We've spent the last four months sharing life through Skype. Me, miles and miles away, adjusting to and experiencing the world outside of the States. You, miles and miles away, letting go of your daughter and your sister enough to let this adventure happen. The semester came and went in the blink of an eye, and now we are back under the same roof with a full summer ahead.
I’ve had one week to let the reality of this past semester sink in, and I’m realizing that even though you weren’t physically beside me for the journey, you played some of the biggest roles in my study abroad experience. So for all the times I forgot to say thank you, and for all the times my thankfulness failed to match up to all you poured out during this semester, this one is for you.
Thank you for praying for me, every day, all the time. Thank you for being quick to respond to my “I think I’m about to fail my art history final, please please pray!” with the ever-assuring reply “Of course I’m praying for you. I have faith in you. Let me know how it goes!” and for following up on that and getting down on your knees and interceding for me. Thank you for bringing me to each Mass you participated in, because whenever I was in Mass, I truly felt you there with me.
Thank you for handling all my random questions and issues. Debit cards, international cell phone plans, money wires, prescription medication…the adult world took me by storm this semester, and you knew if it was the time to guide me through the learning process or if it was the time to say, “Don’t worry about it; we’ll take care of it for you.”
Thank you for being radically available. If I needed to talk for three hours about nothing in particular, you were fully there for those three hours. You never made me feel like a burden, even though I know those long chats were not planned into your day. Thank you for keeping me up to date on everything going on in our extended family, in our parish, in my high school, in your work…anything to make me feel a little more at home.
Thank you for never saying, “I told you so.” “I told you that you should have packed sunscreen…I told you that it would be harder than you thought.” Thank you for being supportive of me in every situation rather than grilling me about my pride. I’m learning, slowly but surely, that I do not know best. Thank you for giving me the space to find this out.
Thank you for picking me up from the airport with big smiles, balloons, a Go-Gurt and two of my closest friends. There are not many moments in life that compare to seeing the ones I love so much after four months and a 10-hour layover apart. Thank you for giving me a place that makes it so good to come home.
And now, here we are together again. Our adorable kitchen I used to gaze at as we Skyped every Sunday is once again the place where I start and end each day. My “welcome home” balloons are deflating and I am slowly readjusting to this fast-paced American life which puts demands on each one of us. I want you to know that no matter how far I go, you will always be home. In this past semester, every day was like a new adventure, never knowing if my command of the Spanish language would be enough, never knowing what new beautiful historic monument I would encounter, never knowing the generosity that would be lavished upon me by the Mexican people. But I am starting to realize that perhaps the greatest adventure of all is the one in which I wake up in the home of my family and choose to love you. Because at the end of the day, even the greatest ancient pyramid or most magnificent Baroque cathedral cannot compare to the beauty of a family, knitted together in prayer and the sacraments and joy and suffering and an endless amount of quirks and imperfections. So thank you for letting me have an adventure of a lifetime during my study abroad semester, but thank you even more for experiencing this adventure called life with me each and every day. Here’s to the joy of a summertime filled with lots of laughs, barbecues, and familiar places. I wouldn’t want to live it with anyone else.
