At age 32, Kim Conrad has a more varied resume that many twice her age. I met Kim in Haiti, where she was a long-term volunteer at Mission of Hope and made a worthy contribution to our school construction there. She’s also been a pilot and aviation mechanic. Currently, Kim is a virtual assistant for the online company Zirtual. She’s been living in Akron for more than a year, one of the many places she considers home ever since her stint on staff in college ministry at University of Akron.

Kim and I met at Angel Falls Coffee Company, two days before Kim plans to move to Ouray, Colorado. “I’ve lived with 28 different people since college, and decided it was time for some solitude.”   Ouray is a small town of about a thousand people in southwest Colorado. Kim’s father retired there last year; Kim plans to live in the cabin her great grandmother built about two miles outside of town. “I’ll get a waitress job in town to satisfy my extrovert side.” Like many moves in Kim’s life, this won’t be permanent. “The cabin isn’t winterized. If I like the area, I’ll move into town in the winter.” Kim doesn’t even bother to articulate a Plan B. She’s young, energetic, capable, and untethered to conventional notions of career or success. When life in Ouray plays out, another good option will reveal itself.

How will we live tomorrow?

“I’m trying to figure out myself. How am I going to choose to life? What will I deem important? Akron is good – I have community here and people I care about. But I’ve become stagnant here. My work at Zirtual is fine, but I can do it anywhere, and is it really helping anybody? I love aviation and working overseas. I’d like to find a good way to do that again. Right now I want to take my life to a new context. I don’t know what that is, but I do know it will involve people and purpose.”