But It’s a Dry Heat…
My biggest worry while getting ready to move out to Arizona and begin my journey with NBA XPLOR was always the weather. I wasn’t worried about the distance, the drive, or relocation. I was ready for the change-up, but I’m from the Midwest, a little town right in the snow belt of Ohio. Just the thought of 100+ degree weather scared me.
Whenever you talk to anyone about Arizona, though, they would say that it’s a dry heat. It’ll be fine. I thought that this was going to be one of the biggest lies I was ever told. But a couple months in, I haven’t melted yet. The dry heat really does make a difference. Without the humidity, the heat becomes a totally different idea; it’s not the heat that you can’t escape and that causes you to sweat just being outside in the summer.
This dryness brings new life to an old concept. My idea of what “hot” is has completely changed. It took actually living into a new area, with a new climate, to realize how something that I thought would always be one way can change so drastically. How many other things in our lives do we have preconceived notions of how they are? How easily could these ideas be changed through actually experiencing them? It didn’t take long to adjust to this heat, and now I have a new idea of what October is while the days were still resting at 90 degrees.
I think there will be many more times during the XPLOR program where ideas will change; I’ll develop new ideas and let old ones fade out. It’ll be an opportunity to grow through an experience of life, which, after all, is why I joined this program.
Matt Sipos is a 2016-17 NBA XPLOR Resident in Tucson-Marana, AZ. He serves with host congregation Saguaro Christian Churchand community engagement site Interfaith Community Services.
NBA XPLOR is a 10-month service residency opportunity for young adults ages 21-30, with the purpose of empowering young adults to discern and develop a “heart for care” as they live together in simple community, engage in direct service and justice work, engage in leadership development, and discern their vocational calls to honor the various communities they are called to serve. Learn more and apply at nbacares.org/xplor.
