Fellows Retreat

Nine days into the Fellows Program and I’m already marveling at how quickly the time has flown.  So much to say, so much goodness and blessing.  Where to start?

I suppose with the beginning.

Last Tuesday through this past Saturday we fellows ventured off to Southwest Pennsylvania for a retreat.  Unfortunately it was not ours to enjoy beautiful end-of-summer/early-fall weather; Tuesday and Friday blanketed us in a chilly, dreary rain, although things dried up a bit in between allowing us to venture out for ultimate Frisbee, corn hole, or a swim across the lake.  Otherwise we kept indoors and enjoyed cards and board games.

In addition to recreational activities, we took part in community building exercises, times of group worship and prayer, periods of individual meditation and devotion, and what turned out to be one of my favorite parts of the trip, the sharing of each others’ testimonies with the group.

As Christians know, one’s testimony is the story of how Christ has wrought change and redemption in one’s life.  Such stories leave no room for idle, small talk.  Rather, testimonies cut to the very marrow of life, with all its struggles and joys, hopes and fears, doubt and faith.  My heart went out to those of my new friends who had endured much pain and sorrow during their lives, and yet was gladdened to hear how through these difficulties, they had come to know the freeing power of God’s grace in deeper and more meaningful ways.  I kept finding myself thinking, “me too.”

What surprised me most was the ease with which just over a dozen fellows, otherwise complete strangers at week’s outset, grew to be genuine friends in only a few short days.  Of course, the sharing of our testimonies greatly facilitated this process, but even in time spent around a meal, on a run, or overlooking the lake was fruitful for the soul.  To talk philosophy with Sam, poetry with Matt, sports with the other Matt, or theology with the quietly tenacious Seo Yoon, to run with Garrett, swim with Freddie, or to be ferried in a canoe by Hunter, to compare Virginia college experiences with Michelle and Leigh Anne, or to enjoy the Southern charm of Annie, Carra or Jeff, to cook with Kim and share Tribe Pride with Jill, or to come darn close to beating Bill in an intense game of risk—these moments powerfully bonded us together.

All I can hope is that the rest of they year doesn’t fly by as quickly as those first five days did.

Goodbye Williamsburg

This weekend I worked my final day at the Colonial Williamsburg Visitors’ Center.  Friday night was my last work shift; Saturday afternoon I showed up for a staff party.  After having worked there for almost a year, my emotions were mixed when it came time to say goodbye.

There are certainly facets of the job that I won’t miss.  I won’t miss the incessant fife-and-drum music that plays all day, everyday in perpetuum—I now sometimes hear these tunes in my sleep.  Nor will I miss the endless process of stocking shelves and making sure that every widget is perfectly aligned so as to maximize a potential buyer’s urge to grab one and buy it, although this chore is somewhat gratifying to my OCD tendencies.

And while I believe very much that vocationally I am a people-person, neither will I miss having to paint a smile on my face and act thrilled every time a customer approaches the cash register to check out.  In retail, this discipline is a must, which I made sure to do, but sometimes it just felt fake, like I was having to wear a mask, and I hate it when people are fake and wear masks.  I certainly believe that my experiences this past year were good for me and will translate into my career down the road, but I also know that I’m not a retail guy at heart.

But it wasn’t for the things that I won’t miss that I almost got choked up as I left the Visitors’ Center on Saturday.  No, it was the thought of saying goodbye to people that I had come to love that tugged at my heartstrings.  I have grown attached to each one of these people in a special way, and I know that they had grown to love me, and now the necessity of circumstance required that we could no longer daily see each other.

Saying goodbye.  We live in a world of change—a world of mortality.  Someday we each must say goodbye to those we love, and our souls cry out at such a cruel fate.  It is in these moments that ever so briefly I yearn for Heaven and wish for reunion some distant day in the future.  Such a hope comforts my soul.

I don’t mean to be so dramatic: I fully expect to see my Visitors’ Center coworkers again—in this life—but it is often the transitions in life that force us to think more deeply than our hum-drum, predictable schedules do.

So I say “Goodbye” to my CW friends, my track friends, my Intervarsity chapter friends, and I say “Hello” to my Fellows friends.  Tomorrow I leave Williamsburg and William & Mary—this five-year chapter of my life—behind, and I embark on the dizzying world of Washington D.C.  Fellows Retreat, here I come!