Long Story Short

My original thought:
"Surely I can have one blog that is devoted to purely China, and one blog that is about being a young adult."

That's just the issue. I cannot simply be "China" and be a "young adult" as two separate things. I originally thought that China would be an adventure, and though it certainly is that, it is not just a stand-alone adventure. It is an intricate and meaningful part of the story of this young adult. It will forever continue to be a a crucial chapter, causing significant turnings in the story of "life". To separate the two would be a complete disservice to both, creating a catch-22 of sorts. Neither story would be completely satisfied without the other. The person in China and the young adult need each other to best serve and interact with the surrounding people, both in China and in America. Now looking in hindsight, i realize the ridiculousness of the original thought as I truly had no idea how these 11 months would be changing me and my story.

Speaking of story, I recently read a phenomenal book that I highly recommend everyone to read. Pronto. You see there is this famous author named Donald Miller who wrote a famous book. People then wanted to make a movie out of it so as they are going through the movie-making process, he writes another book about the things he learns along the way. It's really quite intriguing and he does a fabulous job at articulating parts of humanity that we all intrinsically know, but have never spoken. The book is called "A Million Miles In A Thousand Years". It's a quick read, it'll probably take you four hours total. Just a chapter a night [well, you'll want to read more than one at a time…].

It's got me thinking a lot about story, which seems to be a major concept of life in this semester. You see, we're building a curriculum based off of story, teaching second language learners to tell their story, incorporate story in their everyday lives, and recognize the story of others. The theme of each class is illustrated in another story, usually [well, always] a parable from the books of Matthew, Mark, or Luke. It's been a fabulous opportunity for me as a teacher to re-evaluate these stories and tell them in my own way, and it's served as a wonderful teaching tool in class to have students engaging with language they rarely use.

Anyways, you'll be hearing more about that at another time I'm sure. Long story short (haha), read the book and tell me what you think!

Dream Story: Romance & Escalators

So a friend of mine has some occasional blog entries with dreams that she has had. Literal dreams. Very rarely do I remember my dreams, but I told myself, “Self, if you happen to remember one, write it down.”

It was a weird one. But I told myself I would.  So that’s what I’m doing.

I was going to teach my pronunciation and phonetics course. In my hands I carried a lesson plan and a romance novel. I had an entire lesson planned, talking about vowel sounds, the international phonetic alphabet, and activities for them to do. I got to class and instead chose to read to them from the romance novel [mind you, I’ve never read a romance novel in my life…]. The class began with them fully engaged, but as fifteen, thirty, forty minutes passed they lost interest, throwing paper planes and texting on their phones. Even though I was aware of this I didn’t stop them or try to get their attention… I just kept reading. The bell sounded for a 5-minute break and something snapped in me, remembering the original lesson plan that was prepared.

“Class”, I said, “use this 5 minutes to prepare. When I come back, you’re going to have a little quiz”. And with that I darted out of the room.

I “remembered” that I had left their quizzes and their homework on my desk in the office. I was running down the hall to grab it, but my legs were an extra twenty pounds heavier. No matter how long of strides that I took, I couldn’t seem to reach the office. I tried to take a different route. I hung right. Instead of the corridor that is usually there, I entered a shopping mall, complete with people of all ethnicities, ages, and languages. I had to get to the office. I rounded corners, dodging babies in strollers and people with bulging bags.

I came to an escalator. Something in me told me that what I really wanted was so close. Something familiar and something that I needed was nearby. I quickly glanced all around, frantic, and hoping to find it. I wasn’t satisfied. In a panic I hopped on the escalator going down. I rode it for a long long time. Getting impatient, I began charging down, hopping over babies and diaper bags. I was still in the mall, so I chose an ally of stores to pursue. As I kept looking the crowd became less and less dense. I came upon my team leader, Dan, who was window shopping at what seemed to be a medieval sorcery store [which, if you know Dan, is not surprising at all.]. Panting and weak-legged I asked him in a super desperate manor “Dan, where is God?”

Super casually, Dan pointed upstairs. “Oh Kayla, you just missed Him. If you go up the escalator and hang right, His place is right on the end of the hallway.”

…and then I woke up.