A Past Remembered
Today was graduation for our seniors here at BFA. It's kind of a bittersweet time as all graduations are. However, there is one huge difference here. For BFA seniors this isn't their hometown, for most of them their parents don't live here, or anywhere near here. So, unlike those of us who graduated in the states and still return home on occassion for holidays and summers and the like these kids don't. While our parents root us to the town they are in, these students have no such thing. Going home to visit family does not mean coming back here, and so, there isn't the chance that there will be a random group of their high school buddies all visiting family for Christmas and a spontaneous dinner out will occur.
This makes me sad. Not that I stay in touch terribly well with friends from high school, but at least I have the option of seeing them when I'm home. For these students they may see each other again, but it will take far more planning than any American high school alumni has ever put into seeing a group of friends. And, the chances are that it won't work out. Am I being a little melancholy and depressing? Well, I guess I am. I just feel bad for these kids. Graduation is an emotional enough time, but add to it the idea that you may never see your friends again and it becomes even more emotional.
I guess I also know how these kids are feeling. In a week I fly to the states, leaving BFA for good. This will no longer be home for me. While I am looking forward to the next phase God has for me, I guess I'm realizing a few truths as well.
1. I am forever changed - this place, these people, this ministry, has had a greater affect on my life than anything else ever has, even four years of college.
2. I may never be back, ever!
3. There are people here who made a huge impact in my life that I will probably never see again this side of eternity. The worst part of this is that I will never be able to express to them in words what they mean to me and how much they have taught me.
So, I feel bad for these kids...maybe its a vent for the self-pity that I am starting to feel. I don't know.
I do know that this is an incredibly long post...so I'm gonna quit.
One week I'll be stateside. Looking forward to seeing friends, dreading missing friends. What a predicament.
Tschuss!
This makes me sad. Not that I stay in touch terribly well with friends from high school, but at least I have the option of seeing them when I'm home. For these students they may see each other again, but it will take far more planning than any American high school alumni has ever put into seeing a group of friends. And, the chances are that it won't work out. Am I being a little melancholy and depressing? Well, I guess I am. I just feel bad for these kids. Graduation is an emotional enough time, but add to it the idea that you may never see your friends again and it becomes even more emotional.
I guess I also know how these kids are feeling. In a week I fly to the states, leaving BFA for good. This will no longer be home for me. While I am looking forward to the next phase God has for me, I guess I'm realizing a few truths as well.
1. I am forever changed - this place, these people, this ministry, has had a greater affect on my life than anything else ever has, even four years of college.
2. I may never be back, ever!
3. There are people here who made a huge impact in my life that I will probably never see again this side of eternity. The worst part of this is that I will never be able to express to them in words what they mean to me and how much they have taught me.
So, I feel bad for these kids...maybe its a vent for the self-pity that I am starting to feel. I don't know.
I do know that this is an incredibly long post...so I'm gonna quit.
One week I'll be stateside. Looking forward to seeing friends, dreading missing friends. What a predicament.
Tschuss!
posted by Meg at 6/10/2005 04:58:00 PM
1 Comments:
Meg,
I know it's a much smaller scale, but I remember feeling that same pull every time I came home from Covenant, and the worst was when I left permanantly. I knew that it would never be the same again with my school friends, if I did see them, and at the same time, all my home friends were so excited to see me return. It's a strange pull in two directions, and hard to know what to feel. I can only imagine what you must be going through!
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