BACK TO REALITY

It is sort of weird to say I am, "Back to reality" as my plane lands in Ft. Lauderdale just an hour or so ago. What a real rough life to be where it is still 80 degrees outside, even though the sun has been down most likely 7 hours already. However, I recently realized, is where you sleep the majority of your nights and have a job to go to every morning. But shouldn't Florida be a vacation? A place where only fun things happen, with no worries at all?

Being in Illinois and Indiana this past week, with all my good friends and family around, has really made me appreciate them all a lot more. It is the people you are surrounded with that makes the places you are at amazing, or terrible. Hearing my brother, who moved into to Bermuda where he knows no body, say this, I wondered how he possibly could mean it. He lives in paradise, but seems unhappy at times. Yet, I also recently moved to "paradise" yet, and not experiencing paradise. I feel like I did experience a bit of paradise this weekend, even in rainy and cold Goshen/Chicago/Champaign, Illinois. Why? Because it felt like home. I was surrounded by ones I love, and who love back. I had no worries. It was a priceless week. Even though I was not constantly having fun, constantly comfortable, or experiencing breathtaking sights, I still had a great time. One I would, "write home about!"

I am excited to be back in Miami, with the people I am learning to love, however, it IS back to work and reality for the next month of my life as I finish up DOOR very soon. I look forward to everything that I am quickly going to miss. I count down the days, but I don't know why. Is it to go back to school where I will quickly start counting down the days there as well, or is it just to move on to something new. If either one of these are true, or both, I know it is to return to my paradise, of being with those who treasure my presence as much as I treasure theirs, and I simply can not wait.

As I go back to school tomorrow, I look forward to jumping over the last hurdle I will face for the year, and try to finish the race stronger than I started it. I hope I can walk away from this place with people saying I taught them as much as they have taught me. An experience like DOOR, while it ends physically, is one that will continue to help build me as a person through the rest of my physical life on Earth, and I am just as anxious to continue on with it, as I am to end it. I pray that I can finish my year off with a smile, remembering all the good that came out of my adventure!