May the sun shine warm upon your face

At last, I am in Malaysia. I have loved traveling for the last few months, but I have come to a point in this journey at which I am very content knowing that I will soon be moving into my new home where I will live for a whole ten months. Still, I do not know exactly where this now home is. I have known since April that I would be moving to Malaysia this year, but it wasn't until two days ago when I found out which region of the country I'll be living in. My placement is in the state of Sarawak on the island of Borneo. I am quite happy with this. I had requested to be on Borneo, as there is plenty of access to the outdoors and the populations I will be working with will be very racially and religiously diverse. I will find out on Tuesday my specific placement within Sarawak. For now, I'm in Kuala Lumpur learning how to navigate the upcoming ten months of cultural exchange as a Fulbright English Teaching Assistant (ETA). 

Moving around so much this year has had its challenges and rewards. For the last few months it was a rarity to know in which town and which hostel I would be sleeping the following night. I've met new friends every single day, and I've said goodbye to more people than I would have liked to. This uncertainty and spontaneity has forced me to break a bad habit of romanticizing the future too much. With such an absurd itinerary, I've gotten more comfortable with living in the present and trusting that the future will be okay without my constant attempts to shape it into something perfect that I will inevitably be disappointed with. As I settle into my knew life here in Malaysia, I know I will struggle to maintain a "live in the moment" mindset. I expect to miss people and home, wherever that may be, and living in a new culture will be exhausting at times. I have a goal to work through the hard days without removing myself from my present situation too much. I'm sure that's easier said than done...

For those of you I've had to part ways with this year, I'd like to share with you an Irish blessing my paternal grandma kept around the house:

May the road rise up to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back. 
May the sun shine warm upon your face; 
the rains fall soft upon your fields 
and until we meet again, 
may God hold you in the palm of His hand.