Isn’t it an injustice that you can’t type on this in Times New Roman? I don’t know what to do with myself, I’m in unfamiliar sans-serif territory. Among other things.
Anyway, this is Lucy, if you couldn’t tell. My parents have been encouraging me to share my thoughts on “the whole Mongolia thing” seeing as I have a different perspective on the matter.
To be absolutely clear, I’m all for it. Or at least, I’m pretty excited and I know it’s going to be a good experience for me and my family. Obviously, I’m upset to be leaving many of my loved ones behind and spending what would’ve been my senior year in a foreign country, but honestly? I’ve been feeling a lot of peace about this move for a while now, and if you know me, you know that I don’t feel typically feel peaceful about most things. Especially life changes.
When I first learned about my parents’ plans to pick up and leave, it was back in August 2025 and I’m glad I caught onto my parents’ not-so-subtle hints before my younger siblings did, because I was so mad. I remember telling my mom that I was “glad Dad was joking about moving to Mongolia because that would be so awful”, and then she said “What would be awful about that?” And I definitely remember the “oh no” feeling. Pretty much I ran away from her and hid in my room and started crashing out, essentially. I was about to start my junior year, after a pretty frustrating online academic experience the previous school year. I finally felt comfortable and well-liked where we lived, and I did not want things to change.
But you can’t grow without change, can you? After maybe 20 minutes of me imploding, my parents came downstairs and had long talk with me. They explained that they had received strong promptings from the Spirit that God wanted our family in Mongolia. They didn’t know why, they didn’t know how we were going to get there or what was going to happen, but they knew they could trust God. They encouraged me to pray about it, and as mad as I was, I did. After that night, no matter how difficult it’s been sometimes, I’ve always known of a surety that Heavenly Father wants this move to happen and that it will bless my family. My faith has had some ups and downs in the months since, but I haven’t been able to deny the clarity I felt then and still feel now.
As for what this means for me, specifically, here’s what I know: I’m finishing up high school before the move and I’ll graduate before the end of the summer so I can take a language course and get a student visa when we get there, since I’ll be turning 18 around a month and a half after we arrive. I’m not sure if that’s the permanent plan; I might stay with my family and learn Mongolian the whole time they’re there, I might leave to serve a mission early on, or I may just go back to the states to start college. I know my parents would be happy to have me with them, but I think I’m almost ready to put on my big girl pants and be a real-life grown-up. Right now, I’ve been doing a lot of fasting and praying on whether I should start filling out my mission papers and leave as soon as I turn 18. We’ll see how that all turns out!
Even though I don’t know a lot of definite details yet, I do know that this big change is going to help me grow in a lot of ways. As unfortunate as it is, no one really progresses without doing something uncomfortable first. And even though moving to a foreign country is very uncomfortable, I have a feeling it will teach me things I wouldn’t soon learn otherwise. It reminds me of this cute little image I have saved on Pinterest (lol):
I’m finally starting to get over the paralyzing fear I spent most of my teen years feeling trapped by, and I really want to get out and experience things! Mentally, I haven’t felt this well since I was in 5th grade. And yeah, it’s definitely still a struggle, but I always get though the scary and the sad and the stressful, and I feel really well equipped to handle any stupid things my brain wants to throw at me.
The hard things right now are the fact that I won’t be having a senior year of high school. Which is a funny thing to be sad about, but it’s been really hard this year to watch some of my older peers run for homecoming queen, or get the big parts in the musical, or give encouraging speeches to the younger choir kids, or have their own special song in our show choir production, knowing I’m not going to get that. I’m not going to get to put on a stupid ugly cap and gown and walk at graduation, I won’t have a senior prom. I’m going to really miss my older siblings and my cousins and friends, my pets and my room and the funny-smelling library and all the things that I totally took for granted. I’m going to have to get rid of a lot of my stuff, because aside from what I’m bringing, I’ll probably only be able to save a Tupperware box full of sentimental items.
I know these are silly things to be sad about, and I know that in a year most of them won’t matter to me. I’ve had far more than a few good cries. But a lot of these things are temporary anyway, and I’ve really been able to live in the moment with my friends and family, knowing there’s a countdown. I can’t see everything that’s going to happen, but that’s what faith is about. I try not to think about the looming date on our airline tickets, but it’s there, and when it comes, I’ll be ready. I’ve seen too many miracles worked in my life to doubt that this will all work out.