It was a sweltering and wonderful trip to DC. This trip will most certainly remain unforgotten for a long time. I loved seeing all of my friends, particularly my sweet little fairy godchild Sophia with the most gorgeous eyes I have ever seen. I channeled my Army-brathood and I unabashedly basked in the the patriotic energy of being in our nation's capital for Independence Day. I wore the glittery Uncle Sam hat and the cheesy temporary tattoo, got way closer to Steve Martin that I'd ever thought possible and reverently listened to the 1812 Overture with cannons in front of the Capitol building with a zillion others.
Xterra Half-marathon:
Yeah guys, a week and a half after the fact, I can still say—it was rough. I really wasn’t aware that it was possible to go uphill so many times in a row without going downhill…Columbia is an interesting place. Hey, at least I made a couple of friends in my 2 hour-plus run (my time was surprising compared to last time…hills? Roots? Summer air?). It was a challenging and awesome experience. Claire’s reaction to her first half was priceless: “I feel like I just swam in a lake and rolled in the mud”. Jay was a good cheerleader, and it was nice to see his house and meet the ‘rents on the roadtrip. I have effectively crossed “trail marathon” off my to-do list. Successful trip.
I'm Coming Home:
I head back to my lovely Florida island home on the 30th of July…don’t quite know how to deal with this, besides the need to truly appreciate how awesome this summer has been. I love Greenville; I thoroughly enjoyed the crazy-at-times house situation, spending lots of time with the boyfriend, babysitting my life away, listening to too much country, losing my ipod and learning that I can actually survive without it, becoming close with some truly incredible people that I’ve met just within the last year, trekking to DC (my favorite place), going to museum after museum, getting star-struck at “A Capitol Fourth” (apparently I do like bluegrass, thanks Steve Martin for actually being funny in person), and meeting the fairy-godchild, playing Just Dance, growing a little garden, interning with one of the coolest organizations I’ve ever been involved with, finally getting a darn Twitter, learning to racewalk, getting to jam out at Radius nearly every week without having to check my watch to leave early for chapter or the library, getting stabbed while picking wild blackberries, biking 22 miles on the Virginia Creeper Trail (yes, there is actually a Creeper Trail), learning more deeply of God’s incomprehensibly vast love through studying Hebrews. It's been a very happy time.
As much as I’m scared to grow up, I know the best is yet to come. I wonder if I’ll have to start acting normal when I turn twenty…probably not.
