Ep. 62 | ... and you're still learning (and that's a great thing)

Maybe you're like me and you're still learning (and that's a great thing).

In this episode I share about my first winter in Maryland. When I moved to Maryland from Michigan, I thought I could handle any winter weather. But my first snowstorm here? Total disaster.  

I totaled my car and took out a mailbox, all because I underestimated the conditions.  The lesson? Just because you know how to do something doesn’t mean you know how to do it everywhere.  It's about adapting to new environments and staying teachable. 
 
Even as we grow in our faith, we must remain curious and open to learning. 
 
Scripture references: 

Romans 12
Proverbs
James 1:5 

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Transcript

You're listening to Maybe You're Like Me, the transparent musings of a God girl chasing after her purpose. Maybe You're Like Me is a podcast for dreamers and doers who take life's lessons and level up to look more like Christ. We'll connect through super relatable stories, growing pains, and aha moments that most of us share, just not always out loud. I'm your host, Alicia Watson, creative entrepreneur, playwright, author, wife, mother, daughter of the king, and so much more. And I can't help.

But to think that maybe you're like me. Hey, beautiful people. Thank you for joining me for another episode of Maybe You're Like Me with Alicia Watson. It's me, Alicia Watson. Raise your hand if you've been personally victimized by the winter, because are they really calling for another winter storm on the East Coast? It's Saturday as I'm recording, and hopefully as you're hearing this, I can say that the meteorologists lied through their beautiful teeth. And it's a sunny 50 plus degree day today on Monday. Hopefully, hopefully.

I've been in this area for 20 years now and I still get harassed by winter. I hate it so much. It's why I left Michigan. And you would think that having grown up in Michigan, I would be able to stand the milder winters here in the DMV, but no, no, I hate them so much. It made me think about my first winter here and an experience I had that's still a great lesson for me now. And I wanted to share it with you today. So maybe you're like me and you're still learning.

and that's a great thing. So the moral of the story is, being able to drive in Michigan snow is not the same as being able to drive in Maryland snow. I learned that lesson during my first winter when I totaled my car, yes totaled my car and destroyed someone else's mailbox. I was and still am a very confident driver. I got my license as soon as I was able to at 16. I passed all my tests with flying colors. I wanted my freedom y'all. I drove frequently and happily.

I would go to the store, I would run all the errands. I loved driving. I was good at driving. I even drove a big box moving truck from Maryland to Michigan at like 21 years old. It was like a 30 footer or 60. I don't even remember how big it was, but it was really big and I was way too young to be driving that truck. But a 13 hour trip turned into a 24 hour trip because something within the truck where they wouldn't

Allow me to go above 65 and whenever you would push 65, as soon as you pushed it, the truck would drop down to 45 and be stuck and you couldn't go any faster. When I tell you I cried, yes, I cried from frustration and exhaustion. We even had to like pull over and take a nap in the parking lot of a grocery store because I was sleepy. I did not plan for that. I had not napped for that, but I did it. With no fear either. I whipped that little truck, that big old truck.

I whipped that truck like it was a Honda Civic. I was a good driver. I was a confident driver. So when the first snow storm here hit, during my first winter here, I did what I always did when I was in Michigan, but it wasn't Michigan. It wasn't a Michigan lake effect, snow, heavy, wet, predictable because I grew up in it. It was a measly, peasly Maryland snow. It wasn't even sticking. It was like a dusting in comparison.

I was not afraid, so I was out and about, doing as I did. I did not go shopping and tear down the store. I didn't buy loads of breads. I was treating it as if it was another day because I could drive in snow. I drove around this winding back road and I took a curve a little too fast. I spun out and then right into the cutest mailbox that was like all custom. You can tell they put a lot of love in.

attention into it like it was their mailbox and it was reinforced with a pole because I'm guessing that that wasn't the first time that somebody spun out on that curve. So yeah, the man who lived there he came out to see if I was okay and then he just sent me on my way. I was okay, my car was not okay. I started to drive back home and I quickly realized that I couldn't steer the car very well at all. I had damaged my steering column come to find out.

and something in my wheels and there was cosmetic damage to my rear passenger door in the back end. My car was jacked up y'all. I was fresh out of college on my first big girl drive and I did not have money. So my car was crushed, my ego was crushed because how could I, a stellar driver from the snowy state of Michigan have such an accident in a baby snowstorm? What I know today is that the issue wasn't my skill set, it was my environment. I needed to adapt.

Being able to drive in Michigan is not the same as being able to drive in Maryland. Well, worked in one place, wouldn't work in another. Yes, I knew how to drive in snow, but the infrastructure of Maryland is different from Michigan when it comes to preparedness for winter conditions. The roads are treated differently and maybe less frequently. Drivers are less skilled. Some are overconfident, some are underconfident. I mean, I'm sure there's a whole bunch of other variables that I'm not aware of even now.

and that I definitely wasn't aware of then. And it was a humbling experience, but it reminded me to remain teachable. And sometimes there are things that only experience can teach you. Like there was another time I was driving back home to Michigan during the winter and I hit a snowstorm in Ohio. And to my surprise, my windshield kept freezing over and I found myself crying again on the highway. This time I was alone, I was scared, and this was no fault of my own, again.

I had driven that route and taken that trip so many times. I was confident in my ability to get home as I had done time and time again, but the conditions changed and I was unprepared without even realizing it. I was terrified. I was sobbing. I called my dad and he told me that my wiper fluid was probably not one for below freezing temperatures. By this time I had a new car and it was different than the one that I brought with me from Michigan and it came equipped.

with wiper fluid ideal for Maryland, not the one that was likely the standard when I was in Michigan and in the car that I brought with me. I didn't even know there was a difference or that I would need to know that there was a difference or that I would need any different type of windshield wiper fluid. I just went with the windshield wiper fluid that was in the car. And that's the point here. You don't know what you don't know. There's no shame in that. There's actually beauty in that.

As followers of Christ, we are constantly being transformed by the renewing of our minds as the Word instructs us in Romans 12, And why? Because then we will be able to test and approve what God's will is, His good, pleasing, and perfect will. Conditions change. They are always changing. The world around us, the people around us, the people in charge, we change. You know who doesn't change? God.

So we're to go to him with instructions on how to navigate this changing world. A world that doesn't move him, doesn't surprise him, doesn't scare him, doesn't confuse him. Just like I called my father for comfort and wisdom when I was in a scary situation, driving through the mountains into a snowstorm in Ohio with a malfunctioning windshield wiper fluid. That's how we can call on our Heavenly Father.

The book of Proverbs is rich with guidance and wisdom and guidance on getting wisdom. Proverbs chapter three teaches us about how wisdom gives us wellbeing. Verse seven says, not be wise in your own eyes, fear the Lord and shun evil. This will bring health to your body and nourishment to your bones. Proverbs encourages us to trust in the Lord, to not let wisdom and understanding out of our sight, but to preserve sound judgment and discretion and that they will be life for us. That's in verses 21 and 22.

You should really read through proverbs. can read through one chapter a day and get through the book in a month. What I learned and I'm still learning is to remain teachable and to stay curious, to be childlike in my pursuit of knowledge because there's still so much that I don't know even within what I do know. And that's really humbling and sometimes scary because it makes you feel vulnerable and can be a blow to your ego for people to see you trying, learning, growing, but

I'm here to tell you that when you get caught trying, learning and growing, it's a good thing. Learning is the only way to learn. And whether it's through pursuit or through experience, you'll be better for it on the other side. How do you become an expert without experience? How do you get a degree without taking classes? How do you get your shooting average up without practice, without taking shots? How do you grow stronger without repeatedly picking up heavy things and putting them down and then picking up

progressively heavier things and putting them down. Accepting that there's a space where you plateau in what you know and that you have to become the beginner again, the student again, is humbling but beneficial if growth is your goal especially. And that's also the thing about growing as a Christian. You know nothing about God in comparison to all there is to know about God. You may know church and church culture. You may know verses by heart. You may know what you think is right. You may know rules and laws and morals.

but you may not know God because it has to be a constant pursuit of the Lord, especially when conditions change. What applied when I was single does not apply with a marriage. I mean, ask any married woman about the strength she needed to remain celibate or abstinent while single. And then the help she needed to rewire her brain to be free enough to be intimate with her husband after they tithe and not. You may need support as a mother, the patience you need as a caregiver to aging parents.

the guidance you need in your career as it changes, as you grow, as you switch, as you come into contact with different people, as they come and go. Like I was really enjoying my job until they switched our supervisors. The same job that I went to, that I made the same money at every day changed completely because of the person they put in charge of me. You need wisdom and guidance on how to navigate things like that. You need wisdom and guidance for just the trauma that comes from living on earth because things change.

and suffering happens and any help going through things that you have never gone through before. The loss of loved ones, the betrayal in friendships, the changes within yourselves. mean, ask any woman who's in perimenopause or menopause right now, like things that you did in your 20s to make changes, to lose weight or to take care of your body don't even work anymore. is not like through any part of your own, it's your body changing. Like you need wisdom to navigate those things.

And even for good things, going from being broke to managing millions, like what's the wise investment? Or if you get a promotion at work and you become that supervisor, how do you manage people in a way that makes you successful in accomplishing your goals, but also holding space for them to be human? Like there's wisdom to be found in that through experience, through asking someone else who has experience, through the Lord, through your self work.

growth and change. comes with living. Things change and seasons change and you don't know what you don't know and what you think you know may not be enough. You don't know the future, but God does. Our lack of knowledge and understanding and wisdom should be comforting, not scary though, because we can learn. There's wonder to be experienced, secrets to be revealed. Remember James 1 and 5, it says,

If any of you lacks wisdom, you should ask God who gives generously to all without finding fault and it will be given to you. Yeah, your relationship with God is the cheat code, but you have to stay locked in. Asking, seeking, knocking, renewing and not conforming. Trusting, holding onto faith and being curious like little children. Helping for a life beyond this one so you hold on to this one with a loose grip while respecting that it is slipping away. I didn't beat myself up for underestimating the roads in Maryland.

I've learned to drive differently here and sometimes not at all. I stay my butt home until I know the streets are treated and that it's safe to go out. I was still confident in my driving skills, but I'm more knowledgeable now about the differences here. Now that I know about the wiper fluid, I make sure that I'm prepared if I'm headed towards colder climates and actually keep it while I'm here because sometimes attempts drop below freezing. Applied knowledge is wisdom. If you know what you should do, do it. If you don't know, ask.

And if you don't know what to ask and you experience life, take heart. You can learn from it. You're still learning. Keep learning. It's a great thing. And I'm proud of you. Well, that's all I have for you today. If you're like me, leave a review on your favorite platform. I love to hear from you. If you know someone who's like us, then share this episode with them. Thanks for listening and I hope you have a wonderful week. Okay. Bye.