And now we come to my "now". Instead of going to college, like everyone had expected me to, and how I had always expected me to, God had other plans for me. I am currently doing a nine-month internship at Three Springs Ministries called True North. This had not been my plan. I had dreams of going to school far away, let alone staying in Pennsylvania and not going to school. But God called me to do this, and when doors kept closing for me everywhere else, I finally chose to obey. True North is an internship dedicated to cross-cultural missions, biblical living and learning, and service. So I moved in on September 1st and two days after, we loaded up a Sprinter and drove across the country to the capital of the Navajo Indian Reservation on the border of New Mexico and Arizona.
We spent a week there, diving into the culture, exploring the rock formations, and getting to know each other as we started this journey with a 36 hour van ride as an introduction. We met so many great people, namely some former interns who are native Navajos and an impossibly sweet man named Julius. We got an incredible oppurtunity to go to the Navajo Nation parade, which is HUGE and natives come from reservations from all over to celebrate thier heritage together. We got to play ultimate frisbee with some native kids, and we got to spend some valuable time with some great people who are missionaries on the reservation. 
But it was the little things that made that week valuable, and often times those things were very simple. Like climbing up a cliff in the dark to watch the sunrise, or repairing a roof together, or exploring the wilderness and pulling cactuses out of each other's clothes. This journey was becoming real to me, and our time in Arizona felt like a drumroll to the song we would be listening to for the next several months.
After spending a week on the reservation, we got back in the van and traveled to Colorado to backpack in the Rockies. This experience was another part in our beginning as discovering our lives together as a community.
Colorado pushed us physically, mentally, and we got to experience God's creation in a big and beautiful place. Cold nights, dry freeze food, and warm wool socks were a given. I could sit upon those mountains all day and gaze at that Colorado starry sky at night, and I would be ceased in my amazement of God's hands and the beauty of their work. 
Rio Grande Pyramid (Left) was 13,800 ft, and we woke up around five thirty the last morning to climb it. Colorado was intense, but we managed to survive in one piece surprisingly, since none of us had done any previous training. So we traveled back to Pennsylvania and thus began our time with Three Springs Ministries!