One Year Ago...

I can't believe it's been an entire year already! One year ago today, I began a 12-week journey through an internship that would challenge me, frustrate me, break me, capture me, and completely change parts of my life.

It was also a year ago that I started a journey with some pretty amazing people, one of those being my best friend, Karli! It's amazing how much our friendship has grown since last summer. And I couldn't be more grateful for it!

In my life, looking back has been pretty common. And in the midst of looking back, I am sometimes filled with pain. But I have also been challenged as I look at the past to see how much, if any, I have grown. I think the next 12-weeks will be interesting as I reflect on my SOAR experience and take the few of you that read this, along for the journey.

One year ago [yesterday], I meet the five girls that I will live with for the summer. I'm filled with excitement, as this is the first time I have ever had roommates. The first time that I have lived "away" from home. The first time that I can put into practice the independence that my mother taught me. I'm excited.

First person I meet is Deandra! I give her a huge hug in my excitement and we are the first to officially move into the SOAR house! Next, I meet my amazingly awesome roommate, Jessica! It's a good thing I had her, because I didn't have anything to "girlify" our room! (Thanks Jess!) After unpacking my things, I made my way to the church, where I was helping some Effecters prepare something. Then, the girl from New Jersey arrives! "Anna!!" I yelled. She probably thought I was completely crazy. Me and my Facebook stalking beforehand. It's ok, we all admitted that we did some of that. After helping Anna unload and giving her a grand tour of NMC, Tiffany moved her things in. Then we try to make ourselves at "home" while waiting for Karli to arrive. It's overwhelming already, but exhilarating! We get a text from Terry, one of our future hundred or so, giving us information about the next day-Sunday.

One year ago today, we experience our first Sunday morning together. We meet the SOAR boys in the Worship Center. First Matthew, then Kieffer. I already knew Dustin, but I still say hi obviously. For some strange reason, we are sitting in the front row and already, people know who we are. I can still remember Ruth Mast coming up to each of us introducing herself and telling us how excited she is to have us over for lunch this summer. She was, and still probably is, the happiest person I know. More on her later.

The Sunday is a whirlwind for most of the interns. For me, it's a time of guiding, introducing, and showing the interns the church and ministries going on. After church, we head to La Fogata with some pastors and their families. Although I had been working at NMC for over a year at that point, this was still pretty new for me.

First day down, many more to go. First blog down, hopefully I'll keep up with this one! It's amazing that I remember all these things still.