Brekke Abroad: 2011, In memorandum

Hello friends.

My oh my how time flies when you’re having fun (or working on so many projects you forget to update your blog). Where has 2011 gone? It feels like it was just last week I filmed a video about not making resolutions in 2011 while snuggled up next to my radiator in England. Now, I’m snuggled under blankets (the joys of a lap-top!) trying to fight a cold and working on the sermon I’ll preach on New Year’s Day 2012. Talk about fast forward!

About those New Year’s “Goals” (as I hate the idea of resolutions). I epic failed. I didn’t learn to play the piano (I can play with my right hand, I can play with my left hand; but, I can’t play both at the same time!). I didn’t get to 6 different countries – although I did get to 2, France and the Netherlands. I didn’t finish my book – not even close. I didn’t run a 5K (although I did start training for a half marathon). I failed spectacularly at making weekly videos (my camera died…and I’m really lazy).

HOWEVER, lest you think that I actually am an epic failure, I did successfully meet 2 of my goals! I went to a blue grass concert which headlined the Whiskey Gentry which was AWESOME! If you’ve never checked them out, do it. You won’t be disappointed. And, a few weeks ago I went on not one but three actual, legitimate, real-life dates. No joke. Now, 66% of these dates were super awkward and will result in a big fat nothing. But there is a hopeful 33.33333% that may turn into something. Maybe. Possibly. We’ll see.

2011 has been a year of movement. I started the year in England, and end it in a new apartment in Atlanta with an old friend as a roommate. I’m looking back on such an incredible adventure while turning to face a new (and slightly more frightening) adventure on the horizon. 2011 was a year of new experiences – Paris, Amsterdam, plays in London’s West End, Cambridge in the Spring Time, my first Pilgrimage, my aunt’s re-marriage, new friends, new family. I feel like in the last three years I have been in a perpetual state of forward motion, that change is the norm and a new harbor is always on the horizon.

And change is still yet to come. If all goes well, I should graduate from seminary in May. From there everything goes back up in the air. I have absolutely ZERO idea as to where I’ll be or what I’ll be doing. I have over a year before I can start thinking about being ordained (thanks PCUSA), so I’m having to explore non-ministry options. I’m facing a denomination which is ripping apart at the seams. I’m made more and more aware that there are more people looking for ministry jobs than there are jobs available. Loan balance reminders hint at the large educational debt that must be repaid. Being a grown up is certainly not as glamorous as I thought it was a decade ago.

And yet, it all moves forward, one way or another. My mantra over the last semester has been “consider the lilies.” God provides for the birds of the air and the lilies of the field – how much more so for God’s children? This of course doesn’t mean I don’t fret about my future, but that I can take a deep breath and look forward with confidence. I’m excited about 2012, and 26, and life after schooling.

I end with a few pictures from Thanksgiving. Two of my dear friends from England, who went on a semester exchange to Yale, flew down for a proper Southern Thanksgiving. Instead of indulging in capitalistic gluttony on Black Friday, we went hiking at Amicacola Falls, in Dahlonega Georgia. While it wasn’t a grand tour of a great European city, it was a lovely day riding through the foot hills of the North Georgia mountains. For Tom and Chantal – my two darling friends – it was a chance to see what real America looks like, complete with trailer parks, dive bars surrounded by muddy pick-up trucks, and the greasy love of a Waffle House.