For those of you who have kept up with my blog I have some
great news for you! YOU WIN A PRIZE! Just kidding. Well sort of. Your prize is
that you get to continue reading my blog…. Or Marshall will lick you in the
face. Those are your prize options. What I was actually going to say before I
started typing haphazardly was that for those of you who have kept up with my
blog, I know they’re usually slightly depressing. It’s been a rough couple of
years. However! You’re in for a pleasant surprise. This one is not depressing.
In fact, one might even say it is (gasp) happy. So hold on to your seats
because Kelsey’s in a great mood (this could partly be due to the fact that I
have a bag of delicious snacks next to me but we’ll say it’s only partially
because of that).
So as you know, for approximately 43 days now I’ve lived in
Louisville and have been officially working at Team Expansion. And I’m not
gonna lie, it’s been pretty awesome. Let’s start from the beginning. Day 1: I
moved in. Morning of Day 2: Marshall jumped in bed with my roommate at 7 am
while she was still asleep. She did not get mad. She laughed. Awesome roommate.
Evening of Day 2: My niece and nephew were born. Awesome day. Day 7: Went to
the Post (Southeast’s Sunday night service) and afterwards met an awesome group
of people who invited me to join their small group. Friends by Day 7!? Winning
at adulthood already! At some point between Days 8 and 12 I cooked for myself
(like a champ)—I made chicken bruschetta and some delicious bread. Well, I didn’t
make the bread, but I didn’t put it in the oven and that counts! Days 13-20
were spent working from Chicago and spending time with my fantastically
adorable niece and nephew (because I have the best boss ever and he let me work
from home for a whole week before I’d even been here a month!).
I’m not going to lie to you—the rest of the days are kind of
a blur and I can’t remember what really happened. I could make up day numbers
and activities but I’m sure you’d all see right through me when I started
saying things like “Day 58: Rode a narwhal to the Megashark vs. Dinocroc fight
and stopped for Taco Bell with Margaret Thatcher after.” But the point isà so far, life is
awesome. Let’s start with why my job is awesome.
My job is awesome. Not only because I have the most awesome
boss in the world (which is true, he’s pretty fantastic and lets me go see my
babies when I need to) but because I really do love what I do. I love what Team
Expansion does. This is not in any way meant to belittle anyone else’s job—but I
really do feel like I’m part of an organization that is doing THE most
important thing in the world—reaching the unreached with the Gospel. I honestly
can’t think of anything else in my life that would be more important than that.
Jesus straight up said “Go and make disciples of all nations…” That wasn’t a
suggestion, that’s what he told us to do. That was his final thought before he
left earth. And I don’t think it was one of those “Oh yeah, I forgot to mention
this before, so do it if you want, no big deal” kind of final thoughts. I’m
pretty sure he planned this one out ahead of time. (Just to clarify one more
time—I’m not saying anyone else’s job isn’t important or that people can’t do
mission work in their other chosen career fields. I absolutely think they do. I
know they do. People can be involved in mission work and spreading the gospel
in millions of ways. So I’m not trying to say you’re not as good as me because
your job doesn’t involve working for a missions organization. I’m actually
fairly certain that you’re better than me in multiple ways. Unless my Dad is
reading this in which case Dad, I am better than you always and don’t forget
it.) My point in all this is—I’m incredibly lucky to only be 24 and be totally
and completely happy with my job. There’s nothing (so far—I’ve only been here a
month you know) about my job that makes me dread coming into work or makes me
wish I could do something else or leaves me feeling unfulfilled. Fulfilled.
That’s the word I’m looking for. Finally, after years of working toward this
point, I feel very fulfilled. I love what I do. I know what I’m doing, even
when I’m making spreadsheets or e-mailing people I don’t know about events I
don’t completely understand, is directly affecting the souls of people that don’t
know Jesus (in a good way, just to be clear). That’s a pretty cool feeling.
What else could you possibly ask for in a job?!
Other reasons my life is awesome--- I’ve met some really
amazing people since I’ve moved to Louisville. There are awesome people I work
with for sure. But even outside of work I’ve met some incredible people that
have been ridiculously nice and welcoming to me considering they don’t know me
at all. Within the first week I was here I met a great group of people and I’ve
been in their small group ever since (which has led me to meet more incredible
people). The first night I met them they
got my phone number and started inviting me to do things with them. Who does
that!? Really nice people, that’s who. It was pretty cool. I met another great
group of people through a person I’d never actually met. I had a friend who had
a friend that lived here so we got in touch and she invited me to her small
group too even though I’d never met her and as far as she knew, I was
completely insane. I went to that small group also and those people were
ridiculously nice and welcoming too! I don’t know if it’s Louisville or if this
is what “southern hospitality” feels like or if I just happened upon some
really wonderful groups of people…but either way, God has put some pretty great
people in my life down here so far.
More reasons my life is awesome—Marshall and his new puppy
roommate (my roommate’s dog) get along super well. They run around and play and
Marshall gets all his energy out before bedtime, which is great. Plus, he’s
always happy even when I’m at work all day because he has a puppy buddy. So
that makes me feel much better about leaving him while I go to work. I’m not
going to say I haven’t thought about bringing him to work with me…but I haven’t
been able to come up with a conceivable way to sneak him in so if anyone has
any ideas please share. I’ve considered dressing him up like a baby and telling
everyone he’s my nephew but that hasn’t panned out so well yet. I’ve also
considered getting him a Seeing Eye Dog vest and pretending I’ve been
temporarily blinded. So that’s an option too.
Let’s see, what else is awesome… Louisville is awesome. So
far, it’s been a very fun city to explore. I know there’s still tons I haven’t seen but
from what I understand there’s all sorts of exciting things to do in the
summer: Shakespeare in the Park (free!), random festivals and fairs (free!),
lots of pretty parks and things to wander around (also free!), tons of great
restaurants (not free but worth it!). I hear there’s a pretty fantastic local music
scene too which I have not checked out yet but am super excited to find out
about. So basically, Louisville’s a wonderful city so far.
So to sum up…my life is pretty great right now. It was a
rough couple of years with all the fundraising and waiting and having little to
no social interaction with people other than my parents for about a year….but
it was absolutely worth the wait! I’m so so happy to finally be down here and
to finally have a life. I may not be
completely winning at adulthood yet (I may or may not eat frozen dinners and
Taco Bell 73% of the time) but so far I’ve paid all my bills on time and I
haven’t died from malnutrition yet so I’ll count that as a win! High five for
being awesome at adulthood!
