For me, one of those moments was a phone call on August 8, 2009.
It was a Saturday. I had just gotten back from youth camp the day before and hadn't even finished my camp laundry yet. I was wrapping up a fantastic summer that I'd spent working as an intern at my home church. I'd gotten the opportunity to work at several camps, lead a mission trip back to a place that was very special to me, be a bridesmaid in a dear friend's wedding, take a music festival road trip with my best friend, and I was exhausted, sunburned, and very happy. In a few weeks I would head back to school in Oregon to start my junior year of college, and I was looking forward to seeing school friends again and moving back into the dorms.
Basin City Mission Trip 2009
Best Friend Roadtrip/Music Festival Trip 2009
Kids Camp 2009
"The River Runs Through It" Camp 2009
Linnea's Wedding - July 19, 2009
I was putzing around the house, doing laundry, and starting to think about packing to go back to school, when the phone rang. My mom answered it and hollered up the stairs that it was for me.
"It's someone named Pam Horton from Corban," she said.
My first reaction was panic. Pam was the Resident Director of the dorm I lived in at school, and I had no idea why she would be calling me at home during the summer. Was there something wrong with my housing assignment? Was I still going to able to room with my beloved roomie, Kelli? Was I in trouble?
I apprehensively answered the phone, and Pam got right to the point. "We unexpectedly have an open RA position. Would you be interested in being a Balyo RA for us this year?"
To say I was surprised would have been an understatement. I had considered applying for an RA position the previous spring, but when I realized that RA training would overlap with my internship, I never turned in an application. It turned out that one of the gals who had been hired for the position had developed some mysterious health problems over the summer. She had started training with her team, but realized after a few days that physically she wasn't going to be able to fulfill the position, so Pam had asked the RA team for suggestions of who might be able to fill the open spot. My RA, Madison, had suggested me or my roommate Kelli.
Me, Kelli and Madison - Fall 2008
Pam had actually called and offered the position to both Kelli and I, (which she realized later could have been very awkward!) and told us to discuss it with each other and decide which of us wanted the position. After hanging up the phone I sent off a couple of frantic "Please pray! I just got offered an amazing opportunity!" texts to friends and called my Roomie. I think she was working or something, so we didn't connect until the next morning, and she called while I was driving to church. Our conversation went something like this:
Me: "Hey Roomie, so do you want to be an RA?"
Kelli: "Well, I would do it if you don't want to, but I'm going to be really busy with classes and my internship this year, so it would be a lot of extra work for me. Do you want to do it?"
Me: "Yeah, I think I do."
Kelli: "Perfect! You be the RA, and I'll be your roommate. This is great! We'll get a bigger room!"
Me and my dear Roomie - Fall 2009
And just like that, I became the Balyo First Floor North RA. Two days later I moved into my dorm room and met my RA team for the first time. Besides Madison and Kristy (who had been supposed to be my RA that year!) I didn't know anyone else on staff. But as I walked into my new home, I was greeted with a bouquet of beautiful flowers and handwritten notes from the rest of my new team. Each note spoke of how even though they hadn't known I was coming until just a few days prior, the Lord had known from the beginning that I would be the one to fill this spot in Balyo Hall, and they couldn't wait to see what adventures we would have in the year to come. [Side note: I still have all of those cards. They are so precious to me.]
Thus began one of the most amazing, hardest, uncomfortable, and wonderful experiences of my life. The other members of my RA team became some of my very best friends. We learned and laughed together, spent hours not doing homework and watching Lifetime movies in Pam's apartment, consistently kept up on who had a crush on who, and together we navigated the ups and downs of life and student leadership.
Balyo and Davidson - Dedication Night 2009
The Balyo Babes - Dedication Night 2009
BAD - Christmas 2009
Awkward Family Photos - Christmas 2009
Balyo Battles - Spring 2010
End-of-the-Year RA Outing - Spring 2010
At the end of one year of RA-ing, I realized that I loved my job so much I was willing to sacrifice another year of sleeping in on Saturday mornings to go to all-campus RA meetings. A new year, a new team, a new RD, and a new hall brought new challenges and new joys.
Balyo Babes - Dedication Night 2010
Balyo & Davidson - Dedication Night 2010
Senior RA's - Spring 2011
I don't know exactly when I decided that residence life was something I wanted to pursue as a career, but at some point I suddenly realized that I couldn't imagine myself doing anything else. I loved building relationships with and discipling students and walking with them through their college years, and the idea that I could take a bit of what I'd experienced as an RA and turn it into a full-time job was mind-blowingly awesome.
After two long years of applying for residence life positions all over the country, the Lord, in His perfect timing, opened the doors for me to become an RD in Missouri, over 2,000 miles away from home. On the days when I am missing my family and friends and my beloved Cascade Mountains and Pacific Ocean, all I have to do is look at the crazy ride I've taken to get here, to this time and this place, and I am confident that I am exactly where the Lord wants me to be. Yes, I know it will be challenging, hard, and frustrating at times, but I trust that it will also be an experience that will bring me joy and peace and growth as I follow where the Lord leads.
And to think, this all started with a phone call from Pam almost four years ago.
"Would you be interested in being a Balyo RA for us this year?"
And the rest, as they say, is history.
Pam & Carrie - Spring 2010
No comments:
Post a Comment