Sew…. what do I do?

Being 22 and out of high school, I often get asked that inevitable question: “And, what do you do?”

It used to bother me that I had no “normal” answer to give. I mean, how could a then-20 year old possibly be just finishing high school and have no plans for college? In my mind, I felt pressured to follow the pattern set by — well, who knows who set that pattern — of finishing high school and dashing off to college. “What are you going to major in?” Good Lord! how was I supposed to know that?! I liked so many things (I still do), I couldn’t possibly have chosen one over another for fear that I would miss out on the one I didn’t choose. To me, college was a place that society dictated I had to go, but that I, deep down, had really no desire to attend. I suffered for a year, beating myself up for not having a plan like everyone else did, for not being like everyone else. Ironically, being like everyone else was the last thing I wanted to be — or so I told myself. My constant worry and fretting bellied my words.

I thank God that He didn’t give up on me then, when I was being such a stubborn fool. So bent was I to do what everyone else does when everyone else does it, that I blinded myself to where I actually was and to what I actually had and to what I really wanted to do. Thus, I made myself miserable. However, thanks to His mercy and grace, I have come to (and continue to) learn to appreciate where I am in life and with whom I am living it; in effect, I am learning to bloom where I have been planted. Now, looking back, I realize that the reason I wanted to dash of to college was that I thought it would make me happy, that I would finally be everything I could be when I left (to anywhere!). Ha! I really had to get my thinking straightened out. To be happy anywhere else, we must be happy where we are now.

So, what do I do?

I sew.

I design aprons and sell them. They are unique and personalized. If you buy one of my aprons, no one else in the world will have one like yours. “And this is better than college, how?” you might ask. Well, because it is the means of achieving what I discovered was truly my desire all along: to travel to a foreign country.

Sew, that’s what I do. And the money from the sales is being put towards the great adventure looming in my future. But, we’ll save the details of that for another post.

Allow me to clue you in on my destination (because I am just nice like that): the Middle East.