Back, Ready for Adventure

          I meant to keep up my blog after I returned from Europe, but things have been so busy that I never did get back to it. Now, it is summer I made it one of my summer goals to start writing again. A lot of things happened this last semester that I want to reflect on. A lot is happening this summer that I want to reflect on. So here I am, ready once again to explore the infinite abyss and all the possibilities the world has to offer, even if I am not out galavanting the world.

          I do mean to do some galavanting, though. Today, I am leaving for a mini road trip. I am first heading to Millersburg, OH to spend the night with my friend Eva. Then, I shall spend a day in Orrille with my brother Ryan. On Sunday I shall head to Scottdale, PA to spend a couple days with my friend Anna Weaver. We plan to go into Pittsburgh for a day for exploration and fun. On Tuesday I will head to Harleysville, PA to celebrate my friend Anna Hershey's twenty-first birthday! I will stay with her the rest of the week before heading to Reading, PA on Saturday for Brook Musselman and Laura Johnston's wedding! After that I will probably head on home, although I am not quite sure.

          As for the rest of the summer, I hope to visit my grandma in Kansas and maybe Colorado. I also hope to see my roommates from last semester, Krissy and Erica. While I am at home, I plan on painting the house, maybe selling some strawberries and sweet corn, and tending to my garden. That is right, I planted a vegetable garden. I really know nothing about gardening, but I have been wanting to grow one for a few years and now I finally have the chance. I am really hoping that it works and that I will one day have vegetables to eat that I grew myself. 

          Another thing I want to write about are my reflections on the books I read. I have the bad habit of buying books on sale, then not having the time to read them. Now i have a whole summer ahead of me and I want to use it to read all these books, almost fifty in number! I have already finished one that I had started over Christmas break. The book was Reaching the Other Side; The Journal of an American who stayed to witness Vietnam's postwar transition by Earl S. Martin. I met Earl last year when he came to speak about his experience with MCC in Vietnam to my Biblical Theology of Peace and Justice class. He is such a story-teller and I went online to find a used version of his book. The book tells all about his time when the Viet-Cong took over the entire country when the Americans finally left. The thing that struck me most is how the enemy turned out not to be that evil. Yes, a lot of blood was spilled in the war and people on both sides committed terrible atrocities, but there were also good people on all sides. I was struck once again how there is no clear good and bad, but how there truly is hope because we are human. I believe to the core of me that in every human is the potential for good. Earl saw this in the supposed enemy of the Vietnam War, and I want to continue to look for it in everyone I meet.