After a year of painstakingly long deliberation I have made the decision to go to University this September.

This decision has not come easily to me, as I'm sure the word 'painstakingly' suggests and a part of me still wants to curl up in a ball and hide from the big bad world of university for another year. Why? Because I don't like change and guess what, university is one heck of a change. 

I am comfortable right now. I have my comfortable life with my comfortable friends, my comfortable church, my comfortable routine and most importantly, my comfortable bed, yet I keep getting this nudging feeling that it might be time to be a little less comfortable, step out in faith and start something new. It's time to learn to make friends with new people, people who are different to me. To be brave and find a new church and remember that God isn't going to leave me if I leave my home. It's time to learn that it’s possible to have fun and be myself in a completely different culture to what I'm used to without the culture defining me. I can be the 'Christian girl' as well as being the 'awesome chick that can dance like nobody's business in the club.' It's allowed. 

I also can't think of a better setting to be pursuing justice. I'm excited to live out Jesus' values of generosity, advocacy, contentment and connection some place new, some place bigger with so many more people to influence. I want to be a person who can step up and use my ordinary life to make an extraordinary difference in the lives of those who are scarred by poverty and injustice. Hundreds of millions of people in the world don't have a house (let alone a bed) to go home to each night and I'm sitting here worrying about leaving my comfortable bed at home to go to another comfortable bed in Norwich. Not okay. It's time for change. New opportunities to make a difference are going to be surrounding me and that is not something to miss out on because of nervous thoughts about not being accepted and missing my boyfriend. 

Living differently, being set apart for Jesus and taking action on behalf of people who live in poverty is what we have been called to do and my decision to go to university has just opened up a whole new city to do this in. I'm excited (and a little scared.) I guess I'm not actually going to curl up in a ball and miss out on all that God has got planned for me, I'm going to embrace the change!   

India is part of the Rhythms Community and in a few weeks will be heading to uni for her first year. In this blog she shares thoughts on life, fears and excitement...