Cities, Airports, & Books of 2018

As an information-driven recap of the year: here are the cities I’ve slept in, the airports I’ve arrived in or departed from, and the books I read in 2018.

This post was inspired by my colleague and friend Amy, who has been doing this annual recap since 2011. Her recap includes shows she saw and races she completed, and I adapted mine accordingly.

Cities I slept in

Ann Arbor, Michigan
Da Nang, Vietnam
Hoi An, Vietnam
Hue, Vietnam
Karawaci, Indonesia
Melbourne, Australia
Osaka, Japan
Portland, Oregon
Seattle, Washington
Seoul, Korea
Sharm el Sheikh, Egypt
Singapore
West Palm Beach, Florida

Airports I traveled through

CAI
CGK
DAD
DTW
EWR
HKG
ICN
JFK
KIX
PBI
SEA
SIN
SSH

Books I read

Born A Crime
Boundaries
Boys In The Boat
David And Goliath
Difficult Conversations
Everybody Lies
For Men Only
For Women Only
From The Corner Of The Oval
Gift Of Loving Yourself
Grit
Hidden Christmas
Hit Refresh
Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Venus
Missoula
Originals
Pachinko
Prayer
Shoe Dog
Steve Jobs
Ten Great Dates Before You Say "I Do"
The Best We Could Do
The Bible
The Defining Decade
The Short And Tragic Life Of Robert Peace
The Road To Character
When Breath Becomes Air

Comments

And just when you least expect it..

Today I went down to the food court with another intern and as I opened my box of sushi, I hesitated. Feeling as if there were too many eyes on me (I only ate with one other person -_-), I questioned whether I should pray before my meal, in fear of social rejection. After I prayed, she asked me if I was a Christian, and I awkwardly responded that I was. Then she said, "Finally! What a relief to know that there are other Christians!" WHAT THE.. I couldn't believe it. Here I was, sitting with a co-worker that I had simply exchanged cordial greetings with, now talking about God haha. Even though I was scared and honestly did NOT want to pray, God used a habitual thing like that to open up opportunities for me to invite her to small group and share my faith. Crazy how He works when you least expect it.

Delirious

delirious (adj): marked by uncontrollable excitement or emotion; ecstatic; filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy (1 peter 1:8); me I don't think I had a personal relationship with God until 2 weeks ago. There have been a lot of formative moments and experiences in the past 6 years of me considering the existence of a higher-being, 3 yrs of being a Christian, 1 year of living by faith, 6 months of serving on church leadership, 1 month of dire circumstances, each of which have been challenged and supported by specific instances in my life.* But it's only been 2 weeks of finding pure joy, satisfaction, and freedom in Christ (alone). Though it's been 6 years since I first stepped into a church building and 3 years since I accepted Christ, I was always afraid to admit that I didn't know what grace, freedom, repentance, or Jesus meant--in terms other than the ones I had heard or read--it was always a theory and never a reality in my own life. After years of doing chur...

Lessons from the Big House Big Heart 10K

I ran a 10K yesterday at the Big House, right before HMCC's 15th year celebration--it was an INCREDIBLE run because I feel like God was speaking to me about my life as I was running. Here's what I mean: I was in awe and shock when I finished my 6.2 miles, because I have been extremely unfaithful with training leading up to the race. Despite my failure to be disciplined on a daily basis, I felt like I was given this supernatural strength to run til the finish and not give up. Because of that, I ran hard and ended up cutting about 20 minutes off of my time from June (crazy, I know). I think the 10 kilometers I ran yesterday greatly resembles my journey of following after Jesus. If you ask me about what has helped me to grow in my faith, I can give you a handful of HUGE commitments I've made in the past couple years--like participating in a summer missions project, serving in LIFEgroup ministry, or staying in Michigan post-graduation. But despite these sizeable deci...

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