Change...

Anatole France once said, "All changes, even the most longed for, have their melancholy..." How true this statement seems to me. As you can well see I have not posted in quite a while. Life has been in a rush, a blur, a surreal swirl of events over the past week or so. I leave for my freshman year of University today, one of the biggest steps one takes in their lifetime. This step, however, arises feelings of both joy and sobriety, happiness and melancholy. When I was younger, and even up until about 2 years ago, I was ready to venture out and go, go, go. I was ready to embark on this next step, to leave home, to go to a college far away, to begin again. Of course, to certain degrees these types of feelings aren't necessarily negative, but not all positive. However, over the past year, in my last year of Franklin Classical, I have experienced an overwhelming sense of community, to a degree that I have never felt before. In our little community I go to school and church with the same people, I hang out and go on trips with the same people. I am a part of a community that love and care for me, that are interested in my life and the things that I do. I am a part of a community where, not only do people love, but I have a chance to return that love, to do my part, to pray for and stand by the people that I have come to know and love so well. A community is a true picture of God's grace. We all have our foibles and our quirks, and yet we are to be accepted, despite our differences and our flaws. That is what I have had the absolute joy of experiencing this past year. As a result, I have definetly experienced some reservations in leaving, but I know that God has a wonderful plan for my epxeriences at University that will enable me to return to this community better equipped. I thank God for the blessings that He has placed in my life with the communities at Franklin Classical, Christ Community, my swim team, and elsewhere. Thank you to all of you who have been a part of my life, you have blessed me in so many inexplicable ways. You have strengthened and encouraged me, giving me the ability to look forward to this next step with resolution and strength. Thank you.


Thus, I leave today to begin a new step. I will probably not be able to post for a while again, because of Orientation and the beginning of classes, but I will return again soon.
My new e-mail is bbleymai@gardner-webb.edu

"There is nothing wrong with change, if it is in the right direction."
-Winston Churchill