Until Next Time...

Today, I had the last lectures for Intermission, the course that I have been doing for the past year.  I walked down the hallways and out the reception doors for the final time this year with mixed emotions.  So much has happened this year, some good and some bad and some interesting and some plain hilarious  but in a strange way, I'm going to miss this group of people I have come to known over the past year.  Intermission TwentyTwelves group was like someone decided to pick the most random group of strangers you could ever meet and put them in one of the most emotionally and spiritually draining/developing course you can think of.  Yet somehow, we seemed to make it through the year with no one being killed.

I still remember walking up to Carey for the first time and seeing Miss S standing there looking about as lost as I felt.  I walked up to her and we entered this new world together.  We walked up the steps to find Mr Jay, Mr H and I think it was Mr Jo sitting together.  We walked together as a slightly bigger group, collecting Miss R on the way, into lecture room two and found Sir along with Mr D and Mr W waiting expectantly for us to join them.   Mr N arrived a bit later with Mr A arriving even later and Mr S arriving even later after walking in the wrong direction for some period of time.  We were frightened little school children with no idea what we were getting ourselves into.  Little did we know what was coming.  Since that first day, we have laughed till we cried many times, sometimes about random town names or other inappropriate things that might be too risqué to mention here!  Let's just say the Chapel has some good memories.  Along with the laughs we've had our homeless nights, our times where we don't really feel like talking to anyone, our times of seriousness and our times of goodbyes.  We farewelled Mr W halfway through the year and then Sir two weeks into semester two.  Shaken a bit we hesitantly welcomed in Ma'am who has helped us grow into the individuals and group that we are today - whether we were ready for it or not!  Many more laughs and cries have happened since, but here we are at the end and it's all of a sudden time to say more goodbyes.

To Sir and Ma'am. Sir - you formed a base relationship with us that helped us take off at the beginning of the year. This relationship you formed for us included burping competitions, lameness, the wonky donkey song and challenges that continue to make me question what I'm doing. Ma'am - you us bought toilet paper, crayons, rice crackers and fruit and a wisdom that none of us could have expected.  Thank you for entering into this dysfunctional group halfway through the year and helping us get to the finish line.

To the rest of you.  Thank you.  Thank you for the hugs, for the words of encouragement, for the acceptance  for the laughs, for the talks and for just sitting and listening.  Thanks for the most dysfunctional, annoying, lame, most amazingly awesomely interesting year of my life.  All being said and done, it's been great. And truth be told, I am going to miss you guys a whole heap. I'm going to miss the hugs from Miss R, the words of encouragement from Miss S, the loud music from Mr D, the sarcastic chats with Mr Jo, the big but helpful questions from Mr Jay, the mothers day presents from Mr H, the wacky sense of humour from Mr s, and the pondering's from Mr A.  In short. I'm going to miss you all.

This year may have not turned out the way we expected it to, but let's be honest here, it's been a great year. As for the hallways of Carey?  I don't think this is goodbye but rather...
Until next time.

It's time to say goodbye

It's nearly the end of the year and that means it's time to say goodbye to some things.  On Monday we had our last hostel meeting.  We all sat in a circle and shared what we love about the hostel.  I can't remember what I said but it didn't express what I truly feel about this place, so I'm going to express it here.

I love this place.  I love the people, I love my room, I love the kitchen, I love sitting around the table and laughing about something ridiculous (uterus issues or baby vomit for example - don't ask).  I love how everyone here is now a part of my story and that they just naturally fit into my life.  I sometimes try and think back to before the hostel and to be honest I can't imagine my life without the place.  I came in expecting all these beautifully perfect people who formed cliques and shallow friendships and though I found amazingly beautiful people here, they all have amazing and open hearts.  They invite you in and they love you for who you are.  You can walk down into the dining area wearing track pants and a baggy hoodie and no one cares. There is always someone to say good morning to, and there is always someone to say good night to.  There is always someone to have a laugh with and someone to have a cry with.  There are people there to give you hugs and to be beside you when life crashes around you.  There is always someone there.  Always.  I don't really want to think about moving out of here.  Though I'm moving in with an amazingly awesome group of girls, it's hard to know I'm never really going to be in this environment again.  Simply put, I will miss this place.  A lot.

One last note to my roomie.  You are one of the best room mates ever.  Listening to cheesy music, dancing in our PJs, our conversations that we think are only going to last for one sentence but seem to go on for 50 and doing Zumba at midnight are just of the few things that I will miss doing with you next year.  Strive after God he's got your back. You have my number so call me... maybe?

Good bye ECH.  This year has been great.  We turned up as strangers and leave as family.

Photos

I like photos.  I especially like taking photographs.  So today I'm going to share with you some photos of my own :) Hope you like them! Sophie x