“My future seemed to stretch out before me like a straight road. I thought I could see along it for many a milestone. Now there is a bend in it. I don’t know what lies around the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does.”

These bold words (spoken by Anne Shirley in Anne of Green Gables) were a comfort to me some months ago. I was about to graduate from college, you see, and I didn’t know where to go next.

I’ve spent much of my life moving from place to place. When it came time to figure out where to invest the next few years of my life, I didn’t know even where to begin looking. The United States? Ecuador? Uruguay? Japan?

In the end, I was given an opportunity to visit my family in Montevideo for a few months.

My time in Uruguay has been ridiculously blessed. I’ve made progress with my writing, recovered the sleep I lost during my college years and shared many pleasant weeks with some of my favorite people in the world.

In a month, however, I must move onward.

My plan is to return to Indiana at the end of May and settle down for at least a year or two. I hope eventually to find a teaching position overseas or to make a living as a writer, but I’m going to take things one at a time.

Once again, my future stretches out before me like a road. There’s a bend in it. I have only a vague idea of what lies beyond the bend, but I’m going to believe that the best does. As I’ve said before, ’tis grace that brought me safe thus far and grace will lead me home.

I believe it will, wherever home may be, and I continue to hope there will be coffee shops along the way.