Being Back (The Youngster Outlook on Traveling Part 3)
Updated: Mar 16, 2020
I’ve started five different entries for this week, each on different things. I knew what I wanted the focus point to be: our travels and how it feels to be back in PA.
But then all the sudden it’s Wednesday, and I have not a word prepared. I guess I'll start at the beginning.
Our parents drew out that we were coming back as long as possible. When we finally found out the room exploded. Screaming, crying, shouting, jumping, hugs, more tears...it was overwhelming.
A week later we left. It would take too long to say everything, so here are the highlights:
We become FL residents.
We went to the McWane Science Center in Birmingham, Alabama.
We visited Nashville.
We got to see a replica of the Ancient Greek Parthenon (also Tennessee). We had studied it earlier in the year for history, so it was cool to see what it would have looked like.
All in all... it was exhausting. Twenty six hours of driving! Our longest days were thirteen hours, our shortest days were four.
I'm not really sure how to put how it feels to be here. On the one hand I feel over the moon! There's family to visit, sleepovers to be had, friends to laugh, play, and love on...this summer will be glorious. I just know it.
Yet though I was truly quite excited, there was a part of me that was a bit afraid honestly; afraid that coming back would make it seem like we never left.
It’s not really like that. It is odd to be back after eight long months true, but I’m not the same child who left. Not just turning thirteen…it’s more then that.
Another fear I had was the fact that you can't come without leaving again. I knew emotions would be stirred, faith tested; I feared all of what happened last October would repeat, just in a different month.
I feared I would once again be overwhelmed with sadness and feel once more that York was the only possible place for us to be.
Leaving had drawn me closer to God then I ever had felt before. I was scared that coming back would somehow change that.
That was what I worried most over.
Yet instead, it’s renewed me. I know there’s more; I know God has us. And He’ll always lead us where we need to go. It doesn't matter where we are... He'll still live in me.
There are so many small things I never knew I missed that I now simply stare at. Mountains for one; they're beautiful! I never knew how breathtaking they were till they were gone.
And grass! Sand has its time, but I'm a barefoot-picnic type of girl. I love running in the grass with no fear of what might bite you (A.K.A. fire ants).
Also, I got to surprise a dear friend yesterday. She was so genuinely happy it made every minute of driving worth it.
I don't know what this summer will look like. I don't know what challenges we'll face, what joy we'll experience.
But even if the only reason we came back at all was to experience my friend's happiness… so be it.
Part four next week!