In slight contrast to the monotony and loneliness that I was feeling during those first few weeks on the job, the weekends often brought a bit more entertainment. I was in music city, for goodness sake. On my first weekend there I had zero actual friends and one potential friend. My one potential friend was the only other female working as an engineer at Smyrna. We initially bonded as many female engineers do when they find another one of their kind out in the wilderness. I just prayed that she had any social skills whatsoever because sometimes that can be a real hit or miss. Luckily, she seemed very sweet and we exchanged numbers. Julia and I ended up becoming good friends and spent many weekends exploring this city together.
That first weekend, Julia also introduced me to Erin who was an intern working at headquarters in Franklin. These two girls became my first sense of community here in Nashville. And, if I am being honest, it was one of the first times that I was in community with people who were not other Christians. The Lord for sure used these two girls to start showing me that I need to be more intentional with people who don’t share my faith. This led to some incredibly cool conversations and I loved getting to know these girls. We also had lots of fun together. We ate lots of ice cream and went paddle boarding and listened to music. At the end of that first weekend, I was grateful to have two friends.
The work weeks kept progressing and by the second or third week I was enjoying the work and the company of my fellow teammates. The men I worked with taught me a lot about rural life in the south. I have never had so many conversations about fishing and hunting and SEC football. They were sweet to welcome me into their group and they always showed me a great amount of respect. And then there was Cathy. Cathy was the only other female in the group and she totally took me under her wing. She is strong and caring and she keeps that place running. She encouraged me and spoke a lot of truth. Plus, she was a big Ohio State fan so that was an added bonus.
By the third week, the Talent Acquisition team began to have events for all of the interns around middle Tennessee. They would take us to local places around Nashville to volunteer for the day. I was able to meet other interns at these events who I did not get to see on a day to day basis. One person that I was hoping to meet was a girl named Brooke because Cathy had been mentoring her and spoke very highly of her. Luckily, I met Brooke at the very first thing and we were quickly friends. She is another Big 10 gal with a big heart and lots of spunk. As I got to know her better throughout the next few weeks, she became another part of my community. And I hope to meet her up in Wisconsin and watch my Purdue Boilermakers beat the Badgers!!
There were a few other interns that often attended these things and I enjoyed seeing them around. It was nice to interact with other people my age while also giving back. However, I was still lacking any sort of faith community. I so badly wanted to chat with people who could tell me how they saw God working in their lives. I wanted a friend who would get excited about speaking truth over one another. And the Lord answered that prayer in a big and gross way.
bearclaw! 