My Lattice

"We are all given one thing by which our lives are measured, on determination. Mine are the stories which can change or not change the world. It doesn't matter which as long as I continue to tell the stories."- Sherman Alexie

I did my best to avoid using a blog as a communication device, despite how much I’ve moved around in the past year and a half.  This is me giving in to the “blog,” technology, stream of communication, occasional updates… however you want to see it.  I desire simplicity, so I hereby call this my story.

My life and inability to sit still has taken me all over.  I have friends who dwell alongside the mountains of the Pacific Northwest and friends that find themselves a short distance away from the Great Lake Michigan.  My family sits in the hills of Northern Michigan and on the busy streets of Baltimore.  I have a sense that everyone I know is connected through (as author Dave Eggers would call it) the lattice.  A metaphorical network, if you will, which recognizes that we are all apart of the same colossal story.  We are moving, living, breathing, with “hearts ripe and brains aglow.”  We wake up, we go about our day, we spend our time with people we love, and we tell stories.  This is mine.

In an unlikely fashion, I’ll start with a synopsis.  In May of 2009 I graduated from Hope College in Holland, Michigan.  I quickly moved out to British Columbia to immerse myself in the northwest.  I worked as a sea kayak guide that summer, then moved down to the small (yet very important) city of Ashland, Oregon.  It was there that I interned with the United Church of Christ as a Sunday school teacher and youth leader.  I also dabbled in jobs ranging from a dishwasher to a youth care worker at a group home for teen girls.  Then, in May of 2010, I moved back up to British Columbia for my second summer as a sea kayak guide.  This brings us to now.

My summer was fantastic.  I guided four trips this summer that was composed of high school students from all over the States and Canada.  Myself and five other guides took groups out a week at a time to show them the beauty of the Jervis Inlet and the beauty of community.  Our content for the week revolved around spiritual growth and a better understanding of God and the world we find ourselves in.  I felt like this job was made for me: I got to live on the water (being from the Great Lakes region, this happens to be my nature), I spent intentional time with kids and got to hear their stories, and I did this all alongside an incredible group of people.  When your community is compromised of six unique individuals, it makes for an epic summer: we got to know each other well and worked together so closely that we became somewhat of a family.  Anna, Danielle, Ryan, Rachel, and Marshall: I am so thankful for you all and our summer together.

Myself and my sea kayaker friends at the end of the Princess Louisa Inlet

At the end of August we closed up camp, and I found myself driving back down to Ashland, Oregon once again.  However, not for long.  Months ago I was given an opportunity through a woman from my church in Ashland to travel to Nicaragua come late September.  When she told me that my airfare and three months of expenses would be taken care of, I could not say no to the opportunity.  She has prepared me as much as anyone can for a move such as this.  I will be living in a small community in the north called Lagartillo, which is east of a bigger town called Esteli.  I’ll be taking Spanish lessons and getting involved in the community.  I am so grateful to have this opportunity, and this blog is to keep my family and friends updated on my experience there.  So here goes nothing.