7 or 8 years later...

a friend of mine asked last nite about what my high school friends are up to these days. of the group i hung out with most, 2 graduated in 2000, the other 4 of us in 2001. so here's the breakdown, out of 6:
3 have master's degrees, 1 still in med school (almost there!), and i'm starting in the fall
4 have lived overseas for at least a 5-month stretch, another for 1 month, and the last for 2 weeks.
2 are married, 1 engaged, and 1 pregnant with her first
4 are closely using their degrees, and 1 used her degree for a few years but is now home to raise a family (and i ran from my degree!)
1 joined the army (to pay for med school)
1 (at least) has her dream job
collectively, we've traveled in at least 30 countries since high school (and incidentally, we became close because of high school mission trips to mexico!)

so there you have it: a relatively successful and fulfilled group of people! tho i have little professional ambition, i am thankful to have traveled so widely!


so, while i'm here (it's been a while, sorry), i'll add a bit more.
i'm still working on extending my nicaragua trip. there are a few more wrinkles on that one to iron out. and it's a bit more complicated since i'm not the one making travel plans for the whole group. but i'm trying!!

work is going pretty well. i've settled in fairly well to being a shift supervisor, and i like it! i'm certainly not bored! opening shifts go by so quickly, i feel like i don't have enough time to get everything done. and i don't close very much, so i am afraid i'll forget a lot the next time i do close, which isn't anytime soon! there have been a few frustrations, mostly dealing with lack of communication, but i'm learning to relax and not expect so much from people, and that helps. :-P

house church at scott's is awesome. i love it. it has become my "home church", pun not intended! it's the one event in my week i try my hardest not to miss. i love the people there: scott and michele (the hosts and leaders) and their 2 high school kids, another woman (in her 40s or 50s) with 2 adopted kids (11 and 12), a couple in their 30's who act like their 20's with a 2 year old, a couple in their 20's with a baby, a family of 12 with kids from 18 mos to college, and me! it has been SO fun to get to know them all, to have the kids running around and chasing the dog, and of course, great food every week! i'm the token single girl, but the oldest 2 of the big family are great girls, too, so we get along well. the wife of the couple in their 30's is also a good friend of mine (she saved my life in turkey in 2002), so it's great to get to know her husband, too. the conversation every week is so fun and inspiring, and i learn so much! this will probably be the group that i miss the most when i move to california!

so CA: i have a roommate!!! i'm so excited! a friend of mine from undergrad officially is accepted and wants to live with me! yay for courtney!! it's really funny: i wanted to live with courtney in college, but she had already made plans to live with audrey. then i met amanda, so i got to live with her. audrey and i graduated and went to "boot camp" at hgm, where we were roommates. courtney and amanda still had another year of school, so courtney took my place in the apt with amanda. now amanda is married and audrey will be this weekend, so now courtney and i are moving in together in california! how's that for a turn of events! woohoo!!

i'm very excited to be doing this program in CA. it's officially in MA in crosscultural studies at fuller theological seminary. there are some basic Bible classes i have to take (old testament survey, new testament survey, etc), some "core classes" (culture and transformation, church in mission, teamwork and leadership, communicating and serving cross-culturally, global evangelical movement, and spirituality and mission), a couple elective classes and concentration classes that i get to choose. it's these i'm most excited about. classes like poverty and development; children at risk; relief, refugees and conflict; incarnation and mission among the world's urban poor; immigration, religion and the american church; and advocating social justice. wow! talk about some options!! i'm so excited!!