Here and There

Yesterday was my first day of class for this semester. I spent the day reading course syllabuses, planning assignments, and feeling behind on reading. It is exciting to be back at LSTC, exciting to think of all the semester has in store. Most of all, it is great to be back among friends. Tuesday night several friends came over for a “last first day of school” party. We laughed and joked, and I remembered the joy of community.

Yesterday was also the first night of Wednesday Church Night at my internship congregation. On internship, the Wednesday Church Night community was one of my primary responsibilities. They were the community I got to know first, the first ones for whom I understood what it meant to be pastor. Wednesday nights were the most intense part of my internship experience. My highest highs and my lowest lows happened on Wednesdays.

So it is a weird feeling to be here and not there. I’m excited for my classes, excited for the learning and the discussions. But I miss the community who became my own. I miss the faces and the stories, the people I came to love, who came to love me. I find I want to be here and there. I want my friends and my congregation. And so I find that this experience of internship still has more to teach me. I am still learning the process of how to say good-bye.