my new job and a speech

This will be a random post. I've wanted to write another post for awhile now, but have had too many thoughts to organize into separate posts. I've wanted to tell you about my grandfather who passed away last month. I will hopefully do that soon, assuming I can put into words all the thoughts and feelings I have about him and his incredible life. I've wanted to tell you about my new job! This was a major answer to lots of prayers from an unexpected source and in an unexpected way. Part of my lapse in posting actually is due to my job. I've wanted to post thoughts on Kony2012 and the recent developments last week. I've wanted to post more snippets from the Bonhoeffer biography I'm reading. And there will be time for all of that; that's the beauty of a low-key, personal blog -- you can post at your own pace when you feel like it. 

For tonight, I want to tackle two things: A description of my job (for those that have asked), and a speech I'm giving on Thursday. First, the job.

Guess what? I finally decided what I want to do when I grow up! This is such a great feeling, let me tell you. But, I feel justified in just now discovering this "dream job;" while professions like fire fighters, teachers, and doctors have been around for ages and my childhood friends could declare with confidence their chosen jobs, my dream job hadn't yet been invented. Literally. I always had a vague idea that I wanted to do some sort of writing, I've always enjoyed research, and although I'm often more quiet and reserved personality-wise, I do love engaging with people (more so as I've gotten older and learned more about how ... is that weird that you have to learn to engage people well? It seems like some people just do it...). All of those things gave me clues and insights into what I wanted to do, but the mystery still remained.

I started putting more pieces together when I started an orphan advocacy project with some friends. As the "founder" of the project, I assumed the responsibility of updating the blog and social media sites. I loved it, and remember thinking at the time that I would love doing that kind of work. I didn't have any ideas about how to continue doing it, though.

And then I had a wonderful Summit adventure that started in July of last year and just kept getting better and longer until I finally came back home from living in the wonderfully beautiful and healing state of Colorado after a stint as mentor at Summit Semester. In January, I had no idea what to do next. I enjoyed some down time reading and catching up with friends. And in February, I spent a lot of frustrating time online looking at job postings. During the early part of this year, I had spent a lot of time praying about what to do next. I had a few different options, and ended up turning them all down once God so clearly provided a new direction: social media marketing. And He even provided a company! I've done office work for my dad off and on the past few years in between seasonal jobs and while in college, but had never done much marketing for him. When I told him I had decided what I wanted to do "when I grow up" he was so relieved that he offered me a job! ;)

But really ... it has been so great, and God has been so good. I posted before that I experience discouragement when embarking on new ventures, but He has been so faithful to steer me out of those times in creatively different ways -- sometimes through exercise breaks (and the desire to do those!), sometimes through a solution after trying in frustration to overcome website obstacles. Overall, this has been the perfect thing for me. I'm learning new strategies and tricks all the time, people have offered great advice and encouragement, and I'm excited to see where all of this will continue to go.

So that's the job update. It's a bit longer than I thought it would be (typical), so I'll keep this next part really short.

I'm speaking to a group of teenagers on Thursday afternoon. I'm telling them about my communication/public speaking journey, and also giving a speech on a topic of my choice. So my question for you: What would you talk to a group of 12-18 year olds about? I'm thinking something along the lines of the importance of thinking critically and gospel-centrically on current events, but am open to other suggestions! It can be about anything, really.

Well, that's my update! Hopefully I'll have more blog posts coming soon. ;)

Once I decided on the dream job, these were the books I ordered. So if you've lent me a book recently and I said I had a lot of books I'm reading, I wasn't kidding ;)