Last summer I made a decision to do something awesome with my "last summer of freedom" (aka the last summer where I don't have to participate in a grown-up job). Although there were many contenders, my main aspiration was to live abroad. This was for multiple reasons, the main ones being: 1) I love learning new cultures, 2) I feel like living abroad is the ultimate way to step out of your comfort zone and see new ways God can work through you, 3) when else will I be able to live abroad without any good reason?. When I shared this dream with Aaron, he surprised me by saying he would love to do the same thing.
After making a few big decision to step out in faith (thanks to a good friend Matt Stine's last minute calls), Aaron decided he would follow through with this idea. This began the craziness of deciding where I wanted to go (there is, after all, a whole world out there to explore!) and if it could be the same place as Aaron. Because of obligations I had at the beginning of the summer I knew that I wouldn't be able to live in a different country quite as long as Aaron. This also meant that finding a job online was virtually impossible for me. Because of that, we decided it would be best for Aaron to find a job and I would try to follow him where ever he went.
Although this seemed reasonable, it wasn't always easy to follow through with waiting for Aaron to figure out where he was going. Aaron did not find out where he would be until about a month before leaving (Aprilish). It seemed like my whole future was up in the air at the time (I was still trying to figure out law school things) and it would have been nice to know what I would be doing during the summer. Even though I much more welcoming to adventures and change than Aaron, I too had a few steps in faith to make before coming.
My main concern about living abroad was getting the money. God quickly alleviated that worry, however. Soon after telling people I wanted to live abroad people began offering to let me borrow money until I can take out a loan (without interest) for law school. I needed enough money for $1400 plane tickets and living expenses and through many awesome people that money was provided. God made it obvious that He would take care of me in New Zealand.
After figuring out the money and knowing God wants me in New Zealand, the main two things to figure out were what I would be doing and where I would be staying. For a while, I spent a lot of time finding jobs in New Zealand online, but none of them were close enough to where Aaron would be (they were like 8 or more hours away). Although I wanted to live abroad anyways, the reason I chose New Zealand was to be close to Aaron. A job that far away would nullify my efforts to go to New Zealand in the first place. Because of that and Aaron insisting that he had many job offers, I decided that I did not need to find a job before leaving. Finding a place to stay kind of went the same way. I started looking things up, but in the end Aaron said he could find some place for me to stay. We came to the agreement that I could stay in the house Aaron was staying in for a limited amount of time (Aaron rented the four bedrooms of the upstairs of a house), but thought it would be best to soon find somewhere else to stay.
On June 15th I left for the airport with two suitcases full of warm, winter clothes and without a real knowledge of what I would be doing while I was in New Zealand. The only things that I really did know is that I had a long 27 hours ahead of me and would be picked up by Aaron on June 17th (there is an 16 hour time difference from Indiana) in Christchurch, New Zealand.
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