So, it's January 1, 2001 and the millennium has officially begun (that 2000 thing was a hoax folks, nothing's ever 0 years old). I am 24 years old, 2 1/2 years married, and on the verge of moving to Austin, TX for the first time. My wife, Rachel, is finishing up graduate school in Abilene, TX and I am finishing up 2 years of (sometimes very) odd jobs worked in order to put her through graduate school. We're both past tired of west Texas, have finished up what will turn out to be the most difficult year of our married life (in terms of the actual "being married" part) and are ready for whatever is next.
What's next is speech pathology in a private practice and discovering that this career thing comes with a steep learning curve. What's next is teaching American History/Government and Bible at a private Christian school the year of September 11, 2001. What's next is two unfulfilling jobs (one more than another); one quit and one endured and a desire to stay in Austin, but an even greater desire to find meaningful work.
What's next is a move to Durham, NC in search of that meaningful work and both finding it and then one losing it and then being generally miserable when it comes to some of the things that matter most like faith and God and church except when being the opposite of miserable when it comes to some of the other things that matter most like growing together as partners and friends and becoming parents to an amazing son.
What's next is deciding together that something's got to change and that God meant there to be more to life than safety and security and what's next is a leap into something new and moving back to Austin with a 6 month old kid and no jobs and back in with the folks at the age of 29. What's next is church-planting and working in a bookstore and finding that a minimum/hourly wage is better than salary and a savings account when the work is worth it and you're doing what you're supposed to be doing and what's next is learning new things and taking greater risks and highs and lows and ups and downs and joy and struggle and stuff you wish you'd have done differently and things you shouldn't have said and 10 year anniversaries and starting kindergarten and let's try to have another only to find out we can't and maybe we adopt only we can't seem to afford it and it turns out we're pregnant only weeks later we miscarry and we never thought we'd recover only it turns out we will and pain is part of life and with friends and family and faith and God we find we're more than making it.
And it's January 1, 2011 and I don't know what's next, but I'm excited to see.
