My dorm, 4W, has become my home, and the girls have become my sisters. At the beginning of the year, I was scared of what the transition would be like and how I would learn to function living with so many new girls. But now, with only two days left living in my dorm, I am almost scared to leave. This place is my safety zone, my resting place. Just like leaving home to come here felt like a leap of faith for me, so does leaving here to go back. What will be back home? What will it be like? How will I spend my days, without my Rachel to laugh with, my Maya to call me "Cookie", my Alex to tease, my Brittany to love on? What will happen without the late night talking sessions of the Fab Four?
I could never have imagined at the beginning of this year that these are the type of questions and concerns I would have now. While I am still SO ready for summer and for the end of school, I don't feel ready to leave this place. Because I know that when I come back, it will all be different again. This is hard for me because I've realized that here, I am comfortable, I feel accepted and loved, I am safe, I can rest, I can have adventures and make hilarious memories, I can speak deeply with the people around me, I can be challenged by new ideas. Unbeknownst to me, over the year, 4W became my place to belong.
Over the years, these types of places have varied. Sometimes they have place places of deep belonging, other times a quiet comfortableness. There has been my middle school youth group, ZLO, my community college, and my high school youth group. There has been my friend groups and close relationships that have been and are places to belong. And now, I have had the unexpected privilege to call this university, and this dorm full of amazing women, another one of those places.
God is so good, and I have been so overwhelmingly blessed. And I know that no matter where each of my girls go and what we all do, 4W is a place in our hearts where we will always have a place to belong.
No comments:
Post a Comment