Tomorrow morning I leave Atlanta to move back in with my parents for the next two months before I launch for the race.
So that means tonight I had to say goodbye to the people I have become friends with for the past 10 months. I can’t believe I’ve lived in Atlanta that long! Time has flown by.
After being in Atlanta for less than a month, I found what was to become my church home. I will never forget the first week I was there one of my now friends saying to the preacher, “don’t be weird” before he introduced himself. That’s when I knew that I found the right place. A place where no one pretended to be perfect. A place where judgement was left at the door and people could be free and bring their struggles and messes to God and the believers around them. A place where I could explore who I was and where I was in my faith. A place that challenged me and showed me some unconventional ways of doing church. A place I grew to love.
So that brings me to tonight, surrounded by 14 (I think) of the people I have grown with and grown to love (and yes there are others that weren’t there but I love them just the same). Tonight, as I was leaving, I realized how lucky I am to have grown close with these people in the time that I did. I realized that living in Atlanta would have been terrible without them.
Alright, so why am I writing a blog about saying goodbye? Because it sucks. It sucked at training camp and it sucks today, it just sucks in general. (I don’t even know how I am going to say bye to my family!) I will more than likely see most of these people again, but what about when I have to leave a country and people I have grown close to over the course of a month and will probably never see again? I believe this is practice. As I’m saying goodbye’s, I am realizing that God put me in the places he did on purpose. I met the people I did on purpose. I did life with these people on purpose. Everything I do has a purpose.
As I’m leaving places I want to make sure that even if I never see some of the people I meet again, I will have made an impact on their life no matter how big or small.
Leaving is hard but knowing that God has something greater, like the race, for me keeps me excited for the future and moving forward. But for the next two months, I will try to live in every moment because there is so much here and now that if I don’t slow down I will surely miss it.
