Welcome back to the blog and the last post finishing my recap of Nashville and the Delight Leaders Regional Retreat! To recap arriving in Nashville, being on Broadway, and the first day exploring and going to the retreat, start with this post. I’ve been sharing my takeaways from the retreat and what God spoke to me along the way, which I’ll continue doing in this post. Thank you for following along!

To wrap up this post, I have LOTS of images to share again, and I’ll be adding a table of contents below so you can skim or read at your preference. We had another almost full day of the retreat, where we had time to explore the city a bit for lunch and some shopping (I spent a little more than “some”), and we hung out on Broadway that night before leaving the next day. Our flight didn’t depart till the late afternoon, so we did some more exploring downtown and shopping. At the end, I’ll share a brief summary of it all and why this trip meant a lot to me as well as everything I bought I haven’t shown along the way. If you have any questions or experiences to share, please leave a comment and let me know!!

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Table of Contents

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Day 3: Final Day of the Delight Leaders Retreat & Going Out On Broadway Again

Waking Up

We woke up around 6:30. The next day of the retreat was kicking off bright and early! I was the last one up, of course. If you read the previous post, you’ll know one of the things I struggled with on this trip and that God worked on my heart about is my desire bordering on obsession for a guy. I think I got a lot of that out of my system the first night into the second day as I focused more on God during the retreat. This morning, I woke up to a lengthy text from my mom about that and knowing my worth in Him and not settling or worrying about a guy, which meant a lot to me. I’ll have some more lessons to share throughout the post on this, too.

Going to Frothy Monkey Before the Retreat

Okay, I am sad to say Frothy Monkey only has locations around the Nashville area—I checked. They had the BEST hot chocolate I’ve ever had in my life!! That, and they were such a cute, cozy little shop—the perfect place to meet up with some other girls Yvette had been texting also going to the retreat to grab some breakfast beforehand. The warm lights delighted me right away.

The café was in a little house-like building, and we went to the back and off to the side where it’s almost like a sitting area outside, but there was still a roof over it and windows all around.

I ordered some scrambled eggs and a cup of hot chocolate. I was VERY happy with the prices, too—I only spent $7 for both! I didn’t expect much with the hot chocolate; you’d think hot chocolate is just hot chocolate, but I didn’t want coffee. I could’ve DIED when they brought this to me!! This is what those photogenic lattes you see on Instagram always look like, where they have this little picture on the top of them! It was nice to feel like I was part of the coffee club without actually drinking it! This was so.good. I would go back to Nashville just to order this again—that’s how much I loved it. Our server was very sweet, too.

I got to take a cliche picture of the drink with my Bible and journal, too.

Here’s Yvette’s drink and mustache!

We found this stunning photo op right down the road while waiting for our Uber! It was supposed to be another 50-degree day, but it was freezing that morning, and the wind was up! That’s why in the next few photos, I look like I’m in pain.

Cute face. I was probably complaining about how cold it was.

Retreat Morning

At the retreat, though I don’t remember specifics, we had a variety of worship music, quiet time where we sprawled out across the room in the dark to sit with our Bibles and journals and just talk to God/study/whatever He put on our hearts, and messages again. I asked Yvette to write my name for our nametags because she could write almost as if she’s doing a “font.” I think I have nice handwriting, but I can’t easily imitate different styles or “fonts” besides my own signature style.

I don’t have quite as many notes for this day, but here are some takeaways I had…

Evangelism is how we live.

As leaders of our local Delight chapters, it was no surprise that one of the topics discussed was evangelism. I’ve heard a lot about this topic over the years, and it’s so important—literally our life’s calling (Matthew 28:19). In this message, I appreciated how they said our evangelism is an overflow of our relationship with God. Others should be able to experience our faith through how we live every part of our lives. Sometimes, it’s not always about what you preach or tell people—though that certainly is part of it. But every aspect of our lives should glorify God, especially if we are trying to talk to others about Him.

On a similar note, the speaker mentioned the importance of having friends who aren’t Christians. This surprised me to hear at first because usually I hear the opposite about how important godly friends are, and if you’ve been around here for a while, you know that’s been a challenge for me to find like-minded people who actually share my values. I don’t disagree that godly friends are important, but I’ve always wondered myself how we can truly be a light if those are the only people we’re surrounded by. That’s what the speaker asked: who are we sharing Jesus with if all our friends are Christians? That doesn’t mean you can’t and won’t still share Jesus with people who do already know and love Him, but you need both.

I was always frustrated at how hard it is for me to find Christian friends, and honestly, I still am. I’ve met a lot of people who are interested in faith or new to the faith, but it’s difficult to find people who are serious about God beyond what it means for them socially. But I have always thought the people in my life that aren’t Christians provide a great way for me to live out the values God gave me. It’s forced me to hone my faith and defend my values. The speaker said you can still do fun things with friends who aren’t Christians and go elsewhere for deeper needs, like spiritual fellowship. I have had lots of fun times and cherished moments with my non-Christian friends. That doesn’t mean I engage in sinful behaviors with them, but we can still have a lot in common even if we don’t share the same beliefs about everything. Most of my friends, even those who don’t have the same faith as me, still have some values in common with me, and I don’t always preach to them, especially if I know they’re not interested. Just being there for people and letting your faith speak for itself can spark a lot of trust and conversations down the line.

Vulnerability is so important.

We also heard a message about Delight’s core values, one of which included vulnerability. You could say that vulnerability is similar to authenticity, which is something I always strive for. I would say it goes even deeper than authenticity. With authenticity being such a cliché now, not everyone who talks about being real actually is. Being authentic requires vulnerability. If you can’t do that—open up and talk about the deepest, darkest areas of your life—you can’t be real.

We talked about how we as leaders in our weekly Bible study meetings can pave the way by being vulnerable ourselves and thus encourage vulnerability from the other girls who come. Emma, our regional director, does an amazing job with this. She visited our chapter once in the fall, where we first learned how important vulnerability is to Delight, and talked about it with us. During that meeting, she shared her own story that blew me away by how transparent she was about something she struggled with despite not knowing most of the girls there. I think that’s an admirable way to be—where you’re not ashamed of your past sins and pain because God has used all of it to strengthen your faith. There shouldn’t be any pride or walls up when it comes to sharing our testimony. Yes, people can hurt us when they’re not receptive to it or if they’re rude—I’ve experienced that at times—but it’s about God, not us.

God’s love takes the initiative.

God met me here at this retreat and throughout the trip even when I wasn’t always seeking Him out first and foremost. I was too boy-crazy going into the trip and excited for the retreat to help refocus my thoughts on Him. While I didn’t have any grand revelations during the retreat, the insights still spoke to me and helped me draw near to God. Emma kept coming back to Mary, who would sit at Jesus’s feet and just listen to Him, as an example for us to imitate in drawing close to God. The more you pursue Him like that, the more you can see all the ways He communicates to you personally through His Word, circumstances, and other people. It’s funny because as I wrote out a prayer to God in my quiet time about this, I thanked Him for drawing close to me and speaking to me through the retreat and other cool things, and then the next day, we had a neat God moment with some people we met out eating. We’ll get to that soon!

The speaker shared her own personal story about how she once told God a joke and saw an image of Jesus laughing and smiling in her head. She asked God if He was laughing about it, and later that day, she received a text from her dad—mind you, healthy fathers are designed to represent God’s relationship with us, our true Father—that he smiles when he thinks of her! Little things like that can be God’s way of speaking to us if we’re paying attention, just like I believe we had a cool moment like that the next day.

Lunch Break

After a nice, slow morning, Yvette, Sophia, and I met up for lunch again. Most girls drove, but we had to wait for our Uber. It started warming up with the sun coming out, though it wasn’t as warm of a day. There were a lot of neat-looking churches in the area, like this one across the street. I see why a lot of people would choose to live in Nashville with the slightly milder winters, beautiful sprawling trees and neighborhoods, and the city close by. Yvette and Sophia kept trying to get me to dance and do dumb moves that were popular years ago, like the dab and whip, haha.

We talked to some other girls while we were waiting to see where they were going for lunch, and we decided to go to one of the shopping areas nearby that had restaurants they recommended. I was excited to check out this mall, and right when we walked in, I saw designer stores!! It’s not that I even care that much about designer stuff, but it’s still surreal seeing their stores because we don’t have any of them in Iowa or anywhere nearby. I didn’t go in any of them this time.

Lilly Pulitzer

We only had so much time for lunch, but my friends let me check out Lilly Pulitzer! This was also a milestone for me because we don’t have actual Lilly Pulitzer stores in Iowa since they’re more of a southern brand, but I actually worked at a boutique in Okoboji primarily selling Lilly Pulitzer clothing! To actually visit one of their official stores was so cool; I love all their pink, bright colors.

They definitely had some more items that we didn’t carry!

Their prints they’re so known for are tropical, happy, and feminine, which I love.

I love the floral-print guitar!

I found a collection of pink stuff that stole my heart. I spent the most money on the trip here purchasing one of these adorable “luxletic” (the name of their athleisure styles) sets full priced. When I worked in Okoboji, I always got a generous discount on the apparel, but it’s VERY expensive without that. Not quite designer expensive but still way more than I normally spend on clothes. It’s a vacation, though, and my first time seeing a Lilly Pulitzer store, so I went with it.

I found so much cute stuff I would’ve loved to splurge on, too, like this precious pink sweater. I’ll do some browsing on Poshmark and eventually buy it even cheaper…

Just a tank top with a matching scallop skort was a little over $250… I definitely don’t have that kind of money and don’t spend like that anymore, but it is a beautiful set. Still, I wait for things to go on sale, or I find things brand new on Poshmark after the brand doesn’t sell them anymore that people sell for way less. It was definitely a vacation-only sort of purchase that I learned to tone down after the real world came crashing in around graduation. Do I regret it? No, but I’ve definitely learned to be more intentional and thoughtful with money, praise God. This was actually my last crazy purchase to date, so I’ve come a long way, haha! Anyway, since I spent so much, I did get a “free gift,” and they put it in this beautiful bag! The girls thought I was crazy, and yeah, it was. Made my day, though!

I was very proud, HA.

I don’t think we went anywhere else. If we did, it was quick, and I didn’t buy anything else. This mall was sleek and elegant, but it was pretty crowded, and I definitely felt shopped out after all the shopping I did in Vegas. I was grateful I got to check out Lilly Pulitzer, though, what I primarily wanted to. Yvette also bought an adorable fanny pack there, which made me happy!

Eating Lunch at a Restaurant for Cows

Don’t misunderstand the heading title of this section—I’m not calling anyone fat. It’s the opposite, actually. Several girls raved about this place that kind of reminded me of a Panchero’s with bowls and stuff you can order custom, but it’s literally like seeds, rice, and healthy stuff I haven’t learned to like yet. I actually have gotten into salads more, but it wasn’t even that necessarily. I wish I remembered the name, but it seemed like animal food to me. I kept joking about them “grazing” like cows, which made them laugh at least. I didn’t end up eating there; I thought the menu was pretty limited, though in hindsight, I probably could’ve tried something. I have learned to be a more adventurous eater, and my mom always says you can “acquire a taste” for different foods, which I’ve found true. It’s baby steps for me, though!

I do remember the Uber driver that took us over to the mall, by the way, because he was friendly and funny, and he had this adorable little dog named Chanel that was riding with him and looking out his window! People standing by the mall entrance loved that!

I thought about checking out another place that looked good to me thinking it was in the mall because on the directory, it said it was, but that also included some places across the parking lot not directly connected to the mall but still considered part of it. I ended up walking through the whole mall by myself to no avail, so thankfully nothing happened to me, but I felt that the area was pretty safe.

While I sat with everyone eating, my cousin, Kirsten, texted me about booking a cruise! She told me she’s trying to plan a trip a year and invited me to come along. This cruise would go to the Bahamas, which has been one of my lifelong dreams. Even so, I was a little nervous about committing to it because I just spent a fortune on this trip, and I was still primarily a broke college student. The cruise wouldn’t be until the following year (as I write this, said cruise has now passed already, RIP), but I’d have to pay to book it. Well, I ended up doing it because it was pretty cheap as far as a Bahamas vacation goes, and I wanted to see what a cruise would be like. My mom would never set foot on one of those boats, though. So that was exciting when I wasn’t feeling guilty! It is fun to have something to look forward to like that.

Back at the Retreat

We took an entire group photo that morning, and Emma already printed copies for each of us and left them on our seats!! It was a good-sized group but not too big where it felt overwhelming. Sophia and I are in the first row the third and fourth from the left, and Yvette was near the back in pale pink! Sophia and I actually had a great laugh about this later; I fell to my knees back at the hotel because she said the way her fingers rested on her knees made them look super slim and long like an alien’s, which cracked me up when I viewed it through that lens! Some angles distort things in the most comedic ways.

I was grateful they had tons of snacks for us when we came back! This was my lunch! Not that healthy at all, but at least I had a banana. This is my problem—I love most snacks more than I like actual entrees, and the snack crap is what’s usually the most processed. But…I’ll just say we were on vacation again.

We got a cute photo with Emma, our regional director who organized this retreat! She is so sweet. She’s in the middle in pink.

For dinner, they had Chick-fil-A nuggets!! I hate to be cliché, but I do love Chick-fil-A. I think I made that clear in one of my Vegas posts. They didn’t have any ranch, but their nuggets are good enough that they still tasted good without it.

I don’t think I’ve told the story of these shoes yet: these are actually girls’ Adidas sneakers! My friend, Kelsey, and I saw these on one of our shopping trips and fell in love, but we figured out they were girls sizing. Kelsey taught me that if you size up or something in girls’ sizing, they’re actually equivalent to an adult size, though. Unfortunately, the store didn’t have our size, but she found them on Kohl’s, so we both bought them! They were the perfect choice for this trip because the holographic baby pink blended in perfectly for this retreat, and they looked cute but were good for walking!

While we were eating, we got to take in a beautiful sunset that pictures probably don’t do justice!

Final Insights from the Retreat

I didn’t have many more notes from the retreat since we spent a large part of the evening breaking off into our leader groups by which types of leaders we are. For instance, they had a gathering for worship leaders, which was one of my roles, so all the worship leaders from chapters across our region met up and talked about different ways to incorporate worship back at our chapter Delight meetings.

We also broke off with our chapter leaders to get to know one another on a deeper, more vulnerable level using guided questions. That definitely happened. Yvette, Sophia, and I went into another classroom across the hall to hang out and go over the questions, and it got emotional as we confessed some of our feelings, struggles, and sins. It was a fantastic bonding experience, and I’m so glad that was part of the retreat. Even though I knew these girls, I got to know them a lot more personally. That’s one of my recurring complaints about most churches nowadays—you can be part of them for years but never get to develop deeper intimacy with the people there. That shouldn’t be the case! We need to make the effort to truly walk with other people, not just greet them.

It made me thankful for my life, for the trials and struggles God has helped me overcome. Later on, we had another message, and something I really appreciated was a breakdown of things God would and would not say in regards to common struggles we face. For example, one of those was not reading your Bible for a while. I’m one of those people where I feel so much guilt even if a single day goes by where I don’t read the Bible because I know if I have time for other things, I can make time for Him. Yet I know He doesn’t want me to be paralyzed by shame and legalism like that.

In fact, some of the thoughts on the slide of what His voice doesn’t sound like are my thoughts exactly, like having time for everything else but Him, and He gave us everything but we can’t even give Him an hour of our time. To be fair, this is a tricky, slippery slope. The last thing I want to do is enable this pervasive, wishy-washy Christianity that suggests we can do no wrong because God loves us no matter what. There is some truth and should be conviction with the fact that Jesus did give us everything, and spending time with Him is the least we can do. But that’s where another problem can arise: we can’t just spend time with God out of guilt, or our hearts—what He ultimately wants—won’t be there at all, and then it is just religious ritual.

Ultimately, God knows your heart. It reminds me of how this professor I had in college once sent an email about our homework assignments and how several people in the class needed to do better work. He went on to state that it always goes where the students who are already doing good work, like getting 80+% grades, feel bad and think he’s talking about them, while the students not performing as well probably don’t even read the emails or care. I think the same is true with genuine Christians. When they hear messages about things we should be doing, they worry they’re not doing good enough and want to give more, while the people who aren’t really sincere don’t waste one thought on things they could be doing better, convinced they’ve already arrived.

I’m not trying to suggest true Christians should live in a state of perpetual guilt—not at all. I am saying that they will be consistently reflecting on how they can serve God to the fullest of their ability. I like what they said God’s voice does sound like, such as saying He loves us and wants to spend time with us as stated in Revelation 3:20, and spending time with us is what we were made for. I usually always thought in terms of hurting God when I didn’t spend time with Him, but the truth is, He doesn’t need us at all. He designed us to need and desire Him. When we skip spending time with Him, it actually hurts us, and I’ve definitely felt that when I spend prolonged time away from Him.

The other slide I resonated with was about giving in to lust or any other sinful pattern, how we think God says He told us not to do this again and we did, or we should know better by now. More things I’ve thought. His voice tells us He died for that (Romans 5:8), that isn’t who we really are (2 Corinthians 5:17), and He has a better way for us (John 8:11-12).

It was a special retreat. Before it ended for good, some girls decided they wanted to get baptized, and others familiar with the area said Lipscomb University has a place on campus where people can be baptized, which is the coolest thing! A bunch of us agreed to carpool over and witness it.

Even though it was dark, we saw some cool houses on the way over. Yvette, Sophia, and I got a ride with a couple of the Delight headquarter girls who helped Emma with the retreat since we didn’t have a car with us, so that was much appreciated! This area on campus was the cutest place with the string lights intersecting over it and the quiet water fountain alongside it. There was a dining hall just next door and dorms we walked by. It was COLD, though! I think the temperature that night was only in the high 20s.

Back at the Motel and Getting Ready to Go Out

I was excited to try going to the bars on Broadway again. Even though I wasn’t a huge fan of it the first time we did, the bars were still cool to see, and I kept hoping maybe something would happen where I could meet a guy. We were hyper back in the room, or at least I was! Probably the lack of sleep, haha. This photo below cracks me up because Yvette wanted me to take a selfie of us, and when she saw it, she said you just took a picture of your butt. 🤣 I don’t even know what I was doing, just being goofy…

We had so many good laughs together. I ate my giant Reese’s peanut butter cup egg I bought (I’m addicted to those and the giant hearts they make for Valentine’s Day…I’ll eat the whole thing in one sitting, it’s not good, and the girls thought it was hilarious). We got changed into some fancier outfits and put on a little bit of makeup.

Yvette called the other leaders to share how the retreat ended; she made us laugh how she told them about wanting to “break” them because us girls got to know each other much better at the retreat during our session on vulnerability where we shared our struggles with each other, and we wanted that connection with them, too.

Finally ready to go out! It was going to be COLD. I only had this shirt and my winter coat.

Exploring Bars On Broadway

We got dropped off by the Hard Rock Café again and walked over to the bars from there. There’s a big, cool bridge by the city down there, and we saw a bunch of trucks parked under it.

It was hopping again! The cold didn’t keep people away, and somehow, I was actually doing okay from what I remember. When you keep moving and go in and out of places, it’s bearable, and I think it helped there were so many people around.

We went back to Jason Aldean’s bar first, and there was hardly any room to stand. We stayed on the first floor for a while and danced to the music there, and then we waited in line to go upstairs for a long time, but while we did, I saw some cool photos of country artists there.

When we made it upstairs, we danced at the club area for a while. They didn’t have any live music there but played lots of pop and dance songs. It was body to body again, but it was okay. There was smoke and strobe lights, too, so it was definitely overstimulating. There ended up being a fight just a couple people down from us because of all the shoving, and some guy had to get drug out by security. People started pouring their drinks on them, too, which was ridiculous. It’s definitely not the environment for me. I think it takes a certain type of person to enjoy that, though it wasn’t all bad; I did like the music. The balcony view did not disappoint again!

We went to the other bar we liked a lot last time, too, where it wasn’t any particular artist but more of a “honky-tonk.” I loved the band they had there!! They played a little bit of everything, both country and pop hits. We got a close view in the crowd, too! There were these middle-aged guys there that were fun; they were having a time dancing with the crowd, and we talked with them quite a bit. Yvette kept wanting me to do different dances. Then the band asked if anyone is shy, so of course my friends started signaling me out! Sophia is shy, too, thank you!! But they set their sights on me to sing the chorus of “Uptown Funk,” and I was like oh boy…here it goes. So my friends actually got videos of me screaming that out, and I think I actually impressed the middle-aged guy we were with, haha! I can be playful at times, hahaha.

Those older guys were fun! There were three of them, and I think they were all brothers or brothers-in-law celebrating a bachelor party. Two of them were in the bar dancing; one of them had great moves and was dancing with lots of people up front, and then another wanted to “get low” with Yvette, which was hilarious! We met the other guy outside of the bar, and he was funny, too; they didn’t realize we were as young as we were, and he kept worrying about them going to jail! It was pretty innocent, though; they were just enjoying themselves, and it was fun. They gave us hugs when they left!

I didn’t see any cute guys my age or, if I did, nothing came of it. I’m not doubting God’s ability or sense of humor to bring things about in the most unlikeliest of ways, but I’d definitely be surprised if that’s how He had me meet my spouse. I don’t know if people go out to bars like they used to, anyway, and I told you that the people I’ve talked to who do don’t meet people that way, but that seems to be how everyone my parents’ age met theirs! I wish I could know where to find him, but that’s not how life works.

Everyone we talked to at the bars and told them we were there for a Bible study retreat laughed! I guess Christianity and the nightlife don’t go together in most people’s minds, and I see why. Maybe a couple generations ago, it was more “clean,” but nowadays, our culture is so raunchy. I had a hard time sitting there finding any joy in it, even though it was fun to talk to those guys and hear the music. Again, it just attracts a different sort of crowd looking for different things. I don’t really have any desire to do more bar hopping or exploring as I travel unless they have city views or something cool to offer like that—I’ve seen some cool rooftop bars in Chicago, for instance, that I would visit. We started a little bit later this night, about 11, and stayed until 1:30. We said we weren’t going to be out that late, but we were! I was a little bummed I didn’t meet or flirt with any guys I was interested in, but I had to make my peace with it. We’d be getting up early the next morning to go to Emma’s church with her.

Back at the Motel for the Night

On the drive back to the motel, our Uber driver was talkative, and we talked about some of the sorority and fraternity scandals in the south with some of the bigger houses. I am so thankful I wasn’t part of Greek life in college, though I considered it. And in the south, I think it’s even more intense and obnoxious.

I looked through the stuff I bought at Lilly Pulitzer when I got back to take pictures of it! I got this “free” beach towel for all the money I spent, and it is adorable—my favorite color!

I also got this bright pink, durable plastic bag for toiletries or other products embellished in gold and adorned with seashells.

They gave me the prettiest wrapping paper, too, and a paper bag with a new pattern.

I love this pretty set! I paid WAY too much for it…but you will see it in my St. Louis post next. 😊

Midnight snack time!

At almost three a.m., we finally went to bed! On our last day, we were going to church with Emma and then exploring until we needed to be at the airport around four in the evening.

Day 4: Church with Emma, Exploring Downtown Nashville/Broadway During the Day & More Shopping + Flying Home

Morning: Leaving Motel + Church

Well, I don’t remember much about the morning; I’m sure it hurt waking up, and I was probably the last one to get ready, but we were out of the motel by 10! I had my Minecraft apples for breakfast.

We were going to leave this little toy we got in that disastrous McDonald’s happy meal here as a little memento, but I grabbed it at the last second, not wanting to leave him by himself!

We were only given one puny little trash can, so we had to stack everything else in shopping bags next to it!

After the previous night’s chill, it was invigorating to see the sun and a clear, blue sky.

I’m not 100% sure about the neighborhood still, but nothing bad happened to us while we were there, thank God. We got in our Uber to head to Emma’s church—Way Church.

On our way there, we had a beautiful view of downtown Nashville! It was our first time seeing the city during the daylight.

Way Church Service

I couldn’t tell you what area of Nashville we ended up in for this church, but I could find out. Sophia thought this was the church Emma said Thomas Rhett goes to at times, but we didn’t think it was. Make of this what you want, but it didn’t look like a neighborhood he would go to church in. It wasn’t a bad neighborhood, and I’m not saying he goes to some super wealthy church or area, but it seemed very out of the norm for someone of his celebrity to be going there. Anyway, we didn’t see him, which bummed Sophia out.

I do have one final sad story to share about a guy, though! Naturally, any time I go to a new church, I always am hopeful that maybe it’ll be the time I find the right one, especially because you’d THINK in a CHURCH, I would have the best chances of finding the guy with the faith and values I want, but most churches in Iowa are very tiny and mostly consist of older people. This church did draw a young, trendy-looking crowd. While not a mega-church and very welcoming, I did appreciate it, but any time I see a bunch of young, trendy-looking people at church, it makes me skeptical. I know; I just can’t be pleased no matter what. I’ve been burned by that, though, with the churches that are just so “cool,” and we’ll definitely address that in future posts. It’s so hard to find genuine believers in this country. Obviously, I didn’t even meet anyone well enough to judge, but my impressions of the church overall were good! I don’t remember anything specific about the message, but I remember I liked it, and the worship was beautiful, which Emma sang in.

Now, about the guy…so, we sat near the front in the second or third row, I believe, as a group, and the people around us were so kind and friendly, I remember, even though I don’t remember who they were specifically. But I do remember seeing this guy in the front row talking to either the pastor or some people on the worship team, and he looked a lot like my type—he had this brown, curly hair I’ve always adored on guys, and he was by himself the whole time, so I kept hoping, since we were close enough, that maybe we would get the chance to meet or talk to him. I think I also saw Emma talk to him, so at the end, I actually asked her if she knew him and who he is. Do you know what she said?

She smiled and kind of laughed, and she told me he’s engaged! I still remember how she said, “I saw that sparkle in your eyes,” after I asked about him, and I remember thinking yep, just shoot me and put me out of my misery. All that hope, always to be let down! I guess it still wasn’t God’s time for me to find the one. When it fricken’ will be, I don’t know. He probably wants me to give it up for now, and I’d love to, but I don’t know how. I have all this faith (haha, sometimes…) and joy (well, again, sometimes, HA) that I long to share with someone so deeply in the way you only can through marriage…it feels cruel that He keeps me waiting, BUT I’m sure someday I’ll tell you all why and that it was worth it, blah blah blah… For now, I’m still bitter. 🥲

You know what, though? God didn’t leave me hanging. Though He makes me wait most of the time, He does know how to encourage me in the waiting, and I’m excited to get to a really special moment on this trip where He did that.

Exploring Downtown Nashville

After church, we made our way back downtown to check out some of the stores on Broadway, and I was hoping to find some cute Nashville merch and souvenir items my cousin requested.

I FaceTimed Kirsten to see what she would like—she just wanted a cute magnet, and I ended up picking out several for her, as well as a cute camo Nashville hat since she loves camo, and I got us matching black Nashville tanks later on at Jason Aldean’s bar, so hopefully we can twin and get photos sometime together on a trip back here!

Okay…I probably shouldn’t be posting the below image on my Christian blog, but God knows I can talk a little crude behind the scenes about certain people in this day and age, which I’ve already alluded to in previous posts… Anyway, I thought this koozie saying was funny. If you know, you know!

I don’t remember the name of this store; it wasn’t tied to a specific bar but had TONS of gift and tourist Nashville items that were adorable. This is where I found my Nashville crew neck I love with the same design as the shirt I wanted in Vegas but didn’t get! You’ll see it at the end of this post.

We then checked out a couple other bars we hadn’t been to; we really didn’t hit too many of them. This was Miranda Lambert’s, which was cute.

There were so many of these cowboy boot stores where, as you can see on the wall, they offered a buy one, get two pairs FREE deal, which is actually incredible! The girls tried to convince me to go in on it, but I already had a pair of boots I could barely fit in my bag, so I declined. They should’ve done it, though…

I don’t know where they came from, but bubbles were drifting over us through the air like cotton from trees here in the springtime! What a dream.

Downtown Shopping and Lunch at Shake Shack + God Moment

We walked down to this cute area off of Broadway where they had a variety of stores like Nike, and we decided to grab lunch at Shake Shack, which the girls said is good and I was excited to try.

This is the Ryman Auditorium, which is gorgeous. There was so much I’d still like to do in Nashville, like the iconic Grand Ole Opry, but we just didn’t have time since those attractions have such long wait times Sophia knew from when she went earlier in the year.

The downtown was really clean and beautiful, and I felt safe there.

At Shake Shack, I got a cheeseburger meal and one of their plain chocolate shakes. I thought the food was okay, but it didn’t blow me away. I’d choose other fast food places over this one, but it wasn’t bad.

This is where, out of all the people there, we sat next to a sweet, down-to-earth family that reminded me so much of my own. It was a middle-aged couple that reminded me of my parents with her parents, who reminded me of my grandparents, and their kids. This was special to us for numerous reasons. I don’t exactly know how, but we started talking with them as we were sitting at a table right next to theirs. Yvette probably started it since she is so conversational. The middle-aged woman is a teacher in Franklin, which I guess is a ritzy suburb of Nashville; I know it because a lot of Christian ministries are based there, including one of my favorite authors, Karen Kingsbury. The girls thought that was awesome because they’re both majoring in elementary education, so right away, they had that connection.

They made such easy, genuine conversation with us about our lives. The grandpa was playful and fun, and he joked about me being the outlier and stuck with the girls since they’re both going to be teachers and have boyfriends (they asked about that), and I don’t even have a relationship. But that’s where the special part comes in.

It is hard not to feel left out when you see others in committed relationships. I’ve spent years and journals agonizing over why I haven’t found someone, let alone been on a date, and wrestling with God over that. It doesn’t bring me joy to tell people that I’m single. The grandpa chuckled and said, “I could say something, but I won’t,” when I told them that, and I thought he was going to tease me about it being bad or something, which may not have been at all what he was going to say, but I was like yeah, please don’t, because I already feel horrible enough about it. But then, as the conversation continued, his daughter, who reminded me of the warm, personable type just like my own mom, complimented me out of the blue and said she has no doubt in her mind I will find someone, and she told me I am beautiful, which honestly took my breath away. I don’t walk around feeling like I’m hot crap. Sure, I have days where I feel like I look good, and I do think I was blessed with a certain level of attractiveness, but years of being single and feeling dissed by guys, as well as comparing myself to the blonde, tan clones online of girls who make themselves up, has left me with more insecurity and doubt than confidence, so that really meant a lot to me, and it was encouragement I needed. I wrote down her exact words in a note on my phone that I then journaled.

It was such a gift meeting them! It’s so neat to find people like that on a trip in random places. That’s why I want to travel more. It was also a gift to Sophia because the kind lady reminded her of her mom, who passed away when she was younger, and offered her encouragement she needed. God does provide!

After that, we did a little more shopping at the stores nearby.

They had another one of those Molly Green stores with the cutest trendy finds. I also found tops at Free People and shoes at Nike I wanted, but I already blew a fortune at Lilly Pulitzer, so I restrained myself this time.

We popped in to this place called Lip Lab, where you can literally make your own lipstick! I would love to do that, but it was pricey for what the girls were wanting, and I didn’t want to do it without them. Someday!

On our way to explore another area of downtown, we walked right by Bridgestone Arena, where the Nashville Predators hockey team plays! They had a huge banner of them I was able to get pics with!

If anyone knows a Christian hockey honey with that curly hair I like (or where I might go to find him)…well, feel free to let me know…! Just go through who he’s following on Instagram first and make sure he’s not following a bunch of model-wannabe skanks I can’t compete with. 😄

About a block or so away, we wanted to check out the Walk of Fame with stars of iconic country artists and singers from Nashville like the stars in Hollywood! We just looked at our GPS for ideas of things to do nearby, and we were able to walk over. The Country Hall of Fame Museum was right next to it.

Yvette wanted a picture by Reba because she is on Young Sheldon, which we watched plenty of! 😂

I took pictures of all the artists I knew and thought were cool to show my family as well. Here’s Elvis!

Lady Antebellum is still one of my fave country groups; I’ve liked them since I was super young, starting with “Need You Now”…

My whole family, from my grandparents to my brother, love Alan Jackson!

I got a photo by his to show my family!

Mom and I saw Amy Grant and Michael W. Smith in Des Moines for Christmas several years ago, and that was such a neat show!

Shopping at a Mall by the Grand Ole Opry

We tried to determine what else we would have time for and decided to explore some places by the Grand Ole Opry, and by that, I mean a big mall. I wish we could’ve gone to the Grand Ole Opry since that makes the trip to Nashville, but Sophia said the lines for that are crazy, and we had to kill time before our flight but not that much time. Sophia is so good at being responsible; Yvette and I did too much damage at the mall. They had all sorts of stores to choose from.

On our way over there, we had another female Uber driver who was funny; she and Yvette were listening to these inappropriate songs and talking about them! 😂 I did most of my damage at Aerie, which had a bunch of new bright coral pink spring apparel out, so I bought several new shirts for summer. We went in another huge cowboy boot place with that deal—they had those everywhere, but Yvette and Sophia still wouldn’t pull the trigger. We saw some cute places at the mall, like these swings!

I wanted to eat at the Aquarium for lunch! I love aquariums!! The girls didn’t go for it.

Also during my time in Okoboji, they sold Vineyard Vines clothing, another southern staple, and I got to go in one of their official stores! Unfortunately, I didn’t find anything.

MY STORE!!! This Victoria’s Secret, I would later learn, is one of, like, five genuine outlets in the whole country of theirs where everything is on major clearance. Knowing that, I should’ve went to town, but I already racked up quite the bill for myself, and at this point, we were running out of time and needed to leave for Emma’s soon, who graciously allowed us to keep our luggage at her house until our flight. Yvette and Sophia went to a nearby store while I browsed, but it was pretty rushed.

I made them take allll these pictures, though…

It was overwhelming how much they had.

This gorgeous sign!

This store is just my aesthetic, through and through.

Heading to the Airport

We ended with some fun Uber drivers, and Yvette and I had way more bags than we could carry and quite the conundrum wondering how to get it all on the plane! We ended up splitting an extra carry-on together! The guy who picked us up from the mall to take us to Emma’s to get our stuff was a character; he asked how to book a flight since he never had before and said he might need to soon. Yvette also talked about this Iowa State basketball player she loves and how she’s sent him like 30 messages on Instagram he has yet to respond to, and her boyfriend even knows! He thought that was hilarious but confirmed what I’ve always thought about how guys want to make the first moves. Not that they do!!

It was sad telling Emma goodbye, and she had such a cute room in the house she lived in with some other girls. We so appreciated all she did for us; it was a special weekend! Our last Uber driver picked us up there, and it was my first time riding in a Tesla! I was very impressed with how the doors open by simply pushing in this button, and it had a huge “moon roof” or whatever you want to call it with a view of the sky!

It was a snazzy car! I see why people like them! I could never get behind the hybrid/electric mode, though. Someday, we’ll probably be forced to, but it still seems like a pain in the butt to me. Our Uber driver said he loved it, but I thought he said he has to recharge every half hour, which to me is way too frequent. We’d have to stop like 8,000 times on our way up to Estherville to see my grandparents alone, and we’re definitely not built for it here. But what a sexy car! I love Elon, too.

This man was so sweet! I’m grateful all the Ubers we took worked out well and God kept us safe throughout the entire trip.

Arriving at the Nashville Airport

We arrived around sunset, so this time, we got to see more of the airport since it wasn’t dark yet. There was a big, open area leading up to the airport, and it is nice!

My mom was excited for me to come back to Iowa!

Praise God we got through TSA easily, and then we could chill and explore before our flight back to Des Moines.

They had ADORABLE Nashville merch in the shops we checked out! It was tempting to buy so much more stuff… I got a little keychain for my mom of a rhinestone unicorn that I kinda want thinking about it, haha.

In order to get to our gate, we had to take another bus outside the airport! There was a great view of the city at sunset.

I had to laugh—you can see the side of Yvette here and the bags she carried. Sophia had her one little backpack, and Yvette and me looked like we were coming back from a two-week holiday!

At another store near our gate, we found these adorable Nashville shot glasses! I will never use them, but I enjoy collecting them. I can’t remember if I bought one for my mom as well or if all us girls got them. I think each of us girls got one.

This was the cute stuff I came for…but I only got the shot glass.

We got some snacks. I must love Cheetos at the airport. I have a funny story about Cheetos coming up!!!

I loved that we could charge our phones right here, too.

Yvette had a big bag of spicy Cheetos—she loves spicy food.

A little before seven, we got ready to board!

We were sad to leave, but it was special.

Flying Home to Des Moines

Yvette had us dying on the flight home. First, as we’re getting ready to take off, she was trying to find something to wipe her face with and literally started unpacking her bag that was supposed to be under the seat! I had to hold her Cheetos for her, and Sophia was listening to music. We had a beautiful view of the city at night!

I couldn’t believe how big Nashville is. The lights go on and on! I think you can see the downtown below where the purple building is.

Here’s where Yvette’s Cheetos ended up!!! They were the extra hot kind, and I did not like the smell of them. She was snacking on them while we all listened to music and made conversation here and there. Somehow, she spilled almost the entire bag!! This picture doesn’t do it justice! I have a video that’s hysterical. She called for one of the flight attendants, and they were so nice and understanding; they even said she could leave it because they had to clean the plane that night, but Yvette said she’d feel too bad, so they gave her a trash bag and she started picking them up, then swung it around, and I was like you’re going to spill them again. 😂

Sophia had to stand in the aisle while Yvette picked them up! A male flight attendant who was so sweet ended up bringing Yvette a free bag of Cheetos since she spilled hers! 😂 That made her cry because it was too kind! That’s another thing we joked about on the trip—Yvette will actually cry if people compliment her a lot. I thought she was pretending to cry when he brought her them, so I was recording it, and then I realized she actually was! He even brought her a little packet of wet wipes! She was content after that, but she dropped that bag of Cheetos, too! At least they didn’t spill!

I knew we were in Iowa when I saw all the red flashing dots below of the windmills… And I recognized the two towers below by Des Moines!

It was fun flying into Des Moines at night! You can see our minuscule little skyscraper there. 🙂

We were also, like, the last people off the plane, somehow! It was around 9:30 when we got inside the airport, which was dead.

Final Trip Recap

After that, we waited to take a bus back to our area of the parking lot, and I drove us back to Ames. We had some great views of Des Moines at night coming from the direction of the airport; I tried to get some videos but couldn’t very well since I was driving.

When we got into Ames, I stopped through Wendy’s so we could all get a very late dinner, and then I dropped Sophia off first, then Yvette. It was too funny; Yvette was going to her boyfriend’s apartment, and we could see his window from the parking lot. She asked him to come help her bring stuff up, but he was playing Fortnite with his friends and doing really well, so he wouldn’t! We could literally see the TV and him playing the game while she waited for him to respond!! Aren’t men so selfless… Anyway, I ended up going up with her, which was fun, because I got to see their apartment and meet her cat.

When I got back to my dorm, I enjoyed my food while binging iCarly (reliving my youth, haha).

Biggest trip takeaway? I’m not going to share a lot since I listed out all the lessons from the retreat, but my biggest takeaway that was so humbling was that life can, and does, change for the better. Honestly, at this exact moment in my life, over a year later, I’ve been struggling off and on in my faith and with believing in good things for my future. How easy it is to move on to the next thing and lose sight of all God has done in the past…

I know when I was in high school, I felt like I would never meet people to hang out with and do fun things with or travel with, but this trip changed all that. Maybe I didn’t find everything I was looking for in college, but I did finally have new friends, and I did get an opportunity to connect with peers over my faith, and I did make lots of special memories along the way. For that, I’m very grateful. You don’t think life will ever change until it does. The lesson I learned is not to give up hope. Just because one season of life seems one way doesn’t mean the rest of your life will be that way—something I still need to remember. This trip was answered prayer for so many reasons, and I’m so grateful I got to go on it.

What I Bought

At the retreat, I bought their devotional, consisting of 365 devotions compiled by students in Delight all across the country—our leader, Josie, wrote one! I just finished this the other night, and it was good.

I taped the card Emma gave us with Hebrews 11:1 over my desk. I would come to rely on this verse a lot.

Here’s the beautiful hair clip I bought at Molly Green!

Isn’t this crew neck just like the black sparkly one in Vegas that said Mirage?! But it says Nashville on the back! It was perfect!

This is the pink stuff from Aerie…

This is the matching tank I got for Kir and me…

This is the hat I got for her.

I also got her these stickers.

…and this magnet!

Alright, another hour-long post in the books. Thank you SO much for following along!!!!! We are gradually getting to the end of my travel content, but I do have a couple more trips with new lessons to share. The next one is my last trip of 2024 when I went to St. Louis with my college friend, Kelsey, to see Niall Horan in concert! Apart from seeing him, we also got to see the Arch, which was a long-time goal of mine, and some caves!

Faith-wise, what I learned on that trip involves a full circle moment since I spent most of my life hardly traveling anywhere to suddenly going on all these trips, and as awesome as they are, they can still leave you empty at the end of the day. I saved a lot of my reflections from Vegas, Nashville, and ultimately St. Louis for the St. Louis post since it’s my last big trip for a while and allowed me to reflect on all my recent travel experiences. I hope you’ll tune in for that, and then there’s one more trip for the time being I was hoping to have all my 2024 trips posted before I even went on—my 2025 cruise with my cousin, Kirsten, and aunt, Corrine. After that, I have some updates to share on my writing and life in general, and then I’ll be getting back to more “normal” content.

Please feel free to reach out with any ideas or suggestions for posts in the future! I want to write what you want to read, and I thank you for bearing with me as I shared these trips; I like to recap the details here since I share so much of my other personal growth on here as well. As always, let me know how I can pray for you. See you soon!