The World Race was not just a season of my life, but a piece of it.
I’m leaving anything and everything my life has looked like these past nine months behind. I’m saying goodbye to a piece of my life that I simply will never see again.
When I come home I’ll be filled with feelings I don’t recognize and emotions I can’t name. I will want to hangout with everyone I know, yet I will want to stay in my room for days on end.
Transitioning home will not be easy for me.
So for your own benefit, and without further ado, here are three ways to love me best when I get back:
“How was it?”
“How was it?”– avoid this question at all costs… really. This question implies that the World Race Gap Year was merely just an “it” and nothing more. The Race was not only a season of my life, but it is a piece of my life. Asking me “how was it” is like saying to a college graduate “tell me about your college experience”. It’s a part of your life you can write a whole novel about, yet you are expected to answer in just a few short seconds. This question oversimplifies the complexity of the Race. I have changed and grown so much in these last nine months, I simply cannot answer a question like this one without being at a loss for words. Ya feel?
Hearing is not Listening
All to say, I am not against y’all asking Qs! It shows the Lord’s intentionality and I am all. for. it. I do ask though that if you ask questions, you ask with the intent to listen and not to hear. The difference between these two words?– Hearing is simply the act of perceiving sound by the ear, while listening is something you consciously choose to do. So, you want to listen to any stories and testimonies I may have accumulated over the past nine months? Let’s do it. I’d love to grab a coffee and just chat a little.
Let’s Make it a Conversation
So, say we go grab that coffee we just talked about. Please hear me when I say I don’t want to be the only one talking. Yes, you haven’t seen me in nine months. But guess what? That means I haven’t seen you in nine months either. The Lord doesn’t move bigger mountains or reveal Himself in larger ways because I was “on the Race”. The God of the Race is the God of “back home”. [And thanks God for that].
Concluding sentence.
