Month 2 of the World Race, as all months had its ups and downs. But, this past month was a little more intense. It was all squad month, so all 45 of us were in one place. Living in community is always fun, when you want someone to hang out with, all you have to do is open your eyes and look next to you, or walk right up the stairs. If you want to go somewhere and you can’t go alone, just find the first squad mate you see and they will likely want to go with you. But, with most pros, there are some cons- there are those times when you just want to be by yourself, especially as an introvert and there is just absolutely no place to be alone. You wake up, someone is there, you go to sleep and someone is there, you want to go to the bathroom, oh get in line, you walk out your room, oh, someone is sitting right by the door. There is just no alone space when you are living with 45 other people.
I always kind of thought that community living wouldn’t be so hard for me, I imagined it to be like college residence halls. I would have my one roommate, and I could just walk out of my room and go next door to see my friends or find someone to hang out with. Well, in some ways it was like that, I just had 5 roommates (not including myself), and I just had to walk down the hall or right upstairs for other friends. Plus, my 5 other roommates and I were living in a room that was about the size of my actual college dorm room, maybe a little smaller, actually. On the bright side, getting to share one room with my whole team, I think brought us together more. We were able to have a space to escape (as a team) and do our team time, feedback, and just talk with one another. I say this, because some teams were spit up, because obviously boys and girls don’t sleep in the same room on the race, and some rooms only had 4 or so beds, so their whole team couldn’t fit in one room. We were lucky with being able to have a place where our entire team could get away and talk.
World race community living is just so different from any other thing I’ve ever been a part of. It is not just sleeping in the same room as someone and choosing when you want to hang out or talk with them. It is sharing every single aspect of your life with the same people day in and day out- having to wake up, share a bathroom, cook, eat, do the ministry work, clean, team time, feedback, sleep, and everything in between with the same people.
At the end of the day, I wouldn’t trade it for the world. My 5 teammates will know everything about me by the end of this race/by the time we get a team change. They get to celebrate with me at my best, and pull me up when I am at my worst. They get to be a part of the smallest victories and the biggest triumphs. They are my family and will forever be my family after this trip. This community living situation has been so hard, and it will continue to be hard, but I have gained some much knowledge about those around me, as well as grown so much myself. I get to gain five sisters from this whole community living thing, and we get to experience things many people only dream about.
