Nine Months Ago...

Nine months ago, I graduated high school. Nine months ago, I began counting down the days until I’d move into college. Nine months ago, I didn’t realize that nine months into the future I’d wish I wasn’t counting down the days until move-in but rather focusing more on each day as it came. Don’t get me wrong, I love school! There’s just something to be said for the atmosphere of home to comfort you when you fail and to celebrate when you succeed. Nine months ago I was so future focused that I didn’t live each day to its full potential. Nine months later, I’m sitting in my dorm counting down the days until I’ll get to see my family again.

Someone once said “you never know the value of something until it’s gone”. This is a very real statement. We just assume our family will always be around when we need them but we never think about the fact that they might not always be physically there. Usually we look forward to this, especially after living with the same people for 18 years and getting excited about the freedom it brings (trust me, I know the feeling). However, you truly learn how valuable family is when you have to live without them for extended periods of time. Sure, you can talk to them on the phone or FaceTime them but it’s not the same. They half the time don’t know the people you tell them about so they can’t really understand how funny the story is that you just told them. They can’t relate to the things that are happening on campus and they try their hardest to comprehend everything you tell them but the truth is, they never fully will.

God created us to live in community with one another. Even God Himself was in community within the Trinity! Living in community is how we can encourage one another and hold each other accountable in life so everyone has the opportunity to succeed. God gave us community so we could show love to each other because in John 13:34 He tells us that we are to love one another as He has loved us. Although I’m not at home with my parents and three younger brothers while enjoying a movie and laughing hysterically, I still get the opportunity to live in community with some of the most awesome people I have ever met. I have the most amazing friends to comfort me when I’ve failed and to celebrate my successes. My friends understand and can relate to the things that happen at school, they hold me accountable when necessary, and they love me just as God does. I am incredibly thankful for my friends who have made living away from home bearable and having my older brother here this semester is cool too, but nothing compares to living at home.

Missing my siblings’ and parents’ birthday’s, their athletic events, plays, and milestones (like the junior ring ceremony) isn’t exactly ideal. I always feel so out of the loop with the exciting things that are happening while I’m away. So here I am, nine months later, wishing I would’ve had the wisdom within me to appreciate the time I had left before having to live on my own. If you are a high school senior or even junior reading this, I hope it inspires you to view the last bit of time living at home as an opportunity to love on your family and celebrate the successes and be comforted during failures with them and by them because one day, you’ll be looking forward to school breaks just so you can have that to hold you over until you see them again.