Hodge Podge

 Being with you is like walking on a very clear morning – definitely the sensation of belonging there.  E. B. White 

5.  And the beginning and middle part of a blog post.  I read it and have no idea where I was going with this.  I’m sure I thought it was important at the time, but now…I don’t know.  I hate to delete it so I’m adding it here.  

I moved around a lot as a kid so I was constantly making new friends.  I went to two elementary schools, one junior high, and two high schools, and never lived any place longer than 3 years.  The summer before my junior year of high school I moved from a suburb of Houston to the panhandle of Texas.  It was a pretty drastic change for me.  I was angry about the move, because I loved my church and my friends.  I had been in the same school for two whole years, and I felt like I was hitting my stride.  I loved my school, and had finally made the drill team and was working hard to prove myself.  The drill team instructor knew that I should have made the team the year before, and encouraged me to try out again.  I went to dance camp that summer and learned some of the new dances for the upcoming school year.  I was so ready.  And then my parents called a family meeting.  I hated when that happened, because it always meant that we were moving again.  The new school had abolished their drill team after it became known as the Whore Corp. around town, so there was no transferring to another dance troop.  After the move, I rebelled a little by going and getting a job.  I know…I was hardcore!  I wouldn’t participate in any of the church youth group activities because I was convinced that all those kids thought they were better than me!   I became best friends with another newbie at the school and spent all my free time with her and the boyfriend I happened to have.  We had open campus lunch and despite my mom fixing me a lunch, I would go out anyway.  Did I mention how rebellious I was??

The summer after my junior year my parents had a family trip planned.  They were going on a vacation, and I couldn’t go because I was working.  The truth was I could have asked off or quit my job, but I didn’t want to go.  My mom arranged for a college student at the church to come and stay with me while they were gone.  I was mortified!  I didn’t want some self-righteous stranger staying with me!  The girl showed up and I liked her.  She wasn’t weird or crazy or self-righteous.  And she introduced me to a couple other girls who were a grade younger than me from the church.  When I saw them, I knew exactly who they were.  I had seen them at church and school, and they always looked like they were having a blast.  I spent the two weeks my family was gone getting to know these girls and many of their friends.  I dove into everything youth group related and was a completely different person when my parents came home.  My mom couldn’t believe the difference!  I couldn’t believe that I missed out on a year of amazing relationships, because I wanted to pout about moving!

The summer after I graduated from high school my family moved again.  I was going away to college, but I was still sad.  There would be no trips home to visit my friends because when I went home to visit my family it would be to their new house.  Their new house in the same suburb of Houston we had lived in two years before.  And even though I was moving back to a place I had known and back to a church I had once loved, it wasn’t the same.

So there you have it.  A random assortment of stuff.  Nothing finished, but now I can move on to fresh, new ideas and quit looking back at these things with frustration.