Upcoming life

Hey y'all,

Ok, so I guess I'll jump on the whole..."and what does the rest of your life" bandwagon look like. Mandy and Tory, I'm jealous of both of you...it sounds like you're looking at some really awesome stuff.

I'm still very much in the "I have no idea" stage, at least long-term, but a couple of things look really interesting. I was really excited when I got that e-mail from Steve Byers about the volunteer position working for Sayeedna Elias Chacour...I feel like that's exactly what I've been looking for, a job that I'd be good at with a guy who I think really gets it, and in Israel-Palestine, which is really where I'd like to be. So I'm currently trying to get in touch with them to see about taking that position after I graduate.

I'm also thinking more and more seriously about MESP...I'd love to be back in Cairo, and I feel like the internship job would be a great next step. And that would work out well with the time-frame of the volunteer job in Haifa with Sayeedna Chacour, volunteer there until December and then move to Cairo. And Mandy...if you and I were interning at the same time...all I can say is il-hamdu lillah! That would be absolutely phenomenal. I don't know, what do y'all think?

After that...there's a big gray area. I had a prof sit me down a couple days ago for some life advice...well, we were talking about a research paper that I was working on, but we finished talking about that and he started asking me about what I wanted to do after I graduate. He thinks I should be an academic...not sure on that one. But when I told him some of my interests he told me about an interesting program called the Croc Institute for International Peace Studies at Notre Dame. It's a Master's degree program in peace and reconciliation which is really well-funded, so if you get in you're pretty well taken care of. I haven't looked into it a great amount, but what I know looks really interesting. But I'm taking it one step at a time right now.

More immediately...life's pretty good right now. I just flew home for Christmas Break yesterday, so I'm still kind of settling back in, but it's good to be back with the family. My little brother just finished his first semester at Covenant College in Georgia, so we're having fun hanging out...and of course it's just great to be with your family at Christmastime. Gotta admit, I will miss my great Anglican church back at Gordon...back among the Baptists, no advent liturgies...sadness...but oh well, what can you do?

My semester post-seeing most of y'all in Seattle was pretty good...some personal drama, as there always is in life, but overall not that much...I was too busy to have drama, what with work and school and honors thesis writing (Which is what I should be doing right now) and all that.

I've gotten to be really good friends with the two MESP spring '07 alums from Gordon...that's been a lot of fun, we talk about Egypt and processing and life post-MESP, and frustration with America, and all that great stuff. Hehe, their semester was very...different from ours. But they're great. There's nobody quite as cool as MESP alums.

I'm going to see if I can't get Gordon to pay for me to go to the Faith and International Development conference...I had a friend who got sponsored to go to that last year, and I think if I look into it early enough they might be willing to help me out.

Anyway, so that's what's up with me these days. I miss all of y'all...and Deakin, I'm sad I couldn't be at your wedding. Let's get the next MESP wedding scheduled so we can all make sure and be there!

Peace,
Jon