Inspired by my friend Kerry, I am reflecting on the last 10 years of my life 2000-2010!! After looking back, I have realized that I have been on quite the journey of learning who I was meant to be, exploring new paths, trying new things, discovering new things about myself, life, God, relationships, and living in confidence and grace.
2000
Class of 2000! I graduated high school at the ripe age of 17. All I thought I wanted to be was a personal trainer and help people live healthy lives. I started out at Loras College in Dubuque, IA majoring in Exercise Science and ran Cross-Country. After a semester of running being life life and a small college seeming too much like high school, I packed up my bags and moved back home.
2001
Continued a pursuit of school and decided to attend the University of Northern Iowa. I spent a summer at a Bible camp for Inner-city kids outside of Peoria, IL. It was the most rewarding and most challenging summer of my life! I loved working with at-risk youth..who are amazing kids who just need love. That spurred me on to get a degree in Youth and Human Services. Lived in the dorms with my friend Melynda from High School.
2002
Continued at UNI. Spent the summer doing an internship with the Navigators, a Christian college ministry, at Snow Mountain Ranch in Colorado as a Day camp counselor. Oh how I loved living in the mountains!! Lived with Kathy, Jenna and Kara in a house right by campus.
2003
Moved into a house off campus with Emily, Emily, and Amy. Had a blast! Spent the year working part-time at SureCare Services as a Care Assistant for the elderly. I loved working with them!
2004
Wow, this was one hard year! Graduated from college with honors, which was awesome! The not so fun part was going through a lot of health issues that year..learned even more about nutrition, antibiotics, and more about what the body needs to thrive! Went through a super hard transition from college (knowing what I was doing) to not knowing what to do next! The world was at my fingertips and I didn't know which way to go. I stayed in Cedar Falls for another few months and then moved home for a few months.
2005
Moved to Des Moines, IA--spent time working at a fitness center and substitute teaching. Then I got a job at Wesley Acres Retirement Community as an Activities Assistant. I learned how to teach fitness classes for seniors. It was so fun! I lived in Waukee with Bethany. I met many amazing people through Immersion at Lutheran Church of Hope. They became my community and best friends.
2006
I moved into my own studio apartment in downtown Des Moines. I became 1/2 time Assistant Activities Coordinator and 1/2 time Wellness Coordinator. I really enjoyed my job working with the residents. It was like having 300 grandparents! My dad became really sick, really quickly, and ended up losing a fight with lung cancer on June 30, 2006. Definitely one of the hardest and most surreal days of my life. By the strength God gave me I was able to speak at his funeral and share the importance of forgiveness. God had done an amazing miracle in our relationship a couple years before he died. Thus began a grieving process. I joined the Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership and signed up to co-chair. I wanted to do what I could to help people prevent going through what my dad did. I also signed up for graduate school, an online Health Promotion Management program. I cried a lot that year. I had an amazing support of friends love on me and be there for me.
2007
I moved in with Nicole and Jen into 620 19th St. Des Moines into the best house ever! We had a blast living together! I took a new opportunity with the American Lung Association as a Project Coordinator for the Central Iowa Tobacco-free Partnership. I got to work with some amazing people and be out in the community doing education on tobacco prevention and policy. I grew leaps and bounds. The most ironic thing happened at the end of the year. Most of the ALA employees came down with Histoplasmosis! (Histo-plas-what?!!) That's exactly what I thought to! Basically I was sick with flu like symptoms for like a month--it was pretty much horrible! Not the best way to end a year! I also almost moved to Oregon...almost!
2008
This year was huge and lots of changes, I mean LOTS of changes! I had the amazing opportunity to travel to lots of cool places--Seattle, West Palm Beach, and Phoenix. I worked with an amazing group of women to plan a conference for young adult women, called Bella. The event didn't end up happening, but it would be great to do something like that again. I had thought it was time to settle down in West Des Moines so when Carrie and Perry's townhome came up for sale, I jumped on it! Little did I know that I would live in it less than 6 months! I also had a once in a lifetime opportunity to spend 6 weeks doing a leadership program called Young Leaders at Wilderness North in Northern MN. We learned about lots of different areas of knowledge--history, education, religion, business, etc. We lived in cabins, we worked on work projects, we had class sessions, read books, took trips to Duluth, took a trip to the boundary waters and to the Apostle Islands...it is also where I met Jeremy Erdman my now hubby! It was a time of getting to know each other as friends..but we had a deep soul connection that I still to this day do not understand, nor do I want to. We had a lot in common but yet are SO different. I really wrestled with God on it b/c I knew that Jeremy really liked me but I was so scared of getting hurt and losing my independence as a single gal. But he pretty much won me over and I spent a lot of time listening and really believed it was meant to be. After we left Wilderness North we both pretty much knew that this was the real deal and that we wanted to be together. I went back to Iowa to prepare for moving to MN...quit my job, looked for one's up in the cities, and asked God to provide in miraculous ways--and he did! I got a new job as a Wellness Coordinator, rented my townhome, found a place to live with friends of Jeremy's for free, and things just fell into place. We dated a couple months, were engaged a couple months, and had a on December 13, 2008. It was actually really amazing how everything came together in a short period of time and with the help of my amazing mother and the coordinator in me. A few months later, my best friend Nicole showed me the note that her and Jen had written and put under the sink in our house that said "By February 2009, Kari will be married!"...well, maybe if we really do believe in our hearts desires and wait for the perfect time, they really will happen!
2009
Wow,what a year of continued transition--ups and downs, grieving my old life, embracing my new life, growing, making mistakes, forgiving, loving, being a wife, thinking about who I want to be. The year started out with lots of trip to Iowa to see my Grandma who went to be with the Lord on February 4, 2009. That was really hard as she was really involved in my life, an amazing example, and her and my grandpa had been married for 70 years!
Jeremy and I had an eventful year! Moved into a place in Taylors Falls MN we called "The Loft". I joined the choir and we joined as youth group leaders. I went and visited Nicole out in Utah for a week! I began a new job with the MN Institute of Public Health! We bought our first place! We paid off our consumer debt. We invested in a remodeling job in our new house. We took a scuba diving class. We went to a bed and breakfast. We started working at Makers Healthy Market very part-time. We took a trip out West! I got to travel to Louisville, KY, Anaheim, CA, and Bozeman, MT, places I hadn't been to!
I learned how to knit, make jewelry, and cook and bake. I started selling Entertaining At Home products. I was on a huge learning curve with my job. I cried a lot. I healed a lot. I am learning how to love a man, how to forgive a man, and how to believe in and trust a man..not an easy task, but with God's help and healing touch I am learning.
I don't claim to have it all together. I don't say that I haven't made mistakes. But I do say that I am growing, learning, discovering, healing, becoming more of the woman I really was created to be.
