Adventuring Week 4: New Places
- priscillawrites
- Feb 25, 2015
- 3 min read
One of the things I love about the concept of taking new adventures is that adventure doesn't always look like wild mountain-climbing or days exploring a new city. Sometimes adventure just looks like facing your deepest fear, the thing you convince yourself not to do because it'll put you so out of our comfort zone.
For me, one of those things comes in the form of going to new places with people I've never met before. I am at heart an introvert. I feel most at peace when I can be alone in a familiar place with nothing but my own thoughts (or a sweet conversation with Jesus :). Add to that the fact that meeting new people isn't exactly one of my strengths, and you've got the perfect recipe for someone who dreads networking-type events. I've been to a few- because they are essentially unavoidable when you're in business school- but don't have very fond memories of most.
Last week though, I came upon a similar event that really spiked my interest. A girl I follow on tumblr was having a meetup for her organization in my city (which is rare, since she lives in another state), and considering that her company is fair-trade focused and all about empowering women out of poverty, I knew instantly that I really wanted to go.
And it's funny cause it was such a seemingly simple thing, but it made me so nervous to the point that I convinced myself several times to just not go. Dealing with things like shyness and social anxiety sometimes makes the idea of going somewhere where I will absolutely know no one pretty much terrifying. But isn't that exactly the sort of thing that qualified for my little adventure experiment?
So with that in mind, I went. And I'll be honest, it wasn't perfect. It made me anxious sometimes, and then frustrated that I was anxious over something as silly as meeting new people. But it was such a wonderful event to get to be a part of. I learned so much, and left feeling so inspired. I also learned a lot about myself- that it's so easy to idealize who I am and what I'm like and then avoid facing reality because I know it won't be the same. But though reality may not be as beautiful or perfect as my fantasies, it's also not as terrible as I sometimes fear.
Yeah, I am still shy sometimes. I am still very introverted and have a difficult time opening up and being vulnerable (with the great exception of doing it on the internet of course ;). But that's okay. I'm a work in progress. And God's teaching me that testifying about His grace in my life doesn't always have to be in the past tense. It's just as powerful to be honest about what He is taking me through now.
I'm not perfect. I have weaknesses. But God's grace is at work in them- right now. And that's a beautiful thing.
The organization whose event I went to is called Trades of Hope. It's a wonderful company that employs women all around the world as artisans and helps American women sell them in the US to keep the artisans out of poverty. So worth taking a look at (plus their products are beautiful).