Beyond My Borders: Madeleine Dreyfuss

When I was 21 years old, I left home rather innocently, with no intentions of relocating permanently. The 2010 World Cup buzz and a promising summer internship lured me to Cape Town, a slice of paradise in a country pulsing with a compelling history and a contagious energy.  I spent ten weeks in the art department of a small publishing company, designing layouts and desperately trying to keep up with the local banter. While my interning peers came home with stories about delivering babies and counseling AIDS survivors, my head was spinning to validate my passion of media, art, and design. Eight weeks into my stay, I met my reason for staying in South Africa,  packed up, moved back to Eugene, Oregon to graduate from the University of Oregon school of Journalism and Communication, and a week after graduation was on a plane back to Cape Town.

To feel most of what you know slip out from under you for someone you love is an experience that is as beautiful as it is difficult. I feel that now I have two homes, am so closely connected with the people and places in two different parts of the world that no matter where I am, I will always miss the other.  I’ve been fortunate enough to make steady advances in my career in graphic design as Cape Town is a bustling design capital. I’ve also met some of the most genuine and interesting people I’ve come across, some of which I’ve been able to travel across the country with.  I’ve also been able to evolve and explore the greatest friendship I’ve known with my other half.

I refused to be comfortable, to be stagnant, to rest on what I wasn’t content with and because of that leap, I’m here. 10,231 miles away from family and friends but surrounded by support and love and new friendships. It’s taken time to get settled and every day presents itself with something new, something uncomfortable, or something I’m not familiar with but I can’t get enough of the adventure. I don’t know how long I’ll stay, or what the distant future holds for me, but coming here has been one of the best decisions I’ve made and I’m eager to see where it takes me.

The only advice I have for those thinking about taking a leap is to trust yourself, have faith in your own strength, and remember that it’s okay to feel uncertain or uncomfortable because of what you will undoubtedly learn along the way.

___________

You can catch more of her travels here on her blog!

Beyond My Borders: Tyler & Jordan Dardis

Jordan and I both grew up in the Portland area. We met in high school and went on to study at Oregon State University together. We both knew we wanted to be together and in 2011 we finally married. In our last year of college we began planning what we would do after graduating. As much as we loved Oregon, we knew we wanted to move somewhere new. We talked about various places we could go, and as soon as we brought up Alaska, we knew that was it. We both love the outdoors, the mountains, the snow… Alaska had everything.

It was important to us to set a date to move by because we knew we could be sitting around the rest of our lives for the perfect time, which may never have come. So on July 22nd, we packed up the car, grabbed our puppy and headed to Anchorage. When we arrived we pitched our tent and started looking for jobs. After about a month, I was offered a job by my top choice organization in Anchorage. We found a great place to live with a big yard for our dog, and soon after, Jordan was able to move into a position where she could apply her degree in design.

This year we’ve spent in Alaska has been incredible. It definitely pushed me far outside of my comfort zone, which was scary but awesome at the same time. We both were given opportunities we wouldn’t have had in Oregon. We have been able to see and do things that we wouldn’t have been able to see or do in Oregon. It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made. We both truly believe that everybody should travel and experience a new place in their lives. It doesn’t take a lot of money or tons of planning. It just takes willingness to get up and go. In hindsight, the month we spent living in a tent was just a small sacrifice for the amazing experience we have had here. We are not sure how long we will be here or where we will go next, but we will always have this experience for the rest of our lives.

Beyond My Borders: Heather Bush

My name is Heather and I was born and raised in Hillsboro, Oregon. When I was 22 I left my hometown and I moved to Belize to do a discipleship training school through Youth With a Mission (YWAM).

After I graduated high school I went to one year of University. Upon realizing that I didn’t really know what I wanted to do and that college was overly expensive I dropped out and moved back to Hillsboro. For the next few years, I worked at Old Navy and went to community college off and on.

Over those few years I just found it so mundane and I knew that God had put an adventurous spirit inside of me for a reason!! I knew a bunch of people who had done a YWAM DTS before and they had loved it!! I wanted to see the world and experience new things while I was young. I also wanted whatever I was doing to be meaningful and be able to impact the lives of others. I figured that college would always be there.

In the last two years, my main home has been Belize, but I have spent time in Venezuela, Costa Rica and El Salvador as well as I have travelled through Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. I have had SO many experiences that I NEVER would have gotten when I was in Hillsboro. I have also met some of the most amazing and loving people and had some amazing deep friendships. One of those being my future husband.

God has opened my eyes and my heart to the world and to His children in a way that I had never imagined. YWAM has a saying “Ruined For the Ordinary” that is so true. I can no longer have just a normal/ordinary life. I now know that there is so much more out there. I am stoked to see how else God is going to use me and where in the world He is going to lead me.

I would definitely recommend to anyone to leave their hometown for a bit. Step out of their comfort zone. To see the world while you can. Turns out you can learn so much from that, maybe even more than you would sitting in a classroom all day. My advice would be to just do it! Dive in and see where it takes you!

Dear Oregon,

        Oh how I miss you. I miss you quite a greater deal than I thought I would.  I’m realizing even more about what it means when they said absence makes the heart grow fonder. Whoever “they” are, I bet they too can sympathize with the way I long to be driving down the I-5 with Mat Kearney’s vocals filling up the air; how much I would love to see Milwaukie one more time as the sun sets; to look over that small cliff behind my old house that overlooks Beaverton ; to listen to the sound of the what-used-to-be annoying raindrops as they fall against the window. Not to mention the first joys of Spring, to feel its semi-warm sun rays on my skin. Oregon, there is no other place like you. No other place that flanks me with such gorgeous trees during a bike ride down University st in the small town of Eugene as you to get to class. Those trees always did seem larger than life. Some cities, states, and countries will try but fail in comparison. Yes, they do have a beauty that I have also come to love but like the similiar-looking food carts littered all over Portland, no two things are really the same.

        Yes, it’s definitely safe to say that there is a particular organ on the left side of my chest that has a special space for you. But even more than your everlasting beauty and wonder, I miss the people that live inside your gorgeous boundaries. They are my friends, they are my family. I wish you weren’t so far away because it would mean that they were closer. But, as life is people must live it and it must go on. So take care of them until I get back, yeah?

Stay beautiful. Love you.

Teni