Graduated. People keep asking, "how does it feel?" Honestly, it feels, great, and rotten, and exciting, and boring, adventurous, and lonely. Just like the rest of life basically. "So, what are you going to do now that you've graduated?" If you'd asked me that a month ago, I'd have said I was going to go work in Puerto Rico or Mexico for about 6 months before I came back to Greensboro to "settle into" working. What I am actually doing is very much not what I wanted to to be doing, and every bit as much what, I daresay, I need to be doing. Let me explain.

The jobs in both Mexico and Puerto Rico did not pan out, much to my chagrin. Even the job I wanted in Greensboro fell through, despite being told at the interview by the manager that I was as good as hired. No, what I am actually doing is staying in Greensboro to work as an interpreter of ASL and Spanish. Here's the cool part, but it needs a bit of background to be fully appreciated. You see, for sometime now, I have been quite distant from God. Really I still am, but that is another several dozen blogs entirely. I had grand plans for my future, jobs, travel, all manner of excellent adventures. None of those was what God wanted for me, and I think I knew it a long time ago. I just wasn't too fond of the Old Chap so I had no care for what He may have for me here. Part of my distance from God has been about just that: I don't like His plans and the way they keep ruining mine and keeping from me the things that I want. Now that that has been cleared up, let me tell you a bit about what He seems to be planning for me and how cool it is.

I wanted to go to Puerto Rico or Mexico because I wanted to work with Hispanic people, to improve my Spanish, and since returning from Mexico have had precious little chance to do that. One agency I already work for offers Spanish interpreting in addition to ASL. They have decided I am competent enough and that I have sufficient facility with Spanish to do some basic Spanish interpreting work. That still leaves me with little opportunity to actually practice and improve my Spanish however. What I didn't plan on was being introduced to a woman today who just opened her own interpreting agency for Spanish interpreters. She is looking to expand into Sign Language interpreting as well. Yet, this leaves me in the same position. Or, it did until she mentioned an organization that operates locally partnering Hispanic people with Spanish speaking Christians for a sort of peer mentoring. The point is to give people who only speak Spanish fluently a place where they can talk through their problems. This is of particular interest to me since I want to do a graduate program in counseling. It will also help introduce me to a community of Spanish speaking people giving me the opportunity to use my gifts and talents and passions all in one place: Spanish, counseling, and a love of people.

My dream, should I be in the US long enough before becoming an overseas missionary, is to open a counseling practice for linguistic minorities. A practice that could offer discounted counseling services to people in their own native languages, removing the need for interpreters. The opportunities before me are so perfectly designed for me I can't see any way they could have come to me other than God's intervention. I hope that He doesn't take these from me as well, as I am not sure I have the faith to overcome another blow from on high.