Deep breathing: light heart & heavy faith

*Originally posted in January 2018 as a guest contributor for Why I Stopped Why I stopped letting fear suffocate me: I have always had a fanciful imagination. I have also always allowed fear to dwell too long in my heart and mind. Fortunately, the scenarios I dreamt up were just amalgamations of the thrilling bits of…

Lithuania | 2011

My summer abroad started off fairly smoothly. In Newark, New Jersey, I met up with all of the other students and one of our professors for the International Business Institute. Half of the group was previously acquainted as classmates at Messiah College together, but most people casually introduced themselves and made small talk while we…

Dominican Republic

Some of the most rewarding travel experiences thus far in my life have been the repeat trips to the Dominican Republic. For two years, at six-month intervals, I flew out to Pennsylvania to join a church volunteer group to travel to Rancho Arriba, a small village tucked into a valley of one of the south-central…

“Do one thing everyday that scares you.”

In my experience, life can be extraordinarily colorful when I step outside of my comfort zone and do things that get my heart racing, my palms sweating, and my head spinning a little bit. There are many actions that elicit at least one of those bodily reactions from me. My body was in shock for…