Who would have ever thought that a West Coast girl would fall in love with the South? Before the race, I would have told you that I was born and bred and would stay put on the ‘west coast, best coast’. Sure, I would have loved to move to Chicago or New York for a season, but I always felt that San Francisco would be home.
Then Jesus and the World Race interrupted my life and everything changed. While traveling, I had dreams of moving to Thailand, South Africa, Estonia… I felt that I could learn to call any of those places home.
Then CGA becomes my next adventure.. And I moved to the Deep South: Gainesville, Georgia.
Where people think my mason jar full of water might be moonshine, there are people I’ve met with such thick southern accents I can’t understand them, and the land of ‘y’all’ and ‘fixin’ to’.
This small town has slowly won over my heart with its eclectic population, great coffee shops, and homey atmosphere. The Gainesville Square is a downtown area around a 1×1 block surrounded by restaurants, coffee shops, and boutiques where you can meet anyone. It has become my favorite place to be and just enjoy life. For classes, I’ve gone to just talk to people and make relationships, to hear people’s stories, to pray for people, to worship on multiple occasions, and, yesterday, we went to bring God’s beauty and love to the Square through chalk art!
While we were drawing, a girl just a few years younger than me came up while doing a photoshoot and asked me if she could take my picture. She started asking me questions about what we were doing, why, and a lot about my tattoos. She asked me for my story while taking photos of me drawing or just making weird faces, haha.
This short but sweet encounter of getting to share my story with someone solidified my love of Gainesville. It reminded me why I love going to the Square and creating relationships with so many of the people that work and live around there: I get to love them, make them laugh, and show them Jesus.
Just a reminder I am still selling t-shirts to help fundraise for my current semester at CGA and my next one!
I am just under $1000 away from being fully funded for my first semester and deadline is April 25th!
Please consider supporting me by clicking ‘Donate’ on the left hand side and help me to stay at CGA!
