So this is a peculiar post. I'm starting this blog so that I can make a desperate attempt to stay in touch with America for the next 11 months or so while I'm living in Belize teaching high school, but I don't leave for another 2 weeks which means by the time I reveal/admit that this blog exists and unleash it onto the internet, these will be 2 week old musings. So now it's kinda like time travel, yes? Maybe not. Anyway, my hope is to regularly update this. I'm feeling very ambitious, so I'm going to say every Tuesday I'm going to write a new post. Sure I'll miss some or maybe an occasional Wednesday will steal the spotlight, but what can you do.
It's also dawning on me that today is Tuesday! I did not realize this when I arbitrarily picked Tuesdays as my posting day. I'm already on top of it.
Now I'm pretty sure that if you're reading this, you know that I'm in Belize and will be until June with a holiday in December. But just in case you happen to have haphazardly wandered here via Google or just bad luck, let me offer a brief explanation: I'm teaching mostly freshmen and sophomores at Mount Carmel HS in Belize, working and living with other volunteers. Two of them are good friends of mine from college who will be returning for their second year (champs!) and another good friend of mine whom I graduated with will be down there as well. Then there are the volunteers I don't know yet! One I actually have met because we were also in the same college graduating class, and now that a year of missionary life is destining us to be close, I can say that our friendship started in a comical way aka purely on the grounds that we were going to Belize together. I mean, what a great story! There's one more girl and a couple more guys. At least as far as I know. But if I've learned anything from any of the traveling and growing in my life, it's that nothing is a guarantee and everything is fair game for change. So we'll see who all is down there I suppose!
In the meantime, it's all prep work now: making sure I have clothes suitable for Belize, finding a good vitamin to take while I'm there, starting blogs, soaking up the luxuries of home, etc. It's been a slow crawling summer and it's all just now starting to pick up some speed, so it's really getting fun now!
But to avoid an overload of my crazy, I will let this be a nice, contained introduction. The comfort and coziness of my bed with Ben Howard serenading in the background is making for some very coherent thought patterns, but let me take this opportunity to apologize in advance for when the real Melissa comes out which is more akin to a big pile of crazy that has fun in the process. So I hope you enjoy following the ridiculous antics of my life! They certainly keep me far away from boredom. Please keep me, all the volunteers, and the mission in your prayers.
St. Maximilian Kolbe, pray for us.
Totus Tuus, Maria
