Hate is a very strong word and we are always told not to say hate because “we don’t hate anyone, we dislike them”. Well let me tell you little something…. I absolutely HATED my World Race Team.
As many of you know, I went to trainingcamp for 10 days where we ate nasty community style food, slept in tents, exhausting physical activity and where I met all 39 of my squad mates (keep in mind i had never met any of them before). Throughout those 10 days we were matched up with different people to create teams to see what people get along together At the end of each activity, the leaders would ask questions like, “how do you think your team worked out?”, “can you see these group of people being a team?”. At first, I was obviously like sure I could see us as a team because I didn’t want to hurt anyones feelings. But come to find out, BAD IDEA!!!!!! I got put on a team with the same people every single time we had an activity and I was starting to panic. Again, the leaders would ask the same questions and of course I didn’t tell the truth because I didn’t want to hurt anyone feelings. But anyways, to get to the point, I found out my team and tried to hold all my anger in and not drop every curse word in the book. I had absolutely no emotion what so ever and I was trying to not burst into tears. Then, of course, the leader we had decided it would be a fabulous idea to ask “SO WHAT DO YOU THINK OF YOUR TEAM?”… I didn’t say anything but in my head I was thinking, “Are you crazy? Do you see who you have put me with? This team sucks and nobody is going to like each other. Our team is the extras and you just threw us together.” We finished the meeting and I grabbed the one girl on my team who I liked and we just let everything out to each other. I told her that if this was my team then I’m not doing The World Race and she said “NOOOO YOU CANT LEAVE ME WITH THESE PEOPLE!!!!”
At this point, I had no idea what I was going to do. There was a girl who treated us like preschoolers, one that didn’t even talk, a crazy obnoxious girl and then me and the other girl were the only “normal ones”. Training camp was finally over and I went home and had to take time to process the fact that I was about to spend 3 months of my life trying not to loose my mind.
Now that I am on the race, I absolutely love these girls with all my heart and I have no idea what I’m going to do when we get a team change. Mallory, the one who treated us like preschoolers, I have seen her grow in faith and become more like Jesus every single day. Cindy, the one who never talked, she talks non stop now and has a huge heart for worship and her heart is so filled with joy. Mikkala, the crazy obnoxious girl, has brought so much love and joy to our team and has such a servant heart by just helping with the little to big things. Leigh Anne, the one I liked from the very beginning, from completely disliking the team, you have grown so much spiritually and have shown how much you care for everyone on the team. As a team we have grown so much and our team name “United Pursuit” finally lives up to its name!! We are united as an all girls team and we are pursuing each other and the Lord more and more every single day! Guatemala with these 4 girls has been amazing so far and I can’t wait to see what the next2 months has in store for us!
Love you girls with all my heart <3
