Rough Day

Yesterday was one of the roughest days I have had in a really long time. After a night of very little sleep (only fours hours due to our Midnight Pancake Breakfast the night before) I got myself dressed and headed to Baton Rouge early in the morning to help my dear friends move. I would love to say that they were simply moving across town or even to another state, but instead I was helping my friends finish packing and loading so that they could board their flight and move to Africa.

I've known Greg and Angie for the last ten years. They were my campus pastors while I was at Louisiana Tech and have undoubtedly had the biggest influence on my life outside of my family. And yesterday they moved to Africa.

Me and the Pampells at the airport before they left:

I really feel like this shouldn't be that hard for me since I've done this before and since I will join them in a few years to live and work in Africa as well. However, it's still do hard.

I fought tears most of the day as I was trying to at least be strong for them. But once they headed through the gate and I walked towards the car, the floodgates opened. You would have thought someone died with the amount of tears that I shed. It was bad.... really bad. And then I cried my way back to Lafayette.

It would have been rough enough if that was the end to my day. However once I returned to Lafayette I had to get dressed and host/MC our Chi Alpha's spring banquet. As I walked in the banquet hall someone asked how my day was and the tears started all over again. The rest of the night was pretty much the same thing on repeat.... me crying.

Part of our spring banquet is that we allow interns and seniors to give a farewell speech. Last night we said farewell to five interns and five seniors. As our fifth intern too the podium I really thought I was going to make it. But then he said something and it triggered all the emotions from the day and I did my very best not to sob too loudly at my table. Then I regained my composure and finished MCing the event. I did fairly well until I had to give an introduction for a fellow staff member who is leaving. I then stood at the podium and cried. My problem is that I am unable to talk when I cry (I'll leave the rest up to your imagination to determine how that went).

All in all it was an incredibly rough day. I cried more than I have in a long time. By the end of it I was exhausted and wanted nothing more than to sleep. But you know I wouldn't trade days like yesterday for anything. The reason the tears flow so easily is because the relationships run so deep. Things hurt because there is such love and depth in the relationships with the people I had to say bye to.

Until then......