Ni hao! or "Hello!" in Chinese, (Well friends, there you have it... the extent of my Mandarin vocabulary. Needless to say, I have a lot to learn).
Now, as I stare at a blank piece of paper with the only Chinese word I know, I simultaneously feel incredibly excited and completely overwhelmed. My blank piece of paper symbolizes the unknown, as my story has yet to be created. A new language, a new culture, and an entirely different way of life await me in August.
And so, I begin here with the blank page of my first blog entry. My empty sheet of paper represents my completion of college and the beginning of a new adventure. The next chapter of my life will soon fill these pages with stories of success, challenges and everything in between. The goal for my blog is best described by Henri Nouwen in Seeds of Hope. He explains,
“Writing is a process in which we discover what lives in us. The writing itself reveals to us what is alive in us. The deepest satisfaction of writing is precisely that it opens up new spaces within us of which we were not aware before we started to write. To write is to embark on a journey whose final destination we do not know. Thus, writing requires a real act of trust."
I trust that this blog will encourage further introspection into my experience. By reflecting on the people I meet, the lessons I learn, and the food I taste (food is a key part of everything I do), we will have the opportunity to share in this incredible experience. I hope you are as excited as I am to see how this blank page quickly turns into a novel filled with countless stories of love and hope.
Happy Reading!
