Hey-Oh! I’m finally home after nine months!
(I surprised my parents by telling them I was coming home three days later than I actually was)
So since being in America, I have expierenced a ton of odd feelings and expierences. Heres a list of them for future racers headed home or just for the curious.
1) I was not prepared for AC. With us being raised in Air Conditioning, We dont really have to acclimate to the coldness of it. But is you take it away for nine months, you just might be walking around in winter jackets and fuzzy leggings in the middle of summer once you are reintroduced.
2) Coming home everything feels weirdly the same. Even though Lubbs has gotten a ton of new stores and restraunts, its still the same ol’ Lubbs. Driving is pretty much the same, its like I never stopped. People are the same, maybe a little more mature or expierenced, but the same. Its just all the same, and I’m not sure if im happy or sad about that.
3) I came home expecting to be asked question after question by everybody close to me, when in reality I’ve been asked the same five or six questions by people I didnt even realize were following my story. Don’t get me wrong, most people close to me have asked me some really good questions- but not all of the people ive expected to be interested have been and those I never even expected to even remember me one I got back have asked genuine questions and actually wanted to hear the answers. Its been a pretty cool expierence.
4) This brings me to my fourth point, a lot of people ask questions out of politeness and don’t actually want to hear the answer. I’ve had to learn to be ok with this. It’s not fair of me to have the expectation of everyone to be as passionate about my trip and the things ive been apart of as me. Just like how a new parent can’t expect everyone to be extatic about hearing what kind of noise their baby made that morning.
5) Its hard adjusting to drama back home. When youre coming out of such a loving community of people who are all constantly trying to make each other more like Jesus, its kindof is a slap in the face when you start being told about whos mad at who and what this person did to that person. I understand that most people don’t even realize what they’re doing and that it is just such a big part of our culture to be caught up in drama and gossip. I don’t expect anyone to be changed in this way just because I am. I don’t even expect myself to stay out of it, I know I mess up a lot. I am no where near perfect. It’s just something I didnt realize was so prevalent in my life until I went without it for a while.
6) It is super hard living in Americe and seeing how much food we waste while knowing personally families in other places who are starving because they cant afford to eat. You know how when you were little your mom would tell you “Eat all of your food because there are starving people in Africa who would want it.” It was usually a trick to get us to eat our veggies or something. But this saying to me has become more real to me than ever. Its not just “starving people in Africa.” Its a mother in El Salvador whos husband was killed by gang members and so all the money she earns goes to feed her kids- even if that means she doesnt eat for days. Its a teen in the Philippines who has no means to make money because there you must have a college degree to work. Its a baby in Malawi who is extremely under nourished because its father spends all of his income at the local PUB and his mother is sick and cant produce good milk. It’s these people who make it hard for me to see kids here eat two bites of a quesadilla and leave the rest on the table.
7) I never thought the hardest routine for me to get used to back home would be flushing the toilet paper sown the toiled and not throwing it away. For those of you who have never been to another country, this is probably extremely gross to you. To me though, this became the normal. Pipes in some of the countries I went to didnt have strong enough plumbing to have the toilet paper flushed so even now- two weeks into being home- I have to second guess myself when flushing the paper.
8) For my final observation, leaving my squad in the end is one of the hardest things I’ve ever had to do. I can compare it in every aspect to being just like leaving home to go on the race. Even though in the beginning I never thought I would want to talk to these people, by month three of the race these people had become family. Goodbyes were filled with ugly sobs (from me) and broken hearts. However, I’m glad it broke my heart, because that meant I had built the kind of relationships with these forty once-strangers that meant something. Our relationships mean something. These are the people I will always love and have in my life forever. These people are my family.
Here’s a video filled with happy moments I spent with this family. I originally just made this video for myself to always remember the wonderful, glimmer filled moments with my friends, but I think all of you who have followed me from the beginning deserve to see the joy this year has brought me.
Also, here is the link to my youtube channel with all of my videos from the whole year. I encourage you to go watch them so you get some special insight to what my life was like and what I got to see while I was away. Just to let you know, in my videos there are a lot of fun things and not too much ministry footage because in many of my locations I either was not allowed to film or the moments there were too precious to me to be seen behind a lense.
NOW WHAT??????
Some of you are wondering what my plans are for after the race. I plan on staying home for the summer and working to raise money for college, then on August 10th I am moving up to Arizona where I will be attending Grand Canyon University in the fall. I plan on getting my Major in Secondary English Education and I want to use that degree to challenge students to find what they believe on their own by looking at scripture and what God says, I want to teach them how to dream for their future and how to let God dream for them. I want to teach them about who the Holy Spirit is and how He is their to help them in their lives. So basically, my plan is to use this degree teaching something I like to do something I love.
I want to thank you all for following me this far on my journey. You have blessed me more than you will ever know. Now, I want to bless you! I know a lot of you have questions for me, and maybe you don’t have the time or we’re too far apart for us to meet for you to ask them. SO, I am going to make a video answering all of your questions! All you have to do is comment questions below, or email me questions, [email protected], and I will answer them in my video! They can be funny or serious, it doesn’t matter, I will answer them all!
I love you all so very very much and I am so grateful for all that you have done for me!
