Some of you may be wondering, “Why is the title of her blog in Spanish, if she’s going to Kenya?” Well, funny story, they’re not at all related. BUT, let me tell you the story of where I got ‘Un Día a la Vez.’ It’s a fairly popular Spanish hymn. My favorite lines say, “un día a la vez, Dios mío, es lo que pido de ti, dame la fuerza, para vivir un día a la vez.” In English, it says “One day at a time, My God, is all I can ask of you. Give me the strength to live one day at a time.” I first heard this song my freshman year of high school in my Spanish One class. I remembered it because I really liked the tune. It stuck with me, and I found myself singing it quite often through my first two years of college. It came to be the song I sung on those days that were a little more difficult to get through.
You see, I always grew up knowing where I was going. I’ve wanted to go to Carolina at least since 6th grade. I even knew that I wanted to major in Marine Biology, go to grad school for four years, and move to a beautiful beach somewhere to save all the incredible marine animals! There’s been little doubt in my life about where I’d be in 5 or 10 years, until now. Here I am, sitting in my dorm room and I’m halfway through with my 4 years of undergraduate school. But the difference is that I have no idea where I am going. This past semester, God threw me a curveball, so to speak. When the school year started, I was enrolled in an upper level marine science course and organic chemistry. By the time the first month of school went by, I dropped both. Why? I could say that they were not what I am interested in, that they were too difficult with my schedule, or that I planned to pick them back up the next semester-and all of those things would be true. But in reality, I realized that maybe my plan for my life wasn’t God’s plan. Getting a PhD in marine biology sounds awesome, and I have no doubt that it would be. But 8 years of school means 8 years of loans. And 8 years of loans means who knows how many years of working to pay them off. Long story short, I realized that my plan wasn’t just part of my life; it was going to be the thing that consumed my life. And it didn’t leave much room for God.
The hardest part of all this is that I didn’t just change my plans, I gave them up. For the first time in my life, I feel like I am learning to wholly trust God with my future, even when I have no clue what my future is. Truly trusting God one day at a time is one of the most difficult things to do, because I have to constantly remind myself that He is in control. But it has also given me more peace and joy than I have ever had about the present.
I’m still taking marine science classes, but I don’t foresee 3+ years of grad school and a life of saving the oceans ahead of me. In fact, I don’t really know what I see ahead of me. All I know is that I am double majoring in Biology and Hispanic Linguistics (which is just a fancy way of saying Spanish), and that I’m open to go to wherever God calls me. And the crazy thing is, that’s okay! I know that God will reveal His plans for me, Un Día a la Vez.
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.”
Philippians 4:6-7
“Take therefore no thought for the morrow, for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself.” -Matthew 6:34
