturday at the Grizzly Grand Prix festival at school. But unfortunately, it washed off before I could take a picture of it. It was the words “peace” and “love” in kanji.

Well, paz y amor – “peace and love,” as they say in Nicaragua – until next time! (I’m becoming so multi-lingual, haha.)