One of the things I am most excited about for the World Race is living in community with other like-minded people. Although our squad will be made up of 50ish people, we will be divided up into teams of 5 or 6, which we will travel with, work with, and live with. I am so incredibly excited for these people to become my best friends and family.
Josh and I have been married for 2 years now (anniversary in a few days! Woohoo!), and we are closer than ever. The problem, however, is that I work daytime hours, usually leaving our apartment around 7:30 AM, and getting back around 6:00 PM (if I don't stay late), and Josh works evening hours, usually 12:30 PM to 9:30 PM. We hardly ever see each other, and when we do, it is not exactly quality time since I am usually asleep/falling asleep on the couch by the time he gets home and extremely crabby. (Future teammates: I do not like being woken up before my body says to. If you wake me up, I cannot be held responsible for the treatment you receive. Just a disclaimer. 
) So, I spend most of my evenings alone with our cats (and yes, I do have conversations with them. I'm not crazy, I just love my cats), usually watching tv or reading or something. I have many friends from work/school/church, but either schedules conflict, or they have moved or something. I am also very close to my family, but my sister lives 2 hours away and the rest of my family lives 3 1/2 hours away. Not a huge amount, but enough so that you have to have at least a weekend to see each other. As a result, I am hungrier than ever for community.
I have never been a by myself type of person. I grew up sharing a room with my older sister, and we are still very close. When my older sister got her own room, I shared with my younger sister. When my older sister moved to college, I moved into her old room for a few months of my senior year of high school. It was nice to have my own space, but I hated being alone. All through college, I had roommates, but my junior year, we moved into an apartment and I had my own room again. And hated it. Before Josh and I got married, I moved into our apartment, and he was still living with his grandpa. I had to live alone for about a month and absolutely hated it. I love the companionship of being married, and having built in company (who also is so great to me and knows I hate being the last one to bed and turning off the lights. It magnifies the aloneness I think. So he always does it for me 
).
These months of evenings alone have taught me a lot about being alone, and being ok with it. I still don't necessarily like it, but I am ok with it now. I think that my need for community and companionship come from growing up in a big, close family. There are 6 of us, and we always had lots going on, lots of animals around, and usually some kind of music or tv going. I am still more comfortable falling asleep in the midst of people, with lights on and sounds around, than by myself in a dark bedroom. Growing up in my family is not the only reason I desire community, however.
In 1 Corinthians 12:12-30, Paul talks about community:
"For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in the one Spirit we were all baptized into one body-Jews or Greeks, slaves or free-and we were all made to drink of one Spirit." v.12-13
He goes on to give examples of how the parts of the body cannot do another's job, and are all equally important to the function of the body as a whole. Just as Josh and I make each other better by being together, God intented for us to be together in community, as we all have something unique to offer to the function of the whole.
I also really like 1 Peter 3:8.
"Finally, all of you, have a unity of spirit, sympathy, love for one another, a tender heart, and a humble mind."
We are called to be unified and to love one another. I'm sure by month 4 of the Race, we will begin to get on one another's nerves, and so and so's tent is taking up too much space, and so and so is crabby, and so and so is taking up all of the outlets charging their stuff. It will definitely be a challenge to get along with my teammates while spending just about 24/7 with them, but I know that I will definitely love them no matter what.
I am so excited for the community that this next year will hold. I have heard from other Racers that post-race, you have to learn how to be without your newest family members, and I know that will be especially tough for me. That is a bridge I will cross when I get there, however. And I know that the sadness I experience then will be well worth the friends/family I will gain in the process.
