I know that things feel far away right now, and we’re all hitting our pandemic limit. I’d love to hop on a plane, visit friends, hug my parents, and there is light at the end of the tunnel… but this has been a strange year.
I’ve always been on the go. In fact, I’ve designed my life in such a way that I don’t stay in one place for too long. I love being on the road, checking out new towns, visiting old and new friends, and this year has been… still.
So, like many of us, I’m hoping and dreaming of the plans that I’ll make soon, and thinking about how it will feel to pack up my guitar and start driving. But I’m also using this time to think back. Reflect. Imagine how differently things could have turned out in my life if I hadn’t made certain decisions.
20 years ago (almost to the day!) I made my first trip from a freezing Northfield, MN (yay, St. Olaf!), to sunny Oaxaca, Mexico. I had no idea how that trip would change my life.
I was invited on the trip to go and help build a bathroom at a children’s home. I had barely done any construction before, I didn’t spend a lot of time around kids (I babysat for like two families as a teenager), and my Spanish was, ummm….lacking (despite the wonderful teaching of Señora Ramirez).
What I’m trying to say is: the trip made barely any sense. It was arguably a terrible fit for me.
And yet, the children that I met in those seven days opened my heart in ways that shifted my entire life path. Fast forward 20 years and that week is responsible for much of my current life. I sang with those kids and made up songs with them, I learned construction, I focused on learning to speak Spanish. I am still friends with these same kids (now adults), and I am so grateful to them.
On that first trip, I met a young girl named Gaby - who is now more my sister than friend.
On my return trip, I met a fellow volunteer named Bryan - my partner in life in more ways than one.
These past 20 years I have met thousands of people in Oaxaca who continue to change my life. Our stories are woven together by time that we have spent in a mountain village, garbage dump, the dusty outskirts of town, and the city center.
I know that COVID has limited what we can do, so please DON’T take the literal trip right now. Stay home, stay safe, and instead translate this into: “do the thing”. Especially if that thing scares you a little bit. Or doesn’t seem like an obvious fit.
You never know how that “thing” will shape the rest of your life.
These children and this place continue to be a gift.