Change is in the Air

The famous inventor Alexander Graham Bell once said, “When one door closes, another door opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door that we do not see the ones which open for us.”

That is something I have experienced over and over the past couple years. I have seen how God continually directs my path clearly, if only I will eagerly follow Him. Yet how quickly I lose faith! I don't like to let go of my safety net and simply trust Him. One of the big areas where I'm struggling right now is trusting God with my future career.

As I came to the end of this past school term and needed to register for next term's classes, I began to seriously question my choice of majoring in Dental Hygiene. This past term, I went to school full-time while also beginning an internship with my dentist and working part-time. My whole life became swallowed up in my competition to make it into Dental Hygiene school. However, the more I experienced Dental Hygiene first hand and applied myself to studying, the more I had to ask myself, “Where is the passion?” For years, I told myself that I didn't need to be passionate about working on peoples' teeth because this was just a practical job that I'd use as a stepping stone to reach other areas of service. So, I continued to press on in my studies. Then, through my internship, I learned some additional information.

While I loved my internship, through it I also saw the headache of billing through insurance companies, learned that my Human Anatomy and Physiology (A&P) class was just the “easy stuff,” and was told about the inflexibility of the job. My preconceived idea was that I would be able to take Dental Hygiene anywhere in the world with me once I was licensed. However, I found out that if I moved, I would have to go back to school for about 2 years to be re-certified for my new region/country. Suddenly, this was not a practical profession for me~ instead, it was a very limiting one. Not only was I lacking passion for this job, but it was not leading me in the direction I wanted.

So, rather than continue my A&P class series, I dropped that for purely general education credits while I regroup this term. This has been a huge step for me, especially since I've been planning to major in Dental Hygiene for over 3 years now. Dental Hygiene was like a safety net for me. I knew what I was doing and had a goal in mind. But now I've thrown that to the wind. I'm praying that as I allow that door to finally close, God will swing wide another, better door.

Honestly, at this moment I have no clue how God is directing my future. I'm going through a lot of questioning and searching. So, once again, God has brought me to the point of needing to trust Him completely... and I'm finding ~everyday~ that it's the very best place to be. :)

One step at a time...

Rachel <><

A Much-Needed Break

Never setting the alarm, only studying for fun, and traveling with dear friends~ some of my favorite things on earth! And they have all been happening this week because it's Spring Break!

Saturday, after finally finishing up my Anatomy & Physiology final, I went out to Wahkeena Falls for a cookout in the Columbia River Gorge with my family. It was so therapeutic for me to build a little fire and sit and visit with my family. We couldn't have asked for prettier weather.

Then I took time off from work and went on an incredibly fun four-day trip to California with one of my dearest friends! Melissa, her mom Celeste, and I flew from Seattle to Oakland early Sunday morning to visit their family. They were all so welcoming and loving and generous to me ~ I immediately felt like family! Sunday we enjoyed seeing everyone at a family dinner before going to feed the ducks at the park.

On Monday, Melissa, Celeste, and I went to the mall and found Mel a formal dress for prom. Then we enjoyed lunch on her grandparents' back deck in the warm California sunshine before getting pedicures (my first!) and eating frozen yogurt.

Tuesday was our city day! We took BART into San Francisco for the day! It was fun to walk down memory lane with Mel in Chinatown (the sights and smells took Mel and I straight back to our trip to China together in 2008)!

I LOVED riding the cable cars down to Fisherman's Wharf and the Hyde Street Pier where we ate San Francisco sourdough from Boudin Bakery for lunch and topped it off with Ghiradelli chocolate at the factory in Ghiradelli Square! 

Of course, no trip to SanFran would be complete without seeing the Golden Gate Bridge and running down to the water's edge to splash around a little... :)

We left Oakland and flew to Portland early Wednesday morning feeling tired but completely happy.  So far, it's been a full but wonderful week, I'd say. After having a hectic schedule with school and work and my internship, this has most definitely been a much-needed break.

One step at a time...

Rachel <><

SPRING FEVER

Leaves are beginning to peep out from their hiding places in the branches of the Corkscrew Willow, our Thundering Plum trees are bursting with pink blossoms like popcorn balls, and the Forsythia is exploding with yellow firecracker-like flowers. Birds sing the day away, frogs croak throughout the night, and sunshine seems to grace each day with its presence, even if only with glimpses of it... Spring sure is gloriously delicious!

AND I HAVE SPRING FEVER.

Do you ever get a sudden, unrelenting urge to do something adventuresome?

You know the feeling ~ when you desperately want to go camping or backpacking or scuba diving or whitewater rafting or spelunking or road tripping or snowmobiling or parasailing... ANYTHING outdoors and exciting, rather than sitting at a desk and studying...

That's me right now.

So, this is my lame ~but honest~ attempt to push that out of my mind for a good while... because I still have one final exam! Two down, but one to go... And this time, I'm seriously scared of my test...

Time to study!

One step at a time...

Rachel <><

A Day in the Life...

*Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Beep-beep! Beep...!*

Shooting out of the covers, my finger hit the off button, cutting off my alarm mid-beep. I sat up and squinted across the dark room at my clock.

6:57 AM.

Half awake, I ate breakfast with my family before we had family devotions. We're reading God Works the Night Shift together. I then opened my Anatomy & Physiology textbook and pulled up my powerpoint study notes. Three hours of memorizing muscles and their origins and insertions and physiology this morning! Sternocleidomastoid, levator scapula, omohyoid, supraspinatus, and good ol' biceps brachii, just to name a few...

After an early lunch, it was off to work! Since mid-January, I've been working at a private golf course near my house. I spent the afternoon greeting members, taking care of their golf equipment, driving golf carts, pressure washing, folding warm clean towels, shagging golf balls, and closing down the range. Today the range was dry enough that I learned how to drive the picker! Easy. I drove around and around in circles, picking up golf balls, and listening to Chris Tomlin's “Hello Love” on my iPod.

As I finished closing the range, I stopped for a minute to savor the scenery. All around me, tiny flower petals danced lightly to the ground on a warm, gentle breeze. In the distance, the mist silently crept through the Douglas Firs and Oaks and over the lake. The last beams of sunlight streamed gloriously ~fuchsia, purple, crimson, and gold~ through patches of clouds, warming my face. As night gently settled over the peaceful golf course, I turned out the lights and went home, rather pleased that, as usual, my crisp Nike uniform smelled like fabric softener, dirt, sand, and water.

I sat down to eat dinner and began to think about my online writing class assignment – I needed to peer review two essays (I always wonder where ~IF~ my peer partners learned to write). Scaling the stairs two at a time, I entered my bedroom and plopped down in front of my laptop. Within the hour, I finished them up.

Submitted.

8:03 PM.

Shower, then devotions. I read the entry for March 5 in Streams in the Desert before studying verse-by-verse through Luke 11:33-36 tonight: A light shining in the darkness~ to live with every part of my life in line with Christ, not any part of it in darkness. Hm... I wrote down some of my thoughts from the passage in my journal.

9:52 PM.

Sleep sounds good, indeed.

My day drew to a close as I crawled into bed and turned out the light, my mind already starting to jump ahead to my 6 hours of anatomy class and my lab test on muscles!

...but tomorrow can wait. All I need to focus on is this day.

So I can fall asleep~ taking one day at a time...

One step at a time...

Rachel <><