"I'll be home for Christmas/you can plan on me/please have snow and mistletoe/and presents under the tree. Christmas Eve will find me/where the lovelight gleams/I'll be home for Christmas/if only in my dreams."
This popular Christmas carol has never been held in higher regard than it did for me as a returning College student. The last week of finals being done, I packed in a rush, and hopped in our van and started towards home. Driving out of the girls dorm parking lot, I saw many of the girls being picked up, hugging, and even taking some last minute pictures. But there was something that I also noticed. Some of the students from Guam waving goodbye to friend they would not see for a whole five weeks. I could just imagine the pain and the sudden sweep of homesickness as some of their friends leave to go home. Home...a word that (when I was still in Highschool) I esteemed as another stopping point in the road of life. But now that I am at College, it holds a different significance. A feeling of belonging to something other than myself. A sence of love, and of being loved. Catching a glimpse of one of the students not going home, I saw a plastered on smile as she waved to her friends driving away. But as soon as her back was turned, her shoulders sagged, and tears started rolling down her face, and freezing to her cheeks.
Turning around in my seat, I readjusted my seat belt, and sighed with contentment as well as thankfulness to God who had allowed me to live in the US so I could go home at this wonderful time of the year. Feeling a little bit guilty of how happy I was when others were going back into their empty dorm rooms, I let up a little prayer for those staying back at school, that they would have a good Christmas, and that they would be blessed by the meaning of the celebration. Sighing for the fifth time since getting in the vehicle, I realized that I was going home . . . HOME!!! I couldn't wait to sleep in my own bed. With the soft sheets, and squishy pillow . . . it seemed like a dream. As we passed the Rec Hall, I noticed a few of my friends still in there waiting for their ride to pick them up.
Closing my eyes, I breathed deeply . . . simply wondering if all this was real. Looking over at my mom driving, I reached for her hand, and took it. Giving it a little squeeze, my heart flooded with love and thankfulness to God for all the blessings He has given me in my lifetime.
We drove out of NIU's drive way, following the Rios' van in front of us. It only seemed to take a matter of minutes before we were pulling off into "Parks Cheese and Candy Factory" in Crivitz, WI. (the anual stop). Getting out, Emilee, John and I all got to stretch. After a brief break at the store, we all got back on the road, and ended up eating lunch at a Subway in Green Bay, WI. Our entire group that was traveling took up about three booths! :-) James and Dan seemd to get into a little "duel" in front of the Subway store with some of the icicles that had been hanging down from the roof.
Around Gurnee Mills, the Rios' and us met at a local "Steak-and-Shake" and exchanged luggage and took on a few more people. Jj and Susan Rockstroh. It was squished with all of our luggage, but we all made it back to Indiana alright. On the way back to our house, I must have been thinking . . . or dazed, I don't know. Either way, next thing I hear is my mom asking, "Well . . . what do you think?" I looked up and there was our house...a few hundred feet away, all decked up in multi-colored Christmas lights! I gasped and said, "Oh, it's beautiful!"
I got unpacked and all my luggage downstairs, and I came and sat down on the floor by my grandma and just talked to her for about fourty-five minutes before I realized that the guy and girl that I had met at Northland were supposed to be here any minute. I walked outside with my NIU sweatshirt on and looked up and down the street for any sign of them. Nothing. I had just turned around and had glanced up at the christmas lights, when I heard a car engine, and someone calling, "Kara?" I turned around and sure enough. There was Michael and Erin. They followed me inside, and we told them where their bedrooms were. Poor Erin didn't have a bedroom per se, but we did give her the comfy blow up matteress! :-D
Michael, Erin, my brother Jonathan and I all had a tourniment of Ping-Pong downstairs at 11 at night! lol! THAT was interesting...we were all so tired, we were laughing uncontrollably when someone said, "I'm going to lick you," and I was so tired that I thought they meant LITERALLY . . . so it was quite akward for a few moments.
After we all went to bed, I was on skype with Michael telling him what had been bothering me lately about a situtaion back at NIU. My internet kept giving out, so we finally met in the living room and were able to talk. We prayed . . . read some passages from his bible (I didn't have mine at that moment) talked, and prayed some more . . .
Finally after talking for a good two-and-a-half to three hours, we both went to bed with a prayer in our hearts for a certain fellow classmate that attended College at Northland.
The next day, Michael and Erin traveled the rest of the way down to NC where they were from, planning on spending a restful Christmas with their families.
Over this semester I have learned so much. I have learned a lot academically . . . but not as much as I have learned spiritually. God has put trial after trial after trial in my life this semester. Whether it was in the form of people . . . circumstances . . . or even just a sickness that I had to get over. But I have also realized that God is Good . . . ALL THE TIME! Through the many trials in my life God put the right people in my life . . . at JUST the right moment. And through that, I was able to "keep on keeping on". I didn't think that I would be able to make it through this semester. Either academically or physically. I just knew that I wanted to go home. But now, looking back on all that I have learned, about myself, and about my God, I wouldn't trade being at Northland for ANYTHING!
I am so thankful for all my friends at NIU...as well as for the amazing people back here in Indiana that have kept all of us in their prayers.
If I tagged you in this note...but didn't mention you...that is because you fall under the catagories named above. The ones I DID mention...you guys have played a significant role in my trip home. I love you guys and I hope each and every one of you has an absolutely AWSOME Christmas! God Bless!
I'll be home for Christmas . . . if only in my dream . . .
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