“Today you are You, that is truer than true. There is no one alive who is Youer than You.” – Dr. Seuss
If you asked someone to describe me in one word I don’t know what they would say. I know what I would like them to say; that I was someone who was always there for them, that I was someone they could go to talk to, and that I was someone who put others above myself, but I don’t know what they would say. If I had to choose something that was my passion it would be missions without a doubt.
I can’t pinpoint the moment when I decide that I needed to experience missions, it seems to have always been there. I didn’t get the chance to go somewhere however, until the spring of grade 10 when I went to San Quintin, Mexico for a week and built a house for a family of nine. Being there changed my life. I went from a pretty well-off middle class family in a nice suburb to the midst of poverty in a very short amount of time. Talk about culture shock. But even bigger than the expected culture shock was the shock of how joyful these people are. In our culture we never have enough and as soon as we have what we want the next version comes out and we start lusting after that one. But for there people who by our standards have nothing are so happy with life and everything that they do have. Their houses are painted bright colours and greeting are always met with smiles. I went to go and help them, but they ended up impacting my life.
To get to the airport at the end of the week we had a six hour bus ride and the entire time I couldn’t stop thinking about what I was leaving behind and how much I needed to go back and in the year and a half since that feeling has not subsided. I would be perfectly happy leaving everything here behind to go live in a third world country; it is why I am learning spanish, it is why the only programs in post-secondary education that call to me are about intercultural studies and training for missions work.
This is my passion, my love, and some days what I live for.
This is me.
