As many of you know, I am just a few short months away from the capstone to my career as an Education major here at Dordt College: student teaching. I've been looking forward to this for a while now for 2 different reasons. First and foremost, I will be able to put into practice all the things I've been training so diligently for the past 3 1/2 years. I will finally be able to have a (relatively) long term experience in a classroom with real, live students, studying the subject I love most: the English language. Secondly, I've been anxiously awaiting the day I would return to my second homeland: the Netherlands. Even though it's only been 5 1/2 months since I left, it feels like a lifetime since I've been with the people in the places I grew to love so quickly and so deeply. Finally, my opportunity to return was approaching, and it was going to be just as beautiful and right as it was the first time.
Then circumstances changed. Every option to spend the first 8 weeks of the semester in the Netherlands fell through and I was left with one of the most difficult decisions I've come across thus far: either return to the place and people I've grown to love so dearly for 4 months or spend 8 weeks in a brand-new country and then 8 weeks back in the States. If I loved the Netherlands so much, you would think this decision would be so easy, right? Well, because I chose to do my 90 hours of practicum in the Netherlands the first time, spending my entire semester student teaching in the Netherlands would mean losing any chance to gain experience in the States before I start applying for jobs. On top of that, I began to wonder what my motives for going back really were. Was I desiring to go back in hopes of reliving the experience I had 5 1/2 months ago, or was I going back to gain more experience in teaching English? Was I going back for the people I had already met or for the impact I could make in others' lives? If the first part of each question was true, my motives were completely selfish. If the second was true, I could do that anywhere-- local or abroad, Netherlands or somewhere else. And that's when I realized what the right choice was.
From there, the student teaching coordinator began looking into my second option: Nicaragua. All seemed to be going great there; all they needed was an application and some more paper work and everything would be set, or so we thought. About 2 weeks later, I discovered that Nicaragua had fallen through as well. Back to square one I went. The amount of stress in my life went from 0 to 80 in a matter of minutes as I realized that for the first time I had absolutely no idea where I was going to be for the next phase of my life. I've always been a very planned person. I have always known what I wanted, and I always found a way to get where I wanted. I chose Dordt, and all the details happened. I chose SPICE, and all the details happened. I chose student teaching abroad, and all my options were falling through. This was not the way I planned things. And then I received a reminder, the lesson I'm sure the Lord was trying to tell me: my plan isn't always right. Thus far, the things I wanted aligned with the plans He had in store, but this time, my plans didn't quite align with His, at least not my specific plans.
About a week after finding out Nicaragua was a no-go, I received an e-mail from the student teaching coordinator saying "Need Good News?" I opened it anxiously, only to find the best news I could have received. After weeks of self-induced stress, I had received a student teaching placement: the Dominican Republic. What an answer to prayers. While this isn't the placement I had intended, I know that this is where I am supposed to be and will make it my mission to fulfill not only the requirements of student teaching to receive my diploma come may, but also to fulfill whatever else the Lord intends for me to do, to see, to experience, to impact while I am there. While I'm nervous to be in a place I have never been where I know no one and nothing, I know that only good things can come of this. And I can't wait to watch it all unfold, and I invite you all to follow my blog to see it all unfold as well.
Let the countdown begin: 50 days.
