Time to Shine Out

As most of you know, I have recently taken a job with ReadAk. I will be traveling like a nomad over the next year teaching study skills classes (how to improve reading comprehension, take better notes, etc) in private schools all over the country and internationally. I will be in each location 5-6 weeks and get 7-8 assignments per year. I feel very blessed to have this opportunity! They only hired four new teachers this year, so there will be a total of eight of us. Four returned to travel for a second year. I am so excited to start this new adventure, this new chapter in my life! I have been looking for ways to travel (and get paid for it!) for a long time now. Birmingham is a nice city, but I have longed to venture out. It's so odd how things just fall into place when it's the right timing. My last day at Details is August 14th and I am heading out on the road to Boston on August 20th. I am lucky to have my good pal, Johnny, join me on the road trip to Boston. My training starts August 25th & I will be in Bean Town for 3.5 weeks training. I will find out my first two assignments before training is over, which is on Sept 11th. I'm going to have to adjust to living in my car and only having the necessities. It's going to be interesting to say the least. I hope all of you can come out and visit me as often as possible! My housing situations from place to place may be tricky, but I'd love to see some familiar faces along the way.

It's going to be an interesting year. I look forward to making new friends, falling in love with new places, and learning a lot more about myself.

I want to say a special thanks to those of you who have helped me make this a possiblity by storing my furniture at your houses! I appreciate it more than you know. (Ellen, Merry Michael & Stephanie & Chris!!)

I will end my first post with a portion from a book Amber Montgomery recommended to me last summer before my X-Country RV trip. It changed my outlook on life and made me realize I needed to take more chances. Maybe it'll inspire you all like it did me....

"And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the setting and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out, wouldn't it?
It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.
I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.
Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will have changed."
Donald Miller
Through Painted Deserts

so much love!
AC