It’s hard to believe that I leave for Buenos Aires one week from today.  Though this trip will last only 4 months, it’s been about 8 months in the making.  I want you to understand more about this trip and where I’m coming from, so here are some facts that might help you:

1. I graduated from Belmont a year early this past May.

2. I originally went to Belmont to study Classical Piano.

3. I graduated from Belmont as a Spanish major with a Religious Studies minor.

4. Eight months ago, I had no idea I would be graduating early.

So, some serious change has occurred in the past few months.  I remember the day I found out that I could graduate early.  I called my dad in a panic, saying “I’m not ready to graduate college!”, to which he responded, “You’re never going to feel ready, so you may as well do it now.”  Needless to say, I took his advice and donned my cap and gown on May 3, 2014.  I decided that with this extra year, I would have an adventure.  If you had asked me what that adventure might be, I never could have imagined that it would be what now lays before me.  When I tell people about my trip to Argentina, they usually respond with encouraging advice.  But no matter what they say, I always reply with, “Yeah, it’s going to be an adventure.”

That’s really all I know at this point.  I’ve never been to Argentina, I’ve never spoken Spanish with an Argentine accent, I haven’t met the family I will be living with for four months.  But instead of worry about all those details, I’m striving to be present every minute of every day.  Each moment that I will have these last seven days in Nashville will be just as precious as each moment that I will have in Argentina.  If there’s anything I’ve learned from my past year of unexpected change, it’s that there is a time and purpose for each season of life.  Rather than try to control what’s happening and create predictable outcomes, you can live your life.   Live where you are now, with the people you are surrounded by today, with the purpose you have been given to be alive this hour.