It’s been six years since I came home from the World Race.
My job is more 9 to 5 than it’s ever been. I live in the same Texas city I did before I launched. I still struggle with balancing taco consumption with calories burned.
To anyone who sees me, and my life as it is now, it would be difficult for them to see or know that when I was 27-years-old I decided to travel the world and live among the poor for 11 months and those 11 months were the most defining of my life.
There are moments when people who didn’t know me then ask how I was changed and I struggle to put the thoughts into words.
“I’m different…I just am.”
“Well…I just see the world differently.”
“I care about things more now.”
None of these explanations can adequately describe the thoughts that go through my head when thinking of those 11 months. How can you fit a literal world of experience into one sentence?
When I think of the World Race, I remember the moment when I sang loudly (and *very* off key) in the back of some kind of SUV while Adam Coleman weaved in and out of Manila traffic. And how in that moment, I felt more like myself than I ever had.
I remember names like Gracie, Kikim and Pastor Joseph. And I remember the funny things, the heartbreaking things and the amazing things I witnessed.
What is hard for me to remember is what my teammates and squadmates were like.
I don’t remember it because, like me, they are no longer who they were and when I think of them I know who they are now, not who they were then.
As I sit and address Christmas cards, I write the names of my best friends and send them to places like Michigan, Georgia, Indiana, California, Canada and South Korea. The names are familiar, the friendships unyielding, secure, firm.
The World Race changed my life not just because of the experiences I had, but also because the people who were by my side never left. They’re there even if we’re a half a world apart.
The World Race changed my life because it helped me believe in people again. It helped me see that there are people who, no matter what you do or say, will continue to believe the best about you and want the best for you.
Before the World Race, I was different than I am now.
I was different than I am now because before the World Race I struggled to know that I was loved.
And today there are at least 39 other people across the world who will always remind me that what I once believed is not only untrue, but impossible.
