When I tell people I spend some of my summer there, most just kind of raise their eyebrows and wonder what would possess me to drive over there and actually stay. For fun. They just do not understand. It's been 4 summers now since I fell in love with a neighborhood called Woodland Hills, a gas station called Speedi Mart, the family that lets me come over whenever I please, and a group of kids who live in the place. It seems that every time school got out I always craved the place, and even tried to persuade my parents to let me live there a time or two... or five. :) They quickly declined each time. (I now thank them for that.) I have made so many friends there, had so many... experiences, and have definitely made enough "remember when" moments to last a lifetime. I've got a feeling that as I go through my life I will frequently go back to those summers in IF, stop, sit, ands smile.
Today I returned from what very well could have been my last extended Idaho Falls trip, seeing as I move to Utah in two weeks, and my friends there are all going their separate ways to school, to missions, to marriage. (shudder)
So now I am feeling rather nostalgic over the last four years of my life- I feel like I am standing on a cliff. I can see the edge, I know I am supposed to look out there- into the next chapter of my life, gazing into the hills and valleys of what is to come, yet as the time gets closer my palms get sweatier and I just want to stop and sit. I want slow my stride, maybe take a closer look at my surroundings, and perhaps get the rocks out of my shoes. I like knowing what is going to happen next, and now I really have not the faintest idea. It's the weirdest feeling! As I sit here, the wisdom of Steve Carrell in Dan in Real Life keeps playing in my head when he says, "if you're going to prepare for anything in life, prepare to be surprised."
Oh, I am prepared.
1 comment:
You put ordinary events into such extraordinary words. My feelings are exactly like those of this post. I, too, feel like I am at the top of a cliff peering over, but it's not me that's going to get this life changing experience... I already have been there, done that. It's me who has to stand in the distance and hope and pray that when you take those rocks out of your shoes you make sure your jump isn't too long, dangerous, or providing too much anxiety for your mother... Sigh... I can't believe it's almost time... Makes me sad, glad, and sad again.
Post a Comment