An Ending and a Beginning

I wrote this on the flight to Vancouver in August...

At 35,000 feet, it's easy to get nostalgic. Despite my frequent travels and somewhat nomadic life in recent years, this flight is markedly different. It is, without a doubt, an ending and a beginning.

This flight marks the end of a summer at home with assorted family members and high school friends. Thankfully, this trip is the direct result of a diagnosis after many tests, false starts and dodgy symptoms. This is the end of using Dad and Mom's money (without interest), the end of using a car for free, as well as the end of suburban conveniences and joys I've known. It's the end of being a university student, of being someone's kid. (Sure, I'm still my parent's child, but I'm mostly "staff" and "Varun's fiancee".)

Yet, as Matchbox 20 (and, apparently, Semisonic) sing, "Every new beginning comes from some other beginning's end". What's enthralling is that this is the introduction page of what will be a whole new book in the epic of my life.

Today, I began budgeting and saving my own income. I move into and adjust into a new city. I begin a full time job. I begin life with my fiance nearby. I begin to experience anglo-Canada, mixed in of course with a heavy Asian influence and sprinkled with the hippie and outdoorsy-types.

To me, flying has always felt like cheating. As if my entire reality can be changed by shuffling through an airport with a glossy boarding card, fighting a tray table that isn't level and watching puffy Toy Story-like clouds glide past my window. In 5 short hours, I'll be on the opposite side of the continent, retrieving my luggage from a sticky conveyor belt, embarking on an adventure--with no return ticket!

What keeps planes up, anyway? Varun explained it once, something about air pressure and Bernoulli's principle(For you curious types, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernoulli%27s_Principle). But really, I stepped on this oddly shaped metal bird in faith. I don't know much about the integrity of the steel or the competence of the pilot. But isn't faith the beginning of everything? God has led me on fantastic, frightening and surprising adventures in the past--from ruins in Greece to night hikes across the English countryside to a mountain village in the Himalayas. Each time I step out in faith, believing God is both powerful and loving, He turns out to be an incredible pilot.

Ultimately, I'm not sure exactly of what this is the beginning. Will I always live in BC? What will I grow to like, think, eat? How will I change? What will God teach me?

My mom always warned me not to read the last page of stories as apparently that ruins them. I'm glad I've heeded that advice over the years. While I have no idea what the last pages of my story contain, I do know the ending contains the powerful and loving God saying, "And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20)