To my family that does not understand me,
I think you know who you are. If not that is okay too, but I need to get some things off my chest. I am sorry that you do not agree with me going on the race and I am sorry that you just don’t understand it. I have tried for years to not offend any of you, to try my best to feel accepted by you, and I’m sorry that it did not work out. I’ve grown up my whole life looking up to my older cousins and tried my best to genuinely show my support for their career choices, life goals, or anything else that they were interested in and I believe I have failed.
Community is important and I look at my family as a different form of community or more so my first experience with it. Luckily, I am a part of not one… but THREE amazing community groups. When surrounded by community we grow and change and learn and succeed. Without it, how can we process through life events or celebrate the blessings we encounter? It is hard to tackle life alone. That’s why we have community and flourish when we are apart of it.
The family community for us just did not happen. For those in my family who haven’t supported me or reached out to me… I forgive you. Yes, my feelings are extremely hurt and yeah I’m a little mad but it’s okay because tomorrow I gain a new community of people that will stand by me for a year. A community of people that I will pray with, sing with, and more importantly do life with. You do not have to support me emotionally. You do not have to check in on me. Tomorrow starts something new for me when I step into training camp. Tomorrow I will start to build the relationships with my teammates that I will be a part of for the next year of my life and hopefully for many years to come.
God has poured out countless blessings for me again and again and again and I am truly blessed with the people on my squad. We are a unique, strong- willed, and amazing group of people. I have the support system I need if that be a joke for a laugh or someone to confide in. Lordy, I am so excited for these weeks at training camp. I am so excited to do amazing things with one another. This community is everything I could’ve asked for and more
As always, continue to pray for my team, me, our heath and safety as we are all traveling to training camp. Pray over all of training camp and the weeks we will be down there.
Stay blessed!
Emily.
