Getting Lost

Since I've been here I've spent a fair amount of time at my apartment. Ok, I'm going to level with you; I've spent a lot of time at my apartment. I'm living in a new city, I don't know my way around, and I don't have many things I need to do or places I need to be. I know how to get to Target (I've been there about 8 times since my move), Kroger, and the mall (all of which are less than two miles from my apartment), but I haven't ventured out much further than that. Today I decided that simply wasn't acceptable. I now live in one of the most beautiful places ever, and I haven't seen any of it. So today was the day I decided to get lost.

Growing up my father taught me the simple beauty of getting lost in a place you've never been before. You just find a road, backstreet, or intriguing path, and see where it takes you. All you need is a map (or in this case a GPS) so you can find your way back, and a sense of adventure. So this afternoon, after an uneventful morning of errands in Brentwood, I got in my car and drove. I found a road and followed it, turning on random streets that looked inviting. And I got myself very, gloriously lost. I ended up in Historic Downtown Franklin, which is adorable. Then I kept going, passing an old Civil War Battlefield. (Welcome to the South.) For a while I drove behind a car with a bumper sticker that said "Vivia! Nashvegas," which made me far happier than it probably should have. And I just kept on driving. And you know what? It was wonderful.

So here's something you may not know if you haven't been here: Tennessee is beautiful. I mean a drop your jaw, widen your eyes, awestruck kind of beautiful. I followed these small country back roads that curved around, and just took in the view. And here's what I discovered: Tennessee is rolling hills, miles and miles of trees, picket fences, horses, barns, and breathtaking countryside. I turned on K-Love and just drove for over an hour. And it was so good for the soul. Then I pulled out my handy GPS, plugged in the address of my apartment complex, and headed back.

I can't say I want to spend every day driving around with no idea where I'm going. At some point it loses it's charm, and I'm not sure I could afford the gas. But today was wonderful. And I think tomorrow I might turn my car in the other direction and explore the thriving city of downtown Nashville. I think it will be an entirely different sort of adventure.

Sorry there are no pictures from today's drive. But the thing is, I was driving. And, yanno, safety first. But come visit me sometime and we'll get lost together.

The rest of my day will probably be less interesting. I'm going to hit up the apartment fitness center in a sec. It seems like a better use of my time than sitting on my butt all evening. Then, in keeping with today's theme, I plan on getting lost in a book. I got the new Jon Acuff book that came out today, and I can't wait to read it. It seems like just the thing for me, considering my current life stage and situation.

This reading will most likely take place outside, since it's a truly glorious day. Then I guess dinner, and the continuation of what I did earlier today, which was listening to this song on repeat, because it's awesome and exactly where I'm at right now.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hxFyX29pZnI

Other than that, there's not much else to tell you. Things are moving pretty slowly, but they are moving. Baby steps toward the completion of my EP, baby steps toward finding a job, and baby steps toward forming some community here. I can't say I've met a ton of people yet, but the ones I have met are great. 

Well, that's all I've got for now. And, of course, as things happen I'll keep you posted. 

By the way, I know a lot of you have been praying for me, and some have been sending encouraging words. I just wanted to take a second to say thanks. I hope you know how much that means to me. I truly have been blessed with the most amazing friends anyone could ask for. And even though pretty much all of you are far away right now, know that I think about you all the time. 

The end.

Out of the Woods

I've gotten a lot of questions in the past few days about why I was staying in a hotel the other day. And I figured it was about time I answered them. As you know if you've been reading my blog, I was staying with some family friends just north of Nashville until I found a job. They live in a little house in the woods which sounds cute in theory, but here's the problem: the woods are really far away. We knew it was a bit past Nashville, but we didn't realize just how far it was. The drive took forever, and traffic was awful. (Also I seem to be allergic to the woods.) Suffice it to say, that didn't work out. But I promised some pictures of the woods, and I always keep my promises.

So there's a little peek at my first week in Nashville. It looked a lot like that. It also looked a lot like me running around like a headless chicken, trying to do five thousand things before my mom left on Saturday.

Since the woods didn't work out, we had to come up with another option. Long story short, my wonderful parents have agreed to cover the rent of an apartment for me until I find a job (which hopefully will be soon.) I couldn't get into the apartment until Monday, hence the hotel. I spent all day yesterday unloading my car, carrying boxes up stairs, unpacking things, carrying more boxes up stairs, and doing my best to set up my apartment. This last part was a bit difficult considering I have an air mattress, and basically nothing else. 90% of my stuff is still at my parents' house in Houston, where it will remain until they have time to drive it up to me. Hopefully that will only be a few weeks from now but, in the meantime, I feel like I'm squatting in my own apartment. I still have a few things left to do, but I'm more or less settled for now. The apartment is pretty cute if you ignore the fact that it's empty.

 This is the view from my front door

This is the view from my balcony

 This is the view from my balcony at night and, oh my snap, is it gorgeous. It's probably difficult to appreciate in a dark picture, but the lights shine through the trees just right and it's really beautiful. It actually took my breath away when I first saw it.

Well that's about it. I could get deep and emotional about things never being the way you expect or those moments where you feel so small. But no one really wants to read that, and I'm not in the mood to write it. But I will say it's a little lonely being on your own. I suppose that's not such a bad thing; I know a lot of growth will come in this season, and those lonely moments are the ones that drive you to your knees. But they're also the moments where you learn the sound of the voices in your head telling you that you're going to fail and that you've just made the biggest mistake of your life. I guess these seasons are defined by which voice you choose to listen to. But anyway...

Things here aren't particularly exciting at the moment; a lot of errands, cleaning, and sitting around. But they're not bad. When things finally pick up I think I'm really going to like it here. And chances are everything's going to pick up all at once like a crazy whirlwind. Maybe when that happens I'll look back and wish for the days when I didn't have so much going on. But, at least for now, I absolutely cannot wait. 

My plan is, ideally, to post something once a week. But things are sort of happening in spurts, with big gaps of absolutely nothing in the middle. So for now I'll write as things happen, and hopefully once I find some sort of routine they'll level out. For now, everything is new and strange and I have no idea whatsoever what might happen next. But I'll keep you posted!

Short And A Little Sporadic

I don't have too terribly much to report, seeing as I've only lived in Nashville for a total of one day. But since I have the most amazing friends ever, I've had plenty of questions about my adventure so far so I thought I'd take a second to post a quick update.

For starters, this post is brought to you by the unexpected wifi at the house where I'm living for now. Praise the Lamb! This will make my life much easier, and my posts much more frequent.

So here's the short version of the past two days...

My mother and I left Katy, TX at 5:30 am on Friday morning, and pulled into Brentwood, TN at 9:30 pm. Basically I fell asleep listening to the Lord of the Rings audiobook we got for the trip, and when I awoke the old narrator was singing elvish songs and my mother had gotten us lost. This cost us about an hour. I managed to fall down the stairs carrying my large box of shoes on Thursday night (don't judge me) and pulled a muscle in my neck/left arm. So we arrived to Nashville extremely tired and sore, and slept in pretty late this morning.

Today I got up, saw one of the greatest people I know, the wonderful Christy Kennedy, then looked at a few apartments in the Brentwood area with my mother. I'm hoping to end up there before too long, assuming I can land a job. Then we headed up to Bethpage, where I'm living for the moment with some family friends I've known since I was a tiny girl with a British accent. They live in a precious A frame house up on a hill in a wooded area. There's a great porch, gazebo, and plenty of fun woodland creatures. There are also lots of nifty things around the house, like little treasures for me to discover over the next few weeks. The likelihood of me posting pictures of these "treasures" to my Instagram feed is extremely likely.

Well there's not much else to say for now. I'm still a little brain-dead from yesterday's drive. Tomorrow begins the (hopefully short-lived) church hunting portion of this adventure. Hopefully I'll find somewhere to plug in soon.

I hope this post makes sense and has some sort of followable flow. I promise to be less scatter-brained in the future (or at least hide it better in my posts).

My very first picture as a Nashville resident:

I'm Going On An Adventure!

Today is March 15, and in exactly three weeks I am moving to Nashville. 

If you're surprised by this, don't worry...so am I. 

I knew the moment I stepped off the plane last April, and set foot in Tennessee for the first time, that my entire life had just changed. Wherever my life was headed before that, the path shifted suddenly, and I knew it was going to take me to Nashville. I just didn't know when.

Fast-forward 11 months, and here I am- everything I own is in piles and cardboard boxes strewn over the entire upstairs of my parents' house. It's almost upon me; that moment when I'll climb into my 2009 Corolla and make the 13 hour drive to my new home. And I have never been more excited. Or more terrified. 

I have no job, a couple friends, and absolutely no idea what I'll be doing when I get there. 

The only thing I know for sure is that the Lord has called me to Nashville. And for now, that's enough.

I kept waiting for everything to fall perfectly into place before I took the plunge. I wanted my future gift-wrapped, with a pretty pink bow on top. But the older I get the more I see that life just doesn't work that way. And the Lord kept whispering that what He wanted from me was more faith and fewer excuses. 

And at some point you just know- this is what I'm supposed to do. So I'm just going to do it.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is where I find myself now. 

It scared me at first. It still does, if I'm being honest. But my thoughts shifted a bit when I realized-

I've spent my entire life falling in love with epic stories full of adventure; people who stepped out their front door, not knowing what was ahead of them, who ended up living the most extraordinary lives. 

Most people live fairly safe and ordinary lives. And I am in no way saying that's a bad thing. But I want something different; something more. To quote Belle from Beauty and the Beast 

(my favorite Disney Princess for about a million and one reasons):

"I want adventure in the great wide somewhere. I want it more than I can tell. And for once it might be grand to have someone understand I want so much more than they've got planned."

The truth is, no one wants to read a story about someone who played it safe, stayed at home, and never took any risks. It sounds frightfully boring to me, so I can't for one second imagine why I was ever happy living that life. I want to be Frodo Baggins, leaving the Shire and carrying the ring across Middle Earth to save everyone he loves. I want to be Lucy Pevensie, stepping into a wardrobe and discovering a whole new world. I want to be Rose Tyler, leaving behind the life of a London shop girl to travel through all of time and space with a mad man with a blue box. I want my life to be a story worth telling. 

But for that to happen, I have to take that first step out my front door. 

The title of this blog was taken from an excerpt from The Lord of the Rings, by the great JRR Tolkien

The road goes ever on and on

Down from the door where it began

Now far ahead the road has gone

And I must follow, if I can

Pursuing it with eager feet

Until it joins some larger way

Where many paths and errands meet

And wither then? I cannot say

I think that sums up my life quite adequately at the moment.

It's a little crazy, but I'm ok with that.

At least it won't be boring.

(Bilbo Baggins in Peter Jackson's adaptation of The Hobbit)