hi from KCMO

So. I know that post-grad life is supposed to be hard. Luckily I had some really awesome people shed light on some of the difficulties we experience after leaving the comforts of our college home. Yet I could have never imagined what it would look like.

Directly after graduation (we're talkin' like less than 2 weeks), I packed up my bags and jumped on a plane to Kansas City, Missouri. I remember looking out the plane window at the Kansas River as we approached our destination and feeling SO ecstatic. A new home! So many new things to explore! So many people to meet! So many friends (hopefully) to be made! EEP. I have to learn the lingo, the lay of the land, where I should go to church, where should I get my groceries, all that jazz.

 After my week of Induction in KC, I was completely smitten. I am shocked at how quickly it took me to fall in love with the city, semi-learn my way around through all the different neighborhoods and declare KC my new home. I began to form relationships with the people I would be living and working with for the next two years (at least) and I felt like education was the field I was meant to be in. Learning about the city and the education gap that plagues our country, I was so fired up and ready to jump in.

But first, we had Institute. Five weeks that now seem like a complete blur. Teach For America regions from all over the country meet in their designated Institute location, take up residency at a college and teach summer school to get some hands on experience before returning to our home base. For KC, we were in Tulsa for our Institute along with the Colorado, Indy, Charlotte, Detroit, Milwaukee, Washington and North Carolina Piedmont Triad regions. We all stayed at the University of Tulsa and were split off into different schools in the Tulsa Public Schools to teach summer school. I'll spare the nitty gritty details but I can confidently say those were the most rigorous and challenging five weeks of my life.  Completing Institute feels like my biggest accomplishment so far. Thankful for the experience and even more thankful that I made it through.

After coming back home to KC and moving in my house with my two roomies, I was still interviewing at schools. I assumed that I would get placed before school started and be on my merry way. But, it seems as if that is not what the Lord had planned for me.

Now, after three interviews with different charter schools to no avail and complications with the school board, I have been fighting hard not to completely lose hope. Most days I feel frustrated to the max, no longer believing that the Lord has my situation in his grasp. I feel a bit worthless and have questioned many times whether this is actually the place where I am supposed to be. Stuck in this weird limbo with school starting, I have to know that I TRULY am here for a reason and the Lord DOES have a plan, despite what it feels like to me. I'm a little shocked because I've never been in a place where it is this hard to trust before. I actively have to make the decision to be hopeful and know that the Lord will NOT let me fall.

In the mean time, I've been exploring KC and beyond thankful for the friends I've made and the home I've started to make here in the good ole heart of America. Go royals, y'all.

Blessed is she who believes that the Lord would fulfill his promises to her. // Luke 1:45