As I was in the process of applying for the Loewenstern Fellowship, my mom prayed for me: “God, I pray that You will be faithful to close this door if it is not your will. But if You do open this door, I ask that Loewenstern will be an especially rewarding and fulfilling experience.” God has indeed opened this door, so how will it be rewarding and fulfilling? The question now is whether or not my heart is prepared to formulate and achieve specific goals for this experience. This past class we learned about SMART goals: goals that are specific, measurable, achievable, relevant, and timely. I’ve realized that for me, SMART goals are more suitable for short-term, tangible goals, such as when working to achieve a specific task at hand. However, my greatest hope for this summer is that my experiences will somehow genuinely change my heart and perspective of my purpose in this world. And that sounds pretty abstract and non-tangible.

As I reflect on my heart’s desires, I’ve tried to get past the obvious. Yes, I am going be in a completely unknown community. Yes, I am going to help people in some way. But what how will all that ultimately influence my heart and direction in life? I have decided to center my aspirations on my overall life goal: to learn to fully love God and love others. For loving God, I hope that as I explore and immerse myself in the foreign land, that my eyes are opened to different aspects of His creation. With reflection, I hope to have a greater appreciation for God and how He created beauty within differences and diversity. My steps to achieve this goal are to journal at least two times a week, to dig deep into each experience I have. As for loving others, I plan to have intentional conversation with at least one person per week. Whether it is someone I meet at the school or at a café, I determine to learn the unique story of someone from Rwanda and understand him or her at a deeper level. I think you can’t truly love someone without fully knowing him or her. So that’s my goal. As I learn from people’s stories, that’s when genuine relationships begin to form and when I begin to love in a greater context. And I hope this will change my outlook on my future career. To be honest, I have many unresolved feelings about my certainty and passion for dentistry. It’s not that I couldn’t see myself being a dentist, but I do question whether I will be able to fully see the impact and fulfillment from it. I believe that my interactions with people in Rwanda can genuinely influence my heart in this aspect. I plan to seek out how my experiences reinforce my confidence in pursuing dentistry. As I teach the importance of dentistry and hygiene to kids in this developing country, I hope that I will further appreciate the applicability and utility of my future skills as a dentist. I will do this by asking the adults and children about their perspective of keeping their mouths healthy and their thoughts about dentists. Ultimately, Loewenstern just might transform how I love God and love others in the future as a dentist.