I wrote this in bed the night my friends and I arrived back onto campus.

I seriously was thinking to myself at multiple points during the trip: “no way this is real. This is my life?? I prayed for this. And it’s happening.” I was living in the proof of how the Lord is so good, and kind, and faithful!! This trip reminded me of how sweet life is, how amazing friendship is, and “how I love being a woman.” 

Upon arriving back to school, I started to get really sad. I was sad that this experience I had been looking forward to for weeks was over and it felt like I had just been on campus a day ago. It almost felt like a dream. Didn’t even really happen? 

I likened the feeling to how I feel after coming home from sleep away camp or a church conference. The emotional high begins to fade and reality sets in. I’m not saying reality has to be bad but it’s not the new and exciting feeling that was a constant for the past week. 

I feel like I got emotional because of all the other emotions this trip brought up for me. To be honest, I feel like this trip awakened something in me that I didn’t know I was capable of: how much I am able to love others. I have so much love for these girls. I look at them and I can’t believe I have the privilege of being their friend. And as I was getting emotional on the plane, my friend said to me “we’re literally right next to you.” And yes, that was true. But as Kacey Musgraves once put it, “I’m the kind of person who starts getting kind of nervous when they’re having the time of their life.” So while the trip was the sweetest time and my heart was so full, I was also acknowledging the fact that this specific experience with this specific group was now over. I was sad that I wasn’t gonna be spending as much time with them once school starts, watching movies with them every night, or laughing at every meal with them. 

I’m allowed to be sad about that, but I also know that I can’t let that stop me from moving forward and growing in these friendships and other ones post-trip. Similar to what I talked about in my winter quarter reflection, the more I get to know people, the more I find myself having so much more love for them. 

And after having spent a week with these girls, I do have so much more love for each of them. 

So while I won’t be spending every day with them, there’s still opportunity to use what I’ve learned from this experience to love others better. I learned how willing I am to love other people once I’ve gotten to know them, and I want to be able to invest in more of the relationships I have on campus like that.

Altogether, it was the most amazing 7 days. I love these girls. And God is good❤️. To spring quarter🥂