For Every Adventure There is a Beginning

Well my sophomore year of college is coming to an end and that means summer is right around the corner and before we know it fall will be here standing at my doorstep.  

For starters, for those of you who do not know this I am writing this blog because I will be studying in Paris, France for my entire junior year of college (which is this coming up school year!) and I thought I would like to keep a blog so that people back home can easily keep up with me along my adventures!  I am also hoping to be studying in Granada, Spain the summer after I finish studying in France (I’m keeping my fingers crossed!), so I will just go straight from France to Spain.  I know, pretty cool, huh?! J  I am very blessed to say the least!  Anyways, I will be leaving at the end of this summer to head off to France all by myself for the first time ever!!!  It will be interesting to say the least but I am so looking forward to striking out on my own and figuring out who I am and who God wants me to be in this year long European adventure.  Now for the name of my blog, I feel as if this needs an explanation in itself because how I came up with it is actually a rather cliché from the movies type way…but those movies have to get their inspiration from somewhere, right?...  It was the summer before going into my sophomore year of college and my family had a bag of Dove Chocolates in the house.  And if you know anything about Dove Chocolates they usually have those cheesy quotes in the wrapper that say something along the lines of, “Take a moment for yourself and enjoy a Dove Chocolate.”  Yadda, yadda, nothing too exciting or really worth noticing.  However, I pulled out a Dove Chocolate that had the quote, “You cannot discover new oceans unless you have the courage to lose sight of the shore.”  Now that is something worth noticing!  It was definitely different than the typical ones and I thought this is super practical/cool for what is to come…studying abroad!  I think that this quote is very true, how can I ever learn new things if I don’t have the courage to go out there and try, how can I ever learn French if I don’t immerse myself in the language and culture and discover myself if I don’t lose sight of my comfortable shore (the States) and explore what the world has to offer.  I am sure there will be many ups and downs along the way but I am excited to see what is in store for my year long European study abroad experience (aka the year long vacation, just kidding! don't worry I will be studying too)!  I hope you will follow me along my adventures, I’m sure I’ll have many stories to tell while living in Paris and my travels around Europe!  Oh, and I would love you to write comments!  I would love to hear what you are thinking and how things are back home in the States!  As they say in France…

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