Graduation, Long Distance, + The LORD Determines Our Steps.

Today is day forty-five of quarantine for me here at school. We finished our lectures on Wednesday, had an exam on Thursday, and two assignments due on Friday. Now all that's left is our final paper due at the end of this week, and then graduation is on Saturday!

It's weird and kind of difficult for me to process the end of this school year because it's an ending that's looking different than any other ending I've experienced thus far. Our graduation is going to be a livestream, happening in the house because we can't go anywhere. Our families and friends are going to have to watch us graduate in our living room, from their own living rooms. Weird, right?!

Kissimmee, Florida; March 2020... pre-quarantine.

I've finally gotten into the quarantine daily routine, but it's still crazy to me that there is so much uncertainty in the world right now. I have had two appointments get cancelled, and a summer mission trip cancelled... Or modified, I suppose, seeing as we're switching to an online format.

Next week, I head back home to live with my family. I've done the whole living-away-at-Bible-college-and-then-moving-back-home thing before, so that isn't new and different for me. It's the COVID-19, we're all living in a pandemic, and I'm not moving home to go hang out with my friends but rather I'm moving home to sit at home because we're all on lockdown. So it's weird, ya feel?

I hardly even know what the grocery store situations look like, aside from hearing about it from others and reading articles. Rules have been pretty strict for us at the house, for the sake of precaution and keeping all of us safe. I am extremely grateful for how safe and cautious we've been though! None or us have gotten sick in any way which has obviously been such a blessing.

Another crazy change that will be coming for me next week is that my boyfriend will be flying home to his family on the west coast. We've lived together for school over the past eight months, which has allowed for us to get to know each other in close proximity and then obviously, we've been able to spend even more time together during quarantine, with neither of us being able to go to work or anything. I'm imagining that going from seeing each other all the time to not seeing each other at all for the foreseeable future will be a tough transition for the both of us... If anyone out there has gone through a long distance relationship before, we are open to hearing tips about that! This is something I had never envisioned for myself in the past, but it is now my reality and I'm interested in hearing other couples' long distance stories and helpful advice.

It's wild to think that this time a year ago I had finally agreed to attend this one year school program, and at that time I had no idea I'd be ending that school year in self-isolation during a global pandemic, that I'd get laid off, or that I would have a boyfriend. Everything that is going on right now, and the uncertainty of the summer ahead reminds me of Proverbs 16:9 -

"We can make our plans, but the LORD determines our steps." (NLT)

I've said before that the uncertainty of everything can make me anxious at times, but in light of Proverbs 16:9, I just have to smile and shake my head at how funny it is that we live our lives thinking that we are the ones in control. If that were true, wouldn't we have already known that a global pandemic was on its way? And the constant news releases that the Prime Minister and President and other powers that be are changing statements that they've made, and scientists are discovering new things about Coronavirus all the time further proves just how little control we have! Another passage that reminds me of this is one that we studied in class a couple weeks ago: James 4:13-15...

"Come now, you who say, "Today or tomorrow we will go to such and such a city, and spend a year there and engage in business and make a profit." Yet you do not know what your life will be like tomorrow. You are just a vapour that appears for a little while and then vanishes away. Instead, you ought to say, "If the LORD wills, we will live and also do this or that."" (NASB)

Here's to the next forty-five days of quarantine (because, let's be real, that's how it's looking...), the end of another Bible school experience, the start of long distance, and the continuation of trusting in the LORD's control over all of this.