From the Shenandoah to South Dakota

Sitting in bed last night - on top of my overstuffed, king-sized bed, playing online games via my wireless connection while Food Network provided background entertainment from my 32" LCD - I began to contemplate the reality that in the next week, I would be living in a dormitory with 11 undergrads, eating meals from a mess hall at night and painting, staining, and roofing during the day. In South Dakota.

A sudden thought hit me then: WHAT did I sign up to do??

I've always viewed myself as someone who performed service as an integral part of my life and belief system. Those who volunteer with local children's hospitals, collect donations for a charity auction, rebuild houses after natural disasters, jump out of helicopters to put out forest fires, spend two years overseas in the Peace Corps -- yeah, I belong to that club. We're all "volunteers," right?

Hmph.

It was a jarring discovery to learn that I wasn't one of those people...you know, who actually DO stuff. Sure, I write a blog for a non-profit organization and supervise a student organization. Once I even handed out food at a subsidized apartment complex for the mentally handicapped. But to leave my comfort zone for a significant period of time, immerse myself up to the elbows in a philanthropic cause -- that's not me. That's not even idealistic me from my college days. What did I sign up to do?

It'll be an adventure, and one that's long overdue. I owe it to God, to whom I've made plenty of promises if He would ONLY pull me through this or that in my life. I owe it to my family, who came to this country with nothing and did everything in their power to make sure we would never want or know poverty. Heck, I even owe it to idealistic me from college. I still can't quite understand what I'm up to and picture myself actually IN Pine Ridge, but I'm open to the lessons that I'm sure await me there.