Starlight

Originally intending to start this blog about a week ago while in pursuit of my intense procrastination of writing my study abroad paper, I ended up finding anything in the world to do besides pack, do my study abroad homework, or start my blog. So, I packed entirely in the last day and a half I was home, finished my paper and hour before it was due, and as I start my blog the day before I leave the country, I'm realizing that there must be something more to my expert procrastination than laziness. I am entering a completely unknown semester. It is not that I haven't traveled. I have been all over the world and part of the reason that I chose to study abroad in Montevideo was because we will travel to Brasil (my favorite place on earth). I think the difference that is making me nervous is not only the length of the time that I will be abroad, or even not knowing much Spanish, but rather the timing in my life. Many of the things that I know and love here in Texas are in some way either ending or changing in a major way this semester. This semester will be the last time that my immediate family has no in-laws (don't get me wrong on that part I am SO excited to be in two weddings and get two wonderful new sisters!), it is the last time that my college 'family' will be living in a dorm all together, it is the last semester of being an underclassman, I could list more but I think y'all get the idea. I like closure, I don't like things to just suddenly be gone- that is what I'm scared of. However, when I was reading in Luke 9 the other day, the story of Mary and Martha struck me in a different way and I have kept it in mind which has helped put my mind at rest. In the story Martha is rushing around in preparation. This is me, wanting to make sure things work out or wrap up in the way I think would be best. However, "only one thing is needed," and that "will not be taken away". As made this my focus, I began to become more excited and dwell on the new beginnings that were taking place, new friendships, experiences, and language abroad, new family members, new paths, new apartments, and looking back on the memories that I have from the past. This is partly where the blog name came from. Into part it is from the Muse song that I'm slightly obsessed with. but mainly it is because is more often then not in the light of the stars and the moon that some of my most beautiful memories are made: trying to draw the first shooting star I saw as a child, star-gazing at a good friend's lake house, finding constellations from my front yard, explaining (trying to explain) what the moon looked like to a precious child at camp who was visually impaired, seeing new stars in New Zealand, the electric lighting storms in Brasil, heart-to hearts on the upper deck at K-Kauai, or watching the night sky and having pre-semester talks in the middle of campus. I love the night sky, it makes me feel small, and it is there that I feel I can be most honest. So I am Chasing Starlight and all it means to me as I explore a new country in this time of new beginnings.