Wrapping it all up

I definitely do not feel like blogging right now, but we are currently sitting the edge of a New Year here so I feel like I cannot miss this opportunity to blog as I jump into the New Year way before all my friends and family back home. So Happy Almost New Year.

Well, okay, let me get my cynical side out of the way quickly here by saying I generally think New Years Eve is the most overrated day of the year. Yep. I generally do not enjoy it. I don't mind staying up late-ish, but when it becomes a forced activity, dang it man, I hate it. There is so much pressure to be awesome and, well, I usually fail because all I want to do is go to bed. Dumb. This year, we will be spending New Years Eve by going to church for 10-12 prayer and then we are going to Yonela's house for an "after-prayer party" with the youth. Woot. I feel exhausted just thinking about it. Currently, we are all sitting in the living (or "lounge" in SA lingo) waiting for 10 to get here while we listen to the base from the neighbor's house. Boom, boom, boom.

But anyway, let's do a little recap. So 2009, where did I find myself?

-In Musselman Library at Bluffton University, studying and working on my writing and fighting with Pilgram Marpeck (ha)

- laughing so much I got a daily ab workout, crying, celebrating life, and generally being awesome with all my Bluffton friends as we said goodbye to an institution we finally learned to love.

- Driving through the mountains of North Carolina, learning to appreciate a new place and people

- Traveling hundreds of miles with my family, mostly in the back seat of my sister and brother-in-law's car with their dog, Scooter

-packing up my bags and nervously heading to Chicago where I met 17 incredible individuals and prepared to partake on this Radical Journey

- Stepping on African soil (something I never really considered doing before) and getting on step closer to achieving my goal of eating ice cream on every inhabited continent. Check.

2009: yep good things happened here.

As we sit and wait for the New Year to creep its way here, I can't help but think of Jill Enoch (my wonderful roommate from college) and how, for some reason, our sophomore year or so at Bluffton we decided that 2010 was going to be "Good times, 2010." I have no idea why we thought this, but I believe that Jille and I were on to something. I believe that 2010 will be full of good times because I will get to see my family again in this year, I will get to see my dear friends again, but also, I believe I will love Africa at some point in 2010.

Sitting on the edge of a new year is always exciting, a little daunting, but still exciting. It's crazy to think about how last year during this time I had no idea what I would be sitting halfway across the world in a city I had never even heard of. So thinking about this coming year, I wonder where I will be 12 months from now. Generally speaking, I don't really like to think too deeply about what is next for me after Radical Journey (since, unlike everyone else, school isn't waiting for me when we get back). It sometimes makes me really freaked out that I don't have some type of "plan." Yet, living life with no set plans is pretty neat. Scary, but still fine. I have no idea what is going to come next so at least life isn't going to be dull.

Alright 2010 – let's do this thing.