Math.
In 11th grade, I failed Algebra II. I had never failed a class before, and it was partially due to a math teacher who, admittedly, became a math teacher to avoid the Viet Nam draft. Years later, he hadn't quit teaching and spent class time perusing naughty magazines and spastically vacuuming chalk off the board with an archaic hand-held dirt devil. Combined with my lack of interest in the topic, I bottomed out of the class. As a result, I had to take an additional science credit to make up for the lost math credit. I chose Anatomy and Physiology. To this day, it remains one of the few classes in high school that I actually loved taking. As a kid, one Christmas my mother bought me a huge color-photo book of the human body and disease, so it made sense that I would be thrilled learning about scoliosis and memorizing every bone in the body. And yet, after high school, despite my mom's encouragement to go into healthcare, I didn't. For many years before landing a good job, I farted around and did other things. And then the longer I was out of school, the less eager I was to re-enter the education system. And any time I thought about mayyyybe going to college...the thought of MATH dominated every rational thought that crossed my mind. Because, I thought, I could be the smartest person in the universe (I'm not) and the best at everything (I'm not) and I would still be awful at math.
Just looking at the quadratic formula used to make my blood pressure skyrocket and my composure crumble. Long story short: I married the best man in the universe who encouraged me to just DO it, go back to school, and I could cry on his shoulder any time MATH unwittingly attacked me and tried to beat me up. Now, with just a few more pre-requisites under my belt as I pursue my nursing degree, I have found the following statements to be true:1) Math isn't all that bad.
2) It's actually kind of fun.
3) Sometimes it takes a lonnnnnnnnnnnnng time to get over the fear of something, and once you get over it, you realize how much you gained as a result. Most of our imagined fears are never realized. Contrary to my rationale, math didn't eat me up or attack me in the night wielding a blade made of evil numbers.
4) I'm going to be a nurse someday soon, and I am blessed enough to be travelling into a foreign country to serve on a team providing health care to some of the poorest people who will wait all day in line to be seen by a doctor, likely for the first time in their life.
5) Listen to your mother. She really does know what she is talking about.
All this to say: I can't wait to go to Honduras. Part of me feels like I am already there. I can't wait for us to spend a week in a third-world country, immersed in a language I do not know and a culture with which I am unfamiliar, serving on a team in any capacity I am needed, sleeping I do not know where, and under God's care will face fears of the unknown to serve His kingdom.
