Done.

Yep, it's true. I am done with student teaching. Officially all I have to do now is walk the stage...and I don't even have to do that! It was a great experience overall with some ups and downs mixed in but I love all the people I know because of it and it was exactly where I was supposed to be this semester. What now you may ask??? Well, I don't have an exact answer on that but here are a few of my rambling ideas in my head right now... I have to move out of F3 by November 28th...very sad, bye green and purple walls (tear). But my dear friend Elizabeth, who was supposed to be freshmen year roomie (but went to SMU instead) is here at grad school and has graciously allowed me to live in her house in a spare room as long as I need! Originally that was til Dec 15th (graduation), but after further investigation, it's going to be until May! That's right. I am staying in the Station til May, at least. Nope, it's not the most thrilling, exciting thing to do post-college, but it's exactly what I'm supposed to do. What will I do you may ask? I'm working on that right now...But I do know two things: I want to work with my J Lo kids and A&M college students, sharing what I've learned. And the best place to do those two things is right here. As much as I'd love to move to Colorado or something like that, the Lord is teaching me about long-term investment in people's lives right now. All too often we invest in people's lives until it gets hard and then we peace out. Things like distance, or possible awkwardness of not having talked in a while get in the way. No we're not supposed to be best friends with everyone we come into contact with but the Lord does put us in certain people's lives for a reason. To echo Isaiah, I want to be an "oak of righteousness, a planting of the Lord for the display of his splendor (61:3)." I want to invest deep roots in these people I have developed relationships with and for me a lot of those people happen to be younger. The Lord also used a wonderful friend of mine to show me to pray Philippians 2 over the situation (putting others' interests before my own). The idea of moving somewhere else to invest in more people when I know God's not done using me investing in these people's lives is just plain...i don't know...silly? Yes, we're called to move on at some point, but the point in being is that I'm supposed to stay and I'm not entirely sure why, but I'm excited to learn why. It is going to be completely different and I have some other ideas for further down the road, but for now I'm along for the ride...so come see me in the station!