I AM ALMOST THERE

This week of exploration has been one I will never forget. I got to meet other YAVS and YAVAS. The people I have met are so nice, I would not have wanted a better team to start my year of service with. But not everyone is going to the same site, we are all at orientation/ training for the year of service we are all about to partake in. While going through the trainings, I have learned that there is much more to being a YAV. This year is going to have many challenges and discomforts but with this training which I have received I will able to fully dive in to this new community. I know that it will be hard for me at first but I feel as if God has given me this challenge to do this work in his world. I have learned that discomfort is a good thing to have because it means that there is room for change in the self. I am a little sad to leave this place and these new friends which I have made. Something that I have learned while at training is the power of being in the box and how the border lands relate to the culture I live in. I am going to want to say in the box with my ideas about people and culture, but to change my biases is to be more of a person on the borderlands. This box I am talking about is the box of the American culture and the borderlands is the culture of the minority cultures in the United States. I know this is a difficult topic to handle and I am still trying to understand it myself. I know that I have lots of bias of people and of the way of life, but now I know that maybe even though it is not the way I was raised does not mean that it is wrong or shouldn't be celebrated with others. This is going to be a big part of my YAV year and I am ready to try and change ideal and peoples ideas of who I am and what I stand for.