California.

When I was approaching graduation from college earlier this year, I knew what I did not want to do after I finished. I did not want to go home to my parents and find a job just to get me through. I didn't want to feel like I was settling for what would be easy. I didn't want to waste the time. I had no idea what that would mean, or look like, or what I would find, but I had confidence that I would find something.

I looked into internships with camps and other businesses and organizations all over the country. Nothing clicked. I looked, but thankfully didn't panic. The panicking never helps ease the pressure of making decisions that could change your life forever. I try to remember that.

One day I was at work at the bookstore and my boss Sharon got an email about an internship at a church in Tahoe City, California. She googled a picture right then, and something clicked. I texted my dad right then, and told him I had heard about an internship that sounded like a good option, and I thought I would apply. Fast forward a few weeks, and bam. I found out I was moving to California. I cried in my dorm room after I got that voicemail in absolute disbelief. It seemed like a dream.

After one of the most wonderful summers at Camp Greystone, I spent four days doing laundry and packing, and then I got on a plane. I flew across the country, got off at LAX, and had never felt so alive and simultaneously alone in my life.

After orientation and a final week of A+'s summer program, we started the real shebang. I don't remember how many kindergarteners I had on that first day. I just remember feeling so overwhelmed that I wanted to cry. I had no idea what I was doing. I am not a teacher. I have a business degree, and corraling five year olds is not a topic in accounting class.

It took weeks of adjusting, and getting to know my kids before I started to settle in. It took daily encouragement from my team to help me see that I could do it. It took learning what in the world centers were, and how to make them happen with anywhere from ten to seventeen kids. But little by little, it's come together. Through every mistake. Through every curveball.

When I chose to come, I knew nothing of the task before me. I wanted adventure, and I got it. I've seen beautiful places. And I've made some amazing friends. But I also have seen these kids grow and learn every day. I love seeing them, and hearing the hilarious and unexpected things they say. And most of all I love getting to tell them how much Jesus loves them.

I am grateful for this place, and the fact that there is a place where the most precious little people can come after school, have fun, and hear biblical truth. I am grateful to know them, and sometimes just watching them play and laugh, I am so overcome with love for them I could cry. Sometimes the greatest adventure is not hiking a huge mountain, or moving across the country, but giving your heart away every day, a little bit at a time. It's following God where He leads, and trusting that the uncertainty along the way will be worth what is ultimately revealed.

I don't know my next step when I leave this place. But I do know that I will forever carry the love and life lessons that a little tribe of kindergarteners and a wonderful church congregation brought my way. When you love people, God is glorified. May we never lose sight of that. And may God give me the grace to always lean into the adventure.