What an experience Norway has been! It is definitely one of the harder things I have ever done, especially with being away from everything I have ever known and what not, particularly my community, but wow have I grown. I’ve learned how to adapt and blossom in an entirely different culture, grown in building relationships that’re deeper than surface level, and more than anything, lean on the Lord’s strength when I would crumble without it. I have made several friends I plan to keep in contact with (including a potential photographer for my wedding) and have experienced a scholastic setting extremely different from the one at Texas A&M that I otherwise wouldn’t have been able to take part in. I have learned what it means to slow down and be present in the moment, something that is seemingly impossible to do in our hurried American culture. I now better understand the importance of getting meals with people and being relational in that way. Moreover, I have realized that living somewhere that doesn’t consistently reach above freezing temperatures until late March is actually manageable if you have enough jackets! I wouldn’t necessarily say I adored my time in Norway, but I can confidently state that it was an extremely fruitful experience and one I am remarkably grateful for.
Now that I’m back in Texas, there’s a couple things I want to work hard maintaining despite the monumental culture shift. I want to find ways to sit in the joy of the moment in the midst of a culture that can’t seem to slow down. I want to continue to build deeper relationships with people and not rushing through conversations because I’m “too busy.” I want to keep centering my life around the presence of God even when there’s so many more things to distract me here. Furthermore, I’m coming back a much more grateful person than I was before. It is so unbelievably easy to take the people and places we love for granted, so now that I’m reunited with these things, I don’t want to be ignorant of their importance of my life and pour much more of myself into the aspects of life that I truly care about.
Again, I cannot stress how thankful I am for this experience and the man God has shaped me to be through it.
~Jax Dixon
