Honky Tonk and Vocations

Well, after much breathless anticipation, here is the post about Nashville!!!

After making my way to the west coast, I traveled back to JFK airport. When my plane landed I was excited to act like a big girl and find my hotel shuttle, hotel and dinner for the night all by myself. I found my shuttle pretty well, made my way to my sketchy, sketchy hotel and checked in...I opened the door to my room and was pleasantly surprised: I had to text my mom with the exciting news of how gigantic my bed was! I felt like I could fit five of my closest friends in that bed! Anywho, after settling in a little, I set out for dinner. I walked to the Burger King just down the street and was looked over multiple times by the multi-cultural guests eating at said Burger King...they must've been wondering which rabbit hole I crawled out of...after walking back to my room and settling in, I stayed up flipping through channels because I hadn't had a leisure TV experience in seven months! It was funny...I stayed up until 1am just watching commercials and flipping through channels / watching "Interview with Vampire"!

My flight took off in the mid-morning and I landed in Atlanta, which now I understand where they get the name "Hotlanta" from...it was so humid! Then I flew to Nashville...the Delta flight had a small TV for me to watch on the back of the seat in front of me...it was like a personal size TV just for me...to which I played trivia on it! hahaha...when I landed in Nashville, the first thing I was greeted with was music...everywhere, MUSIC. It was fantastic. I saw music notes and guitars on the walls and country music blaring out of every speaker...simply put, close to heaven.

The conference was held at this really pretty set of buildings on Vanderbilt's campus. I guess it used to be a seminary of some sort but later became a retreat center...I had my own room and shared a bathroom with one other lady. It was cool. There were about 45 of us from all over the U.S. volunteering with different denominational volunteer organizations. I spotted the two other JVs from the east and we basically stuck together the entire weekend. I met lots of really nice people though. I got to talk with some people who were JVs from California, Alaska, South Dakota, Oregon and Washington; which was neat comparing notes.

The actual conference was interesting because it was geared mostly toward Protestants. Some of the subject matter was about going to seminary and it made us Catholics giggle a little because seminary is something very, very different for us...hahaha. BUT we got to spend an entire day looking at different non-profits in Nashville like this place called Thistle Farms. The agency takes women who are prostituting and addicted to drugs off the streets and places them in a home that is self-running. There's no den mother or boss telling them how to run the home and Thistle Farms gives them a job because many of these women have records so they can't find employment. I was blown away by the incredible sense of compassion and pride they took in their agency...I really wanted to work there and it was difficult to leave them!

On Friday night we got to Honky Tonk...which I highly encourage anyone to participate in. It was so fun! We walked down the main drag of Nashville and music was everywhere...literally, everywhere. I was smiling from ear to ear because it was so fun! Live music filled the streets and people were dancing in every bar. We went to three different places...one didn't have live music but was like the anti-honky tonk bar, one was dripping in honky tonk-ness and was called the Whiskey Bent Saloon! Then, we went to Wanna B's Karaoke Bar. All were so much fun! I don't like country music but I had a great time!!!

I was sad to leave Nashville but I felt like the time I had there was great to meet other people who's faith is deeply ingrained in them. It was cool to see how their faith was directing their vocations, their dreams, goals, hopes and wishes. I came away feeling prepared to take on anther year of JVC by the reigns and ready to Honky Tonk my way through any bumps in the road along the way! :)