In order to say hello to familiar faces at home, I will have to say goodbye to familiar faces I’ve traveled with. The race is almost over, our time is almost up, it’s almost time to leave each other. While some people are starting to count the days until we are on US soil, I can only count the countries. 2 more countries. That’s it, then it’s over.
I want to show you what I think about that. Welcome to the inside of Marissa’s head!
Imaginations and Realities of Coming Home
Going Home:
Hugging squamates goodbye in front of a hotel
Being alone on a plane for the first time in 11 months
Seeing my family at the bottom of the escalators
Crying A LOT
Go to a family BBQ
Being Home:
Lay in a dark room trying to go to sleep
Cant sleep because I haven’t slept alone in almost 2.5 years
Move to couch because Im use to sleeping in big spaces
Falls asleep
Wake up to silence
Walking into the kitchen in an empty house
Make breakfast
Have a quiet time
Feel lonely
Text a friend from the Race to see if their sad too
Go to a coffee shop to not be alone
Hang out with Sierra
Family gets off of work
Have dinner with them
(Repeat)
Eventually:
Wake up
Go to work
Start making plans to start coffee shop
Help with youth at church
Go home/maybe to an apartment
That’s it. This is what I think about every day. The race is around 75 days from being over and these are the thoughts that consume my imagination. The emotions I have when I think about these events are so wide spread. Sadness, excitement, lots of loneliness, happiness, and eventually hopes and dreams. I imagine these things because I experienced them after Ywam. The reason I say, “Eventually hopes and dreams,” is because it’s such process to go home. It’s thousands of emotions a minute. I’m not saying this is what every single person is going to experience this but these are my thoughts and my blog so Ima do what I want 🙂
Racers:
Your thoughts might consist of:
“How do you go from spreading the gospel around the world to being an unemployed adult that lives at home with their parents.”
Once you get a job you realize “How did I go from spreading the gospel around the world to boxing pies.”
But I want to tell you it’s a lie to believe that you’re not just as important in a work space boxing pies as you are at a refugee camp in Greece or in a village in Africa. There are lost people in the states too. Our mission field is changing but our message stays the same.
Parents:
We can be met by an unreal expectation to be okay when we get home and happy to be in the states again but please understand it’s hard. Trust us we are happy, but sometimes we are sad too.
Things parents might say or think consist of:
“Oh bless your little heart.”
“How was your TRIP?” – Please don’t call it a trip, it was a year of our lives not a vacation.
If you lost weight on the race “They must of went days without eating.” – We ate, trust me! We just went from couch potatoes to active people who eats vegetables.
When we tell you stories there will be some parts where you’ll feel bad/sad about when it comes to living conditions. You don’t have to feel bad, we survived. I guarantee your Racer wants to share the experience with you, not make you feel bad for them.
Strangers:
Most people are going to say TRIP. It can drive you nuts! How dare they call my mission trip a trip as if it was a vacation! They don’t know what has happened, give them some slack.
You’ll probably receive the same reaction telling people you lived out of a backpack as you did when you told people you were going to before you started the race.
Lord forbid you don’t have a closet for a year. Lord knows that America is the only place in the world that has, AC, Wifi, Grocery stores, or beds. These are hard things. Again give them some slack. People don’t know what they don’t know.
Racers and Parents: Your eyes have been opened to so many things, your perspective has completely changed. It is easy to get frustrated with people who don’t understand to the same capacity as you. Parents, this goes for you too. You have most likely been exposed to many truths around the world through your racer. So for both of you, parents and racers, instead of getting frustrated at hearing people talk about things they might not understand it is now your responsibility to share what you have learned. With knowledge comes responsibility.
We get to the states Aug 28th but Im going to spend some time with my pals up state for a few days. I think Ill be able to handle “reentry” just fine but if I ask someone for a sweet tea and they tell me “We don’t have sweet tea but we have sweetener.” I might loose it! Who in the world would put sweetener in a cold beverage so it doesn’t dissolve? THEN drinks it through a straw so all of it goes in your teeth and it feels like dirt and taste like not sweet tea! Crazy people thats who!
