Back to school, back to school

Orientation for my grad school program was this past Friday, and I'm excited. I'm excited to feel like I'm making progress towards actually doing what I have wanted to do for a long time - there is a sense of accomplishment in taking a definitive step towards a goal, and I felt that on Friday. I'm also excited to meet my classmates and professors, although some of them define the stereotype of a bleeding-heart, granola-eating, meditating, dreadlock-wearing liberal hippie- but that's okay. I'm also VERY excited that I will not be sitting at my desk in my dull office 40 hours a week - I don't think I have fully processed the fact that I am now back in school and not relegated to staring at my computer every day. 

But most of all, I'm excited for the process. If you had approached me even one year ago and said, "Guess what, Ashley, next year you're going to decide you want to be a social worker!" I would have laughed at you and probably dismissed you as off your rocker. But over the past year, so many things have fallen into place (it's more accurate to say that they have been deliberately put into place, like puzzle pieces, but you get my drift), and this course of action seems to be the only thing that even makes sense. Funny what difference a year makes. I'm excited to see where God takes my heart, my goals, and my priorities as I'm exposed to people and circumstances that I've been blind to. 

I'm excited, but I'm also nervous, and a little scared. Scared of what God might show me, nervous about what He might ask me to do, and just a little bit petrified of what He might ask me to change. But fear is good - what would a first day of school be without a few butterflies? So here's to school supplies, crazy professors, and change.