Blogging from 32,000 feet... (Luke)

Andrea and I are on the airplane in US airspace at the moment. Of course, by the time we post this, we’ll have landed and made it to Cuernavaca because, as far as I am aware, “The Internets” have yet to be wireless here. Regardless, technology is amazing! Anyway…

We’ve been talking a lot about our excitement, anxieties, and curiosities about moving to Mexico the past couple days. Yesterday, as we made our last minute stops, I wondered aloud, “Andrea, what are you most nervous about?” A brief moment of silence passed and I broke in, “Maybe, better yet: what are the top five things you’re most nervous about?”

Our conversation led to Andrea’s top five concerns: 1) Getting acclimated to our surroundings 2) Cat Calls 3) Transitioning with the current volunteers 4) Working out our schedules in order to balance work responsibilities with personal time together and 5) Getting sick. I agreed with Andrea on her list. I also added my curiosity about how I might remain fully present with the communities in Mexico, while staying connected to communities in the States. A second addition to the list of “Top 5” is being responsible for translation. At this moment, Andrea studies her flash cards and I wonder if I should be doing the same…nahh.

As some of you might know, I am a big fan of marking big transitional moments in one’s life. I love the big celebrations in the Christian tradition: baptism, confirmation, marriage, and funerals. I also like to note the “other” transitions such as moves and job changes because, not only are they significant and stressful, but buried under all this is change. Most of us don’t handle change too well, and in fact some of us avoid it altogether. So, I like to celebrate this transition as opposed to avoiding it, because it is an opportunity to move forward and to grow.

One way to acknowledge, if not celebrate, this transition is to look forward and look back while embracing the moment. Andrea and I are trying to look forward (especially since we’re in the thick of a long day’s worth of travel): talking about our concerns and what excites us about this next chapter. Looking forward to language school, meeting the current year-long volunteers and other Lutherans and Presbyterians in the area, finding a home, etc.

Looking back, I remember the nervousness during my travel to begin my year of volunteer service in Guatemala and am grateful that the nervousness of today is much different. I am not nervous about what “it” will be like, or how “it” will work out, or if we’ll be okay. I am nervous about getting all our stuff to Cuernavaca. That’s going to be a challenge. There are several instances to which Andrea and I could look back that led up to this new period: language studies, volunteer opportunities, two + years of marriage, four moves, and the list goes on. In order to lodge where Andrea and I are at today – 32,000 feet in the air – I consider this: at the end of our term of service of four years, we will have spent more time in Mexico as a married couple that we have spent in the US as a married couple. Hmm.