First I must apologize to all who have been waiting patiently and some impatiently for me to post another entry on my blog. I promise to become more faithful with my posts.
Well, after a crazy travel day Monday (a two hour delay at LaGuardia and almost missing the shuttle from Atlanta to Macon), I arrived home safely and took a full day to recover. Now I'm diligently working on packing all my stuff and then separating it into what I really need in North Dakota, what I can fit in my car, and what I will have to leave behind. But before I completely resign my memories of US-2 training to, in the words of Mark from Rent, the "3-D Imax of my mind," I want to share with everyone some of what I learned while in New York City. July was a month of revelations... I realized that sometimes its good to feel small and let me tell you that nowhere do you feel as minute as Times Square. I've decided that part of the appeal of New York is the ability to disappear and remain anonymous. When there are so many people around, its really easy to identify oneself as a small part of the rest of humanity. At the same time, its amazing how lonely one can feel in a crowd. But just as I began to feel too insignificant my dad called to tell me he found a live action camera that recorded images from Times Square and broadcast them online. I know some of you might be thinking that this sounds a little Big Brother-ish, but it was really cool to be in the city and know that my parents could see me. I guess that it was a reminder that I was somebody after all. July was also a month of friendship... I'm so grateful for the new friendships forged between myself and the other US-2s. I'm sure that our relationships with each other will be a blessing as we continue on our journeys.
I leave you all with a quote that I found while in New York. It helps to better articulate how important the training experience was for me.
Real development is not leaving things behind, as on a road, but drawing life from them, as from a root.
-G.K. Chesterton
