New Year, New Me?

I've gotta be honest. I kinda hate the whole idea of New Years' Resolutions. It's like we say, "My resolution is to be healthier. I better eat all this junk food while I can!" And then, when we inevitably break our resolution, we just go back to eating our junk food, like "Oh well. I gave it the ole college try." Now, I may sound bitter, but I'm sick of this idea that if we don't meet a goal, we have failed. I decided in 2017 that I was going to read through the Bible in a year. Guess what? Still working on it. Haven't even made it out of the Old Testament. It's a work in progress, but it's progress.

At the beginning of the school year, I set 3 goals for myself:

1. Spend time in the Word at least 4 days a week.
2. Update my blog every other week.
3. Exercise/stretch at least 3 times a week.

I haven't met a single one. Does that mean I've failed? I wouldn't say so. I didn't exercise or stretch 3 days a week last year, but I still went out at times and walked. Progress. Last semester, I was terrible about updating my blog. There were times where I genuinely felt like, "What's the point? I'll just wait until a break or until next year. It'll be easier then." But that's the thing. We fall short of a goal or we mess up in some way, and instead of dusting ourselves off and saying, "I'm gonna keep on keeping on," we sit around shrouded in darkness (at least, that's what my roommate says I do) and throw a pity party. What I've found is that, as a result, we miss out on the here. The now. The ever elusive moment.

I came back to Nicaragua on January 5. I already knew that my roommate was leaving in February, a mere 6 weeks from our return. But then, on the plane, I learned that another dear friend, colleague, and housemate is returning to the States after this semester. This is a transient community, which is hard. People come and go. But I also think it forces you to make a decision: are you going to pick yourself up and keep going when you fall short so you can continue to do life with these people? Or are you going to shut down when you make a mistake and miss out on opportunities to invest in people?

So, all this to say, while I'm not a fan of resolutions simply because the year changed, I am setting a goal to invest. I want to invest in people, but also allow them to invest in me.

I started my school year off with a whole lotta investing. The staff of NCA always does a staff retreat in January to have some intentional worship, small group time, and team building games. Oh, and good food and relaxation. :) This year, we went to Laguna de Apoyo, one of my favorite places in Nicaragua. It's a lake that formed in the crater of a dormant volcano. And it is stunning. One of the families at NCA owns a house on the lake, and they opened it to us to use for the day. I stayed there last year for the senior retreat, and I'll visit there again in early February. (More on that another time).

Here are a few pictures from our time there.

This is the view from where we had our retreat. 

The first team building activity. We were the fastest to create a square with our rope while blindfolded, and it looked pretty darn great, if I do say so myself. :)

The second team building activity was to construct a tower from spaghetti and marshmallows. Ours was the tallest that stayed standing for at least 5 seconds.

A group picture of our staff. I love this family so much!