11 months ago I signed up for and got accepted into the World Race Gap Year program. So far away, it felt like the day would never come. And yet here we are… today is the day it becomes real. Today I start the most impactful journey of my life. Soon I will meet my team; those I will call family for the next 9 months.
However, that means that the past week was time to say goodbye to those I have to leave behind. All of the family and friends and people that mean the most to me won’t be just a short drive away, instead, we have become limited to sporadical long-distance calling every now and then.
Goodbyes have never been easy for me. So months ago, when preparing for what was to come, I thought I would be devastated. But the Lord has been gracious to me in this season. The closer it got to being go-time, the more I felt like I just needed to go. So some parts of me already felt unattached and uninvolved to what was happening at home. Don’t get me wrong, I loved and savored every last moment before I left, but I feel that God has been preparing my heart to be so expectant for what is to come, making it easier to leave. With that being said every time I had to give a big hug and say “See you in 9 months!” to my favorite people, I walked away feeling like a small piece of my heart was being left with them.
I am a big people person, so relationships are very important to me and they get better and easier the more time you spend together. So the fact that I have to put those at home on hold for a long time is hard for me. But that is a sacrifice I have to be willing to make in order for my relationship with Christ to grow and become more solid than it ever has.
So to those of you at home, know that I love you and you will be missed, and I can’t wait to share with you all the ways the Lord is working and changing my life.
See you in 9 months! <3
