Coffee, Pie and Jesus

My friend, Felicia and I happen to take the same route of public transportation as part of our morning commutes.  Although our destinations are quite different, we have 20 minutes together in the mornings before I get off at my stop and she stays on.  It makes our big, spread out city seem much more intimate and Urban when you can count on seeing a friend in an out-of-the-ordinary context.

We're in the same Tuesday night Bible study so yesterday morning, being a Tuesday, we chatted about that evening's upcoming group.  It was going to be a girls night- the ladies would be meeting at my house and our husbands at a different house.  We had never done this before- usually we all just meet as couples.  Felicia and I were sharing our excitement about our impending girl's night, and how a walk to Starbucks might be in order.  She then casually mentioned that she had really be craving coffee and pie.  Suddenly, there was nothing I wanted more on that rainy day than coffee and pie. I told her I would make it happen.

After school, I bought three pounds (yes, I went a little overboard) of big, juicy blackberries, found my aunt's famous pastry recipe and got busy.  A couple hours later, I had four lovely friends and the smell of coffee and blackberry pie filling my tiny house.  We talked for almost three hours.

There is something so rejuvenating about a girls night with coffee, pie and Jesus.  I feel so renewed today; so thankful for my Jesus and my beautiful smallgroup friends.  Our lives are each so different and we each face our own set of difficulties, but we are there for each other- there to remind one another of our value and the love Jesus has for each of us.  I think we all needed that last night.  The rain, coffee and pie made it that much sweeter.

Here and Now

“What do you want to be when you grow up?” Every child hears that question. I, like most kids, had various answers during the different stages of my upbringing. My youthful career prospects hopped around from veterinarian to environmental researcher to teacher, doctor, public health guru, physical therapist and physical therapist for horses and dogs. As I got older and started thinking about college, I knew I wanted to major in biology. I felt that it was a very practical degree to pursue, and that it would give me a great foundation for anything I wanted to do. I was so wrapped up in the practical- what would give me the tools I needed to have a good career- that I didn’t give a single ounce of thought to my true interests. In my mind, my hobbies and interests had to be separate from my college degree and future career.

In college, I would spend an hour or two studing for organic chemistry and then spend the remainder of my night trying to teach myself foreign languages. For every science flashcard I made, I made a flashcard for Spanish, or Norwegian, or whatever language I happened to be interested in that week. During my junior year of college, some of my friends were taking an introductory linguistics class. They would talk about it during lunch, and I would sit silently intrigued (and somewhat jealous) of what they got to learn. One night in my dorm room, I started a folder on my computer of potential graduate programs. I was scrolling through the list of SDSU’s masters degree programs, saving Biology and Environmental Science to my folder, and as I scrolled through the alphabet on my way to the “M’s” for Microbiology, Linguistics caught my eye. I clicked on the link, read over the description and saved it just for fun. I thought “That looks great, but it could never happen. I’m a biology major.” For four years it just sat there.

I graduated with my biology degree in 2009 and took a couple of years off to really figure out what I wanted to do. I finally applied to an immunology Ph.D program and was flown halfway across the country to interview for it. I heard the other interviewees talking about how much they love cell signaling and how they can’t wait to be published scientists, and I had a sinking feeling in my stomach. As soon as I was back in my hotel room, I called my husband crying because I just knew it wasn’t right for me. Sitting alone in that Marriott four states away from home, I pulled up that old folder on my laptop and double clicked on the little header that said “Linguistics SDSU.” That was the moment I finally realized two things that are foundational to why I am getting my masters in linguistics today: 1. God gave me these interests and passions for a reason, and I should listen to that and 2. Linguistics is far more scientific than I ever gave it credit for years ago when I casually bookmarked that webpage. I applied to SDSU and got in, even without a Linguistics background.

I believe that God has a plan for my life that is bigger than anything I could have ever thought up for myself. I also believe that majoring in biology was a necessary step to get me to where I am now. The road to this masters program was definitely not straight and was full of many tears and frustrations, but now I realize that all of my passions- words, languages, music, science, teaching, people- will be things that I can explore through Linguistics. I don’t have it all figured out, but I do know that I have experienced God’s faithfulness and timing so intensely over this past year.  I am right where I belong, and that is such an amazing feeling.