Weekend

I grew up at Mars Hill Church. From the time I was 7, it's been all I've known in a church. 3 years ago I changed churches because 1) I wanted to help in a youth group, but my younger brother was/is still in high school and we don't get along, 2) I didn't want to be known as the "preacher's daughter," 3) There was no one else my age or anywhere close to it except high schoolers. But for the 11 years I was there, so much happened. I was in kids choir, kids musicals, christmas padgents, youth praise team, adult praise team, I played piano sometimes, youth group, lock-ins, being in vacation bible school, teaching vacation bible school, baby-sitting for events where the kids needed to be somewhere else, and then I went to Kenya with people from Mars Hill twice- when I was 19 and 21. In middle and high school, I always had my youth group to talk to - we'd stand in a circle and talk and made jokes when the circle got too big that we'd have to split in two so we didn't take up so much space, I always sat on the youth row in high school, etc. But isn't it funny how a place that is so "home" can one day be so foreign?

This morning I went to Mars Hill - I go every now and then. When I walked into the fellowship hall, I either didn't know people or I didn't know them personally. I stood around for a few minutes, but then went down to the lobby in the sanctuary. When I went in there, again I didn't really see anyone to talk to, so after standing alone for a minute, I just went inside where they were practicing for the praise team and sat for 30 minutes. Thankfully Rachel and Brian, a couple my age, came and sat with me when the service started. Afterwords I just left. I went to lunch with my family, my parents friends, and my younger brother's friends, but felt so out of place. And even when I tried to ask others about them/what's going on, nobody asked anything about me. So I resorted to just sitting there silently eventually. The whole morning was just lonely.

Besides this morning, I had a good weekend. I went to my high school friend Kesley's apartment and we talked for 5 and a half hours straight. It was good to catch up. I bought new sheets, a new bed spread, a teacher book, and a new shirt. All that was fun. I went with my roomate Leslie, her mom, and two of her other friends, while she tried on wedding dresses. She found one and it's so pretty. She gets married in July. I only have a month-ish left of classes. Not exact I don't think.