A New Beginning

I love new beginnings. I love having the fresh start to challenge myself and better myself. I love the opportunity to reflect on the past and look forward to the future.

2021 was a great year for me. I never let COVID hinder my life. I continued to live the same and appreciate each moment as a gift while praying for those who are suffering. Because of this, I was able to travel a ton and had so many beautiful experiences. This whole year was not at all what I expected. At the beginning of the year, God put amazing, adventurous people in my life and I really solidified my friend group. I found people who were so confident in being weird and wanted to make life exciting. Now 'making life exciting' didn't mean that we had to do adrenaline-intensive things, but it meant having a fake engagement for the hell of it, or taking off time from work to go backpacking for a week, or playing 'what are the odds' to make funny memories, or saying 'to hell with homework and studies' and playing Spikeball for hours, or climbing on the roof of the cafeteria throwing mints at people in secret (I guess not a secret anymore). That is how you make life exciting.

Another thing that I am so grateful for is the many experiences from staying in different homes and getting a taste of someone else's life and hometown. I never felt like a visitor or a guest, but a part of the family. Or maybe I just have a bad habit of making myself at home and digging in the fridge, washing dishes, and digging through drawers without permission.

I will now begin to tell you all of the homes that I was blessed to find myself in:

During the Spring semester of college, my friend group went to David's house in New York where we went skiing and sledding. There were probably 15 of us in the home and made any cushy spot a bed for the night. It was nothing fancy, but it was all we needed from a family willing to host a bunch of crackheads.

Summer began with a mission trip to Arizona. The mission trip was put on by Franciscan University and so I went with other students and nuns from campus. In Arizona, we got to stay in one of the homes across from the school where we would work. It was beautiful getting to live with the ladies and experience the casual comfort of being in a home where we would cook, jam to music, and just relax. Then during the days, we would serve the local school together and run around living the missionary life, trying to make the best experience for the students in just the week that we were there.

This is a picture of the whole team who helped us that week -- not just the ones who came from my school.

From Arizona, I took a couple of flights and made my way to my brother's house in Houghton, MI where I would stay and serve as a waitress for the summer with my friend Bridget. We took on a completely new life there in a town full of hiking trails, lakes, tourists, and college students for the summer. We found different communities where we organized frisbee, game nights, and joined a softball league with the local Catholic Church. We took on 40ft cliff jumps, a 100-mile bike trip, and tireless hours of work, but were able to relax with the lake a quarter mile from the house. Our friends even made the long trip to surprise us for the weekend.

From Houghton, I went to Elijah's house with Bridget and Frankie, and instantly we were bombarded with dozens of little munchkins. Okay, not dozens, but that's not too much of an exaggeration. Elijah is the oldest of 10 kids and the cousins live close enough to pop in and out of their home.

One thing I hate is when I offer help in someone's home and they say "oh no, it's okay" and then I watch them bend over backwards to accomplish everything. If you would have just let me help!! Anyways, that was one thing I appreciated at Elijah's was I was put to work and I felt useful. And since I am the baby of my family, it was quite an experience to be surrounded by so many children and stretch myself to be a responsible figure...that was hard.

I also spent some time at Bridget's house meeting her family and fooling around with her little brothers and chatting with the parents. We also went to Bridget's grandparents' house where my introductions extended past immediate family and I got to meet her cousins and aunts and uncles and her lovely grandparents. It was so much fun to immerse myself in and I too felt like a cousin.

I had a wedding near Chicago which was the perfect opportunity to stay at my friend Ariana's house near the wedding. I got there two days early to meet her family and tour her old stomping grounds. She also was the oldest of her siblings so I got to let my 'inner child' come out. Now some of you who know me might think I'm always in 'little child mode' but it does get worse when I'm actually with little children.

At the end of summer, I wanted to see mom in Texas, where I grew up. Going home felt strange. I was staying in the same home. I was walking the same streets. I was eating at the same Mexican restaurant that I loved. But it was different. It was no longer my home. Maybe it was because our home was ready to sell -- the walls went from bright blues, greens, and oranges to a cream white, and the house was staged in a way that felt empty, and like a palace. When I sang, my voice echoed off the walls that used to frame the faces of our family. I had spent eight years in this home, and coming to visit, felt like just that, a visit. I felt like I was just going to see mom in her life. Regardless of my 'once-home' not feeling like 'home', it was still refreshing to see Mom who was 'home.'

Leaving Texas was hard and full of tears. Mom cried enough for the both of us. I was expecting a long-term 'goodbye' from Mom until I was back from Ireland. Which obviously didn't happen. I flew to Franciscan to see my friends. It was weird to go because I was going as a visitor and not a student, which meant I had all the time to do things. No school. No homework. No studying. Just hanging. It was so great to live in friends' dorms with them. Unlike my home in Texas, Franciscan still very much felt like 'home.'

At the end of my stay, I still didn't get my visa approved. My journal reads:

Well this is awkward. I was supposed to fly from college to Ireland...

I didn't want to go back home to Texas because I just had one of the hardest goodbyes with Mom, so I decided to bum around and go to my Aunt Susie's house to visit my favorite cousin Paige:) I ended up staying there for nearly two months...still waiting for my visa that never got approved. Paige ended up leaving after the first two weeks so I was just there with Ethan and Aunt Susie. But it was such a beautiful experience to become involved with the local Church and go to Ethan's soccer games and have late-night drives with Aunt Susie. We also watched so many movies and died laughing together. I truly just lived life with her and ran errands and helped with chores and projects. It was amazing.

From her house, I decided to bombard my sister, Megan, also, thinking it would be just a visit. But week, after week, after week, after week, after week, etc. it turned into longer. But it was great to stay with her and see her life and meet her young adult friends and celebrate the holidays with her. We were very festive in costumes, pies, pumpkin carving, feasts, wreath decorating, and carols.

I did split up my time at her house by visiting my Great Aunt Gina (who decided to make my arrival a party and invited all of the nearby family). She prepared a lovely feast for me and we laughed (more with wine in our systems) and played lots of cards. I stayed the night and was able to spend such quality time with them. At first, I only reached out knowing that she was my 'Great Aunt', and left her house actually feeling like family.

I also visited my best friend Joan, which I had previously posted about on a blog, so I'll keep it short. My time there was short but God blessed us with deep feelings and lots of adventures. I can't emphasize enough how homey it felt. Joan let me into her intimate memories of journals and her secret spots. Mrs. Brenda put me to work and sipped coffee shedding her wisdom on us. The older brothers seemed to adopt me as a little sister, teasing me and arguing with me. I mean, the family even lent me a robe for my visit. I mean, it doesn't get any more personal than wearing a robe in a house.

I left Joan's house and made my way to Grandma's house with my sister. We met up with the rest of my family and cousins (as I also previously stated in a blog). But being at Grandma's house feels the most at home. It has been a place that I have always visited. I have moved around a lot in my life, but this house has been a constant. The same dress-up bin is there, the same VHS tapes of Roger Rabbit and Chitty Chitty Bang Bang, the same worn-down beach towels, the same white and green ivy wallpaper that has stayed perfectly clean because of grandpa's anal commands, "Don't lean against the wall! This is my good wallpaper!” And I get to celebrate the end of a good year in a home that feels like home with all of my family that I love so dearly.

I am thankful for all of these experiences and the homes that I got to live in. This year was not at all what I expected. In fact, the whole fall semester, I was supposed to be in Ireland, but I was truly blessed. God showed how loving he is by allowing me to feel so loved in different homes.

Thank you, God, for a great year, and may you bless this upcoming year!