Transition Part 1

It’s been a long time since I last blogged! The last sands of summer are slipping through the hourglass as I type.  In so many beautiful little moments, this summer has been unforgettable.  Staring at infinite stars, walking through barely touched woods, surprising friends, swimming in one of nature’s most extravagant pools,  laughing and paddling ridiculous homemade boats,  gathering with people I love to praise and pray both at my church and my home…how blessed I have been!   There are definitely major challenges that come with having my life in two different cities, so far apart, but I am overwhelmed by the love and support of my family and friends in both places!

August came to a close with our annual camping trip, dinners with my grandparents, last little adventures with my friends, and the long-dreaded task of packing my belongings to head back to school.  On August 31,  I woke up after a short sleep to meet Sidney.  We sat and talked, prepared a marinade for dinner, and then took the bus to UVic together, where I was meeting Lane, who had driven across Canada with his friend, and was flying back to Ottawa around the same time as me.  Let me say this: after taking the bus even once from Sooke to UVic, I am SO glad that I’m not living at home and commuting to school!    After hugs and numerous goodbyes and trying-not-to-really-think-about-it faces, Sidney went into the bookstore, and I set off for home with Lane.

Do you ever have experiences that seem completely natural and yet seem like they are impossible and foreign and…I can’t even think of the right word.  But that’s what it was like having Lane at my house.   As normal as inviting a friend over after school…and yet, this was the bridging of two completely different worlds for me.  There haven’t been connections between my Sooke life and Ottawa life before.   Everything that has existed in Sooke has been just in Sooke, and beyond my feeble attempts to describe a scene, or a friend, or the colour of the walls in my bedroom – ocean blue when the sky is painted with happy clouds and sun is bouncing between the waves and the air is sweet and refreshing - Sooke has been just on the map, and in my heart.  And everyone that I’ve met in Ottawa, all my experiences here – they too have been just my own when I go home.   It makes me wonder how it felt for Amber and Veronica to have me at their homes in Toronto.  It makes me want to be able to bring more University friends to see the place where I grew up, and to touch its trees, dance in its wind, be renewed in its water, and understand the intertwining of salt air and cedar roots in my life.

It was good to be reminded of why snowflakes and flaming leaves are making their way into the fibers of my heart too, right when I was getting ready to leave one home and return to the other.   Lane and I caught up on the adventures of the summer while I crammed exactly 50 pounds of random things into each of my three bags, and late into the night as I tried to remember everything and to think rationally when it had been days since I’d had enough sleep, I was so glad of the company.  I made it into bed sometime around 1 am, and the last thing I remember thinking before falling asleep, was that I should get up and put my flip-flops in my bag.

Mom, Dad, and Tim got up around 4 to drive Lane and I to the airport for our early flights, and we laughed and talked in the van all the way to the airport.  It’s such a bittersweet time of year.  I part with some, only to meet up with others, and the hug-fests on either end, though both motivated by love, are embraces of polar opposite expressions.   Maybe I’m dramatic about goodbyes.  Maybe things were getting to me more because my sleep deprived self is more like a 6 year old girl than a young woman about to move in to her first apartment.  Lane flew Air Canada, and I flew West Jet.  We flew through different cities, on flights just a few minutes apart.  And I was so thankful to have a friend to sit with in the airport of one home, and a few hours later, to meet up again in the airport of the other. 

 ...to be continued.