I am returning to the family that let me move 300 miles away and never once told me I was making the wrong decision.
I say goodbye to the job I took three years ago, and the people who made that job one of the best places I have ever had the honor of working.
I leave a school and program that allowed me to make such great friends along the way and those who helped me make it through the longest year...
I temporarily say goodbye to the friends that I knew before arriving, and the many I met along the way.
I am thankful for friends made in the beginning....
Still putting up with each other in the end.
I am grateful for all of these people and countless others who have come and gone from my life in the last six years. I will miss each and every person. As I pack my boxes and prepare to leave, I am sad to go, but again, I feel so very lucky to have attended the University of Kansas and lived in Lawrence these last few years. Because what most of these people don't know is that they weren't just friends to me.
No, they were much more than that.
I left home because I wanted to find something. I know, what an age-old saying. But it is true, nonetheless. I left because I thought getting away was what I needed to do with my life. I left six years ago, only to choose to return to that small town I thought I was trying to escape.
The truth is, I don't think I was trying to escape.
I have met a variety of people in these last years, yet despite their differences, all of them have shown me what I was looking for when I left. I wasn't looking for the meaning of life, nor was I looking to break free of the "small town effect."
I was looking for me.
What these people don't know, and I guess what I am telling them now is, they helped me discover the person I wanted to be. I know how cheesy that may sound, but it is the truth. I spent most of my life being someone I wasn't before I left home, and it took me a long time to figure out who I wanted to be.
I hope I chose right.
I have found myself trying to figure out what I can say to my friends when I get ready to leave this town, and to be completely honest, I have nothing. I know that it is not really goodbye, but I also know that life will never be the same again. They have stuck with me through the ups and downs that life has thrown at us - including my many ridiculous shenanigans - and now we stand on the edge of a new era.
I guess if I had to say anything, it would be thank you.
Thank you for the tears.
Thank you for the laughter.
Thank you for the lessons.
Thank you for reminding me that home isn't always a spot on the map.
Peace, Love, and Rock Chalk...forever. |