A Special Week

This exact week last year changed my life in many, many ways. On Thursday, March 18, 2010, Dr. Suzanne Hine from Tennessee Wesleyan College called to ask me if I was ready to move back to East Tennessee and start a new job developing a service-learning/servant leadership program.

I was at LeaderShape that week, and our location was, to put it mildly, out in the sticks. My phone never rang, just got voice mails. It rarely got text messages, and the internet service was hit or miss. And, I have a good network! It's just when they say you're staying at a rural, country, hunting lodge, they are not kidding.

So I was driving around Flat Creek Lodge in my golf cart, probably getting chased by crazed geese, when I got a notification that I had a voicemail. I'd assumed I'd missed a call from my On-Site Coordinator or one of the facilitators. But, when I listened to my voicemail, I heard the voice of a soft-spoken Tennessean asking me to call her back. Just the night before, during Guest Leader night, my Director had informed me that TWC had called to check my references. He said it sounded pretty likely that they'd be stealing me away soon, but as everyone in higher ed knows, you have to wait (somewhat patiently) for that official phone call no matter how promising the situation seems. At this point, I'd prayed about it, talked to P about it, and mentioned to a select few friends that there was a possibility that I'd be moving back to Tennessee soon. It's been over three weeks since my interview, and I had been very busy to keep me distracted. God had put a sense of calm over my heart, so I was surprisingly calm when I got a chance to talk to Dr. Hine.

After I'd accepted, I was in a state of shock. I was about to move back to a place I hadn't lived in 8 years, to solidify a relationship that I hoped was headed toward marriage (and it was being planned, completely unbeknownst to me), and to have the opportunity to be a key piece in a creative process to start a new program. God had truly blessed me! I called P and my parents. This was the time my dad asked, "So when are you getting married?" and almost spilled the beans about upcoming events!

But, then I had to go to the dining hall with a group of students I adored knowing it was one of the last events I'd get to be a part of with them. I love these students, and I'd gotten to be very close with several of them during my two years at GSU. It was a bittersweet time, since LeaderShape was my favorite GSU event to plan. I smiled and enjoyed my time, and I told the people who needed to know while keeping it from the rest until the right moment.

I went home from that week exhausted, excited, anxious, nervous, and eager. There were so many questions and so many plans, and I just wanted to sleep. So Saturday when I finally got back to Statesboro, I crashed. I had no idea that the excitement of the week was about to get turned all the way up just 24 hours later!