The summer is ending, but it doesn’t feel like a true ending. For me, true endings are often characterized by saying lots of goodbyes and promising to write letters and call often and maybe committing to see each other within the year. It often involves packing up and leaving a place and perhaps returning, but perhaps not. The end of this summer, though, means that I will be working until tomorrow evening at around 7 and then I will come back to my place of residence in Harrisburg and pack up my few belongings and take them fifteen minutes away to where my lovely to-be homemates already are. Hardly like the endings I’m used to, as I will see Danielle and Chris frequently. And as long as it’s busy season and I’m a dazzler, Midtown Scholar and my dear family there will stay in my life.
And this isn’t the kind of summer I’m used to. Working a consistent job. Doing most of life on my own. Not having my normal support system or go-to people. Being outside the bubble of like-minded people I usually surround myself with. A different kind of stretching and challenge, for sure. But a stretching and challenge that, combined with many 13-hour workdays and little sleep, has worn me a little bit thin. And I’m ready for the change of pace that Messiah and classes and living in a house with people who are the same place in life as me can offer.
After a 14 hour workday, I thought of a list of things, in general, I learned this summer, perhaps worth noting here:
- I want to be a learner for the rest of my life.
- Joy really is a choice.
- I would rather not have my coffee than rush my coffee.
- The importance of being in the here and now.
- Working too much is one of our biggest problems as a society.
- If I ever wanted to be a hermit and forsake the call on my life to be a lover of people, I would do it in a book warehouse and read until I die.
- Sharing meals is one of my favorite things to do.
- Most people need to be told that they’re going to be okay.
- I want to live a simple life.
- It doesn’t take much effort to grow delicious eggplants or bell peppers.
- I find encouragement from the most unusual sources.
