My husband and I are driving to Athens (Georgia, not Greece), for one of those events, dreaded or desirable, depending on how much weight you’ve gained or hair you’ve lost in the past 30something years – a reunion. We’ve lived in Florida, a good 8 hours away from campus for many years, and we haven’t made the trek back in 15 years.
It is no surprise that revisiting a place brings up all sorts of stories. I’m cataloguing these stories in terms of places we will visit: my first apartment there, Kip’s apartment, the science library where we first began to get to know one another studying as lab partners for biweekly Bio 102 exams, the column in front of the library where he proposed to me (yes, we were nerds), and our first apartment together (we were married before our senior year in college)…
Each place connects me with a story…
For example:
“My first apartment there”: The fact is, I don’t remember much about it. It was a generic collegiate apartment complex out on Atlanta Highway, a five mile drive to school. Three other students I had never met lived there and were advertising for a fourth…I found the notice on a bulletin board, looked at the apartment, and took it. I didn’t have much choice, because I had just decided to transfer from UNC to UGA in August before my sophomore year…school started September 5.
but wait…that takes me to another place…by the pool at Windy Gap where I heard God speak to me clearly and undeniably, “If you go back to North Carolina, you’re only going down, spiritually, emotionally, and academically.” The freshman year had been rough, but that’s another story. I decided to go to UGA on the basis of that one sentence from God and three other factors:
In-state tuition and scholarship money,
the Honors Program accepted me,
and
It was only temporary. (In my plan, I was headed back to UNC, Carolina heaven, after one year of ‘getting my act together.’)
I packed, I moved into the generic apartment complex, found that my roommates were very nice people (yes, even the one who, when asked what her part-time job was, said, “I sell drugs.” It’s a testimony to either my naivete or my sweet innocence that for many months I thought she meant she was a pharmaceutical rep☺).
That’s enough for one day. We’ll see where this journey takes me. Right now, I’m wondering about you. What if you were to visit an important place in your life? What are some of the places you would visit? What stories are connected to them? Do these stories remind you of other stories?
The Discovering Your Story retreat is all about allowing time to think through questions like these – not only about where we’ve been but also about where we are now and where we’re going. If you have never given yourself the opportunity to think through some of these questions about your life, now is a great time to do it.
