324. This is the total number of days that my squad will have spent together on the field before we land on American soil and go our separate ways.
Don’t get me wrong – I can’t wait to have my bed back or to have air conditioning on a regular basis. I’m also pretty excited to order food at a restaurant in English and have it come out exactly the way I had hoped it would. But as this World Race season comes to a close, it will be difficult to transition into the next one.
When people say that the World Race is so much more than a mission trip, they’re telling you the truth. This isn’t so much a mission trip as it is our daily struggles, joys, breakthroughs – life. We have done all of the things that are expected when you travel the world. We’ve jumped off bridges, sandboarded, seen wonders of the world, spent days on the beach with our toes in the sand, released Thai lanterns, and had too many Dr. Peppers in the span of 24 hours because we didn’t know if we would find one again. But we’ve also stepped into the unexpected. We’ve allowed ourselves to be vulnerable with each other. We’ve shared the deepest parts of ourselves. We’ve cried together and laughed until it hurts. We’ve celebrated holidays and birthdays together. We’ve had conversations that were really hard because we wanted to help each other step into something greater; to be better people. We’ve missed weddings, babies being born, new jobs, and all kinds of life changes. We have seen each other at our worst and our best, and we’ve loved each other regardless. We’ve had lip sync contests, watched Gossip Girl on three different laptops simultaneously (we were on different episodes – it’s justified – xoxo), walked miles just to get a Coca Cola, fumbled over words and greetings in 11 different languages, and been stuffed into public transportation with twice the amount of people (and animals) that any vehicle should ever be able to hold.
There are countless ways that this year has changed me, transformed me, bettered me, and challenged me. I know that after this year, I am not the same person. I know that I will never be that version of myself that I was back in September ever again and I think I can speak for my entire squad on this one.
We only have 14 days left on the field. Just typing that feels weird – like it can’t really be that we only have so little time left. The last 11 months has flown by just as much as it has gone by incredibly slowly.
We will do our best to put into words what the last year of our lives has been like, but it’s going to be difficult. The people that we have lived with for the past 11 months are our brothers and sisters – our best friends and our family. They have been the ones who have given us their shoulder to cry on when we got tough news from home. They’re the ones who have encouraged us, hugged us, joked with us, and loved us so, so well. And in one foul swoop, this once in a lifetime community we have lived in for the past 11 months will no longer be right there. The people who understand what this journey was like every single day won’t be within arms reach. We won’t be able to fall asleep each night laughing about the memories we’ve created together over the last 11 months. It is going to be incredibly tough to say goodbye to the ones who understand what it’s like to have packed up our life every month for a year to move into a new culture with a new community, language, lifestyle, and menu.
We’ll tell you stories that you might not find nearly as funny as we do. We’ll do our best to recap our year in words and pictures, however difficult that may be.
Some days will be harder than others. Some days we will just need to have time alone to grasp and appreciate all of the things that have happened in this incredible season as we prepare for and enter into the next one.
These moments are necessary for us to readjust to life back in the States. We will need time. This is normal and we don’t want you to take it personally.
We love you and we’re so thankful for your support and interest in our year. We are so excited to see you in just two weeks and tell you about all that the Lord has done in the past 11 months!
