Preparations: Jenna

There are many things I need to let go of, both figurative and literal, in order to fully respond to God’s call to me. However, there is one that I believe is the most important. One thing that I always struggle with is being self-conscious. I am constantly worried what other people think and how they see me. Do they find me annoying? Am I being too shy? Do I seem weird? All these thoughts will cloud my mind and I think I need to be able to let go of this feeling of constantly being judged. I know that my fellow YLAers will not be judging me and neither will the new people we meet. In fact most people will be too focused on worried about being judged, like me, that they won’t have time to be the ones doing the judging. I need to let go of these worries to fully immerse myself into this mission trip experience. If I can let go of the nagging thoughts I will have time to listen to God.

Another thing I need to let go of is my cell phone. Now I haven’t seen everyone else's blog posts but I imagine many of us will say this one, and if the didn’t say it they probably thought it. I was going to deny the fact that I’m stressed about having to leave my phone behind, but I don’t think it’s that uncommon. We don’t like leaving our phones because we feel it is our only connection back. We don’t want to miss drama with our friends, and truly the worst thing that could happen is our snap streaks ending. To really hear God’s call to me I need to leave it all behind. All the stress, drama, nagging thoughts, and snap streaks. I am willing to be vulnerable and go into this new experience, new state even, with an open heart and open mind.

- Jenna, St. Paul's, Natick