Leaving Home.

For those of you who don’t know what it’s like to grow up in a small town, please allow me to explain. The town I grew up in has a population of not quite 12,000 people, and it’s also the town my father grew up in. It really hasn’t changed that much over the years, and many of the same families have lived there all their lives, as well. So needless to say, my father is well known around town. I can’t go anywhere with him without someone knowing who he is. It’s a similar story for my mom, too. And just about every time that I go to Walmart, I see someone I know. That’s a small town for you. My friends and I often complain that there’s nothing to do, but at the end of the day, I really enjoy my town. I’ve attended the same church my whole life, also. So I know just about everyone there, and it has been an integral part of my growing up. I graduated with a class of 170 students, having grown up with them since sixth grade and half of them through elementary school, too. 

Once I had decided I was going to Biola, though, I was incredibly excited. There were people I knew I was going to miss a lot, but I was ready for an adventure. The friends I was most likely going to miss were people that don’t even live in my town. You see, every summer I attend a Bible camp in a tiny town in a remote part of northern Minnesota. I’ve had some amazing times there, and have developed awesome relationships with people there. Many of them are from a small town in the southern part of the state. But the thing is, I only see them a couple times a year as it is. So I realized that whether I was 200 or 2000 miles away wouldn’t really matter. We would still be able to maintain our friendships just fine.

Preparing to leave Minnesota was a strange experience. And if I’m being honest, it was harder than I thought it would be. In the last couple of weeks before I left, I realized that I had to start saying good-bye to people, or I wouldn’t get a chance later. I packed up my room knowing that I wouldn’t be back for a while. I wasn’t just going on vacation; I was moving. I came across letters that friends had written me, but I couldn’t even read them because I knew I would cry. So I packed them away for when I had arrived at school. One of my last nights in town was spent at a friend’s cabin with a number of people I had graduated with. It was a lot of fun, but I decided that I was ready to move on. I’d had a phenomenal summer—spending 23 days in the UK and another amazing week at camp—and I’d changed a lot. I was ready for the next chapter of my life. As I left his cabin, I looked up at the sky and audibly gasped. It was almost one in the morning, and the stars were utterly brilliant. I smiled at God’s beauty.

My last night in town was spent at an ice cream shop with a few friends. On the drive there, I almost started crying. And then I saw the brilliant red sunset. God reminded me that He’s got things under control. My friends and I had a great night laughing and talking about what was to come for us. The next day, I finished packing and said some final goodbyes. My family drove down to St. Paul and met up with my dear sister, Liz. We went out to eat at a fantastic café—which is one of my favorite places—and said goodbye to Liz. We took one last sibling photo.

We got back to the hotel, and watched the new episode of Psych, which is my favorite TV show. We went to bed right away, because we had to get up at 4 to leave for the airport. And let me tell you, 4 came fast. Once at the airport, we had to wait for Southwest to show up at their counter by 5:30. We had eight checked bags, and multiple carry-ons. We flew from Minneapolis to Denver and then to Ontario. Once in California, I took a shuttle to our hotel, because not all of our bags would fit in our rental car.

Once we had checked into our hotel, we did some shopping for the things I hadn’t brought. That evening, I contacted my roommates—who had moved in a few days before—and went to Biola to meet them. I arrived at my dorm with a pineapple and coffee cup in hand—gifts for my roomies. We brought in some of my bags so that everything else would fit in the rental car the next day. We returned to our hotel, and I went to bed knowing all that was in store for the next day: move-in day.