9 things I wish I knew before going on the world race

Hey friends, I recently ended my race and looking back there are a lot of things I didn’t realize or know going into it so I decided to write a blog to hopefully help future racers.

1-People who have finished the race are not perfect. Now this might seem obvious but going into training camp I subconsciously believed that all of my alumni leaders were fully developed spiritually and knew exactly what they were doing. Because of this I had high expectations of them and did them a disservice by not giving them feedback or questioning their reasoning or theology. My leadership team was very spiritually mature and I am so thankful for them but they are not infallible.
     This applies to you too. I thought that I would be completely spiritually developed by the time I finished the race and often felt frustrated near the end that I hadn’t achieved what I thought I should have with my spiritual development. But we are never done growing, every time my understanding grows God grows too for me. Which is really cool! 

2-Some people on your squad might know a lot about the Bible, some might know really little. Both are totally okay, if you find yourself thinking that you are behind everyone else, don’t worry, there is a reason God has you with the amount of knowledge you have right now. Knowledge does not equal righteousness. If you do know a lot about the Bible, don’t be afraid to ask about the things you don’t know or concepts you don’t understand. There are not any expectations of your Biblical knowledge.

3-You can be friends with your squad leaders. Like, really good friends. I was really confused about what their purpose was when I started my race but I am so thankful for them. If you are doing gap year, your squad leader will be with you your whole trip, helping coordinate things with your base leaders and things like that. But they are also there to disciple you. Choosing to be vulnerable with my squad leader pretty early and building a friendship with her was really important for me. 

4-You also have to be intentional with your alumni team leader. While they are the ones discipling you, it will help your relationship with them a lot if you actively seek them out to hang out, and get to know them outside of a team or discipleship setting. 

5-You probably won’t be really good friends with people right off the bat. Some people connect almost instantly, but for most it just takes time, try to get to know your squad as a whole and know the first month will probably not be like the rest of the race socially. 

6-It’s pretty normal to cry in your tent at night. We are all going through stuff, there is no shame. But remember that tent walls are not real walls and have little sound proofing ability. 

7-It’s okay to be the first one to go to bed. Before my race I read a few blogs where people said that they had stayed up instead of going to bed. Luckily one of my alumni leaders told us the first week that it’s okay to go to bed early. Maybe consider if you are avoiding anything by going to bed early consistently, but your days are full on the race and rest is important, so if you are tired, you can go to bed. 

8-Things sometimes seem chaotic on the administration side of things. This might have been because I was one of the first to launch after the pandemic started, a lot of things were up in the air, like which country we would go to or if we would get to go internationally at all. Know that the AIM staff is constantly working so hard for you and your squad. The world is just a bit more unstable now than it used to be, so they might need some more grace and flexibility.

9-If you don’t understand something or disagree with something from a session, the speaker would probably love to speak with you about it. 

If you have any questions about being a racer or the race in general I would be happy to answer them! You can contact me through my blog or message me on my Instagram at _emily_mccann_