There are many things that are hard mentally, spiritually, and emotionally about World Race.
Fundraising,
Getting vaccines and immunizations,
Getting in the Word to prepare my heart,
Getting supplies and gear,
Preparing physically for hikes in 90 degree weather (okay I didn’t do this one but I was supposed to),
But by far the most difficult part of this journey up to this point was saying goodbye to everything and everyone I know and love at home.
I love traveling and I love seeing the world God made, but Omaha, you’ll always be home. Driving through downtown on the way to the airport flooded my heart with memories of my childhood and of growing up. I found the beauty in having a place to call home when I stumbled upon an art gallery in the underground passageway in the Old Market. I learned to appreciate the simplicity of friendship driving down Dodge with my best friends as we soaked in So Will I. I found overwhelming comfort as I drove through western Nebraska and all I could see was miles and miles of cornfields. Omaha, Nebraska is more than a city to me and saying goodbye to it means saying goodbye to home.
I graduated just four short months ago, and though people tell me to close the yearbook, Millard Public Schools will always be the first place I learned curiosity and to seek answers. I walked through the halls of Millard North one last time on Sunday, and what I found was four years worth of undiscovered opportunity. I will never forget the feeling of winning the state championship and running onto the field at Memorial Stadium. I will never forget eating pancakes in my Biology room the morning of the AP test with my classmates. I will never forget going with my basketball team to get Drummond’s ear pierced (13-6 baby #baseline). But I will also never forget the anxiety I got before the ACT or when my grades weren’t okay and the hard lesson I had to learn that everything will be okay. And I will never forget the time I ate lunch in the bathroom because I had no one to sit with but that I learned that my identity isn’t found in people. Or when I cried myself to sleep because I didn’t get asked to prom but that I learned that beauty goes way deeper than skin. The biggest thing I will always hold on to, though, is that it was only four years. Though it was likely the most developmentally important four years of my life and I will cherish the memories and lessons they taught me forever, four years is only four years and the rest of my life awaits me.
I flew out this morning to Atlanta where I will stay for a week before reporting to launch on September 9. I miss my bed and my house, and I REALLY miss my dog (there was a beagle in some movie the guy next to me on the airplane was watching and not going to lie I started bawling). I miss my little brother and his endless backflips and fortnite. I miss my city and having everything around me be familiar. I had to say goodbye to so many people yesterday and I cried all the way to dinner from my mentors’ house. Saying goodbye really really sucks and it hurts to leave a part of my heart behind. For the first time, its really hitting me how long 9 months is. That’s literally the length of a pregnancy.
I really miss everyone, but I know now more than ever how many people love me and will continue to fight for me and with me from back home. Closing a chapter is painful, but it also means that a new one is beginning. Thank you everyone for the support and prayers. These 9 months won’t be easy, especially without the people that I’ve depended on for so long, but it will be so so good and they will go fast.
After all, its not a goodbye, only a see you later.
“Yes,” Jesus replied, “and I assure you that everyone who has given up house or brothers or sisters or mother or father or children or property, for my sake and for the Good News, 30 will receive now in return a hundred times as many houses, brothers, sisters, mothers, children, and property—along with persecution. And in the world to come that person will have eternal life. Mark 10:29-30
-A
