This service year has certainly been one of the most unexpected and life-changing years of my life. I came here with little to no expectations concerning my work or living with new people, but what has occurred over the past seven months or so has been very interesting and has taught me a lot about myself and others.
First arriving to Anchorage, I was very optimistic about the term. I thought everyone would get along right away and that we would have no problems or arguments throughout our service year. Well, I can definitely say that I was very naïve at the time.
Throughout our term, we each had our own scuffles with one another. Of course, they all were pretty easy to resolve, but some of them took more time than others to fully recover. In hindsight, our arguments have made us stronger as a team. I always seem to forget that you need to go through the storms in life to fully appreciate the sunshine, and that goes for relationships as well. To create strong, worth-while, life-lasting relationships, individuals must go through struggles and problems to fortify the friendship. It’s not the struggles that are healthy for the relationship; it’s the recovery that’s the key, and every time you recover from a situation, the bond is slightly stronger than before.
The strongest example would be family. We all fight with our siblings and our parents, but we still love them to death and would go to any lengths to help them no matter how nasty the fight is. I can certainly say we have become a family here in Anchorage, and with that in mind, we have also obtained the arguments and disagreements; but more important, we’ve reached the level of understanding that it’s OK to be different and that no matter what, we still love each other.
The biggest surprise to me throughout the term has been my spiritual journey. It’s been crazy! I’ve written before on my blogs how difficult this year has been spiritually, but it still amazes me how hard missionary work is. One would always assume that missionaries have it all together with God. Maybe some do, but I know that I don’t. I’m still learning to let go and let God take the wheel, but it’s coming with baby steps. There are days where I just completely give in and let God lead, but there are more days where I’m still going for the wheel. So this brings my future into question … what will I be doing in the future?
Of course I’m trying my hardest to find the path God has laid out for me, but it’s been very difficult to find it and navigate it. I still very much believe that I belong in the aviation world. Throughout my term here I’ve came in contact with many aviation folk and have been encouraged by all of them to pursue air traffic control, so I do strongly believe God has and is still putting those people in my way to steer me toward aviation. So far, I’m highly convinced God wants me in aviation. But also I’ve recently been feeling a push toward more missionary work. I don’t yet feel a call to become a career/full-time missionary, but I will probably do more missions in my future. No matter what, though, through Service Adventure, I’ve learned to live on very little at times, and that relationships are way more important than money.
