ten am

For over three years I have spent the ten o'clock hour of

every single Monday, Wednesday and Friday surrounded
by my closest friends, classmates, professors, visitors, and
the other wonderful people who keep my school ticking.
We stand and sit around a decent sized room for an hour.
We laugh, cry, sing, talk, pray, rejoice, and come together.
We are one community of believers around these parts and
we support one another in astonishing ways during this hour.

I have seen my professors at their lowest points in life.
I have seen my friends glow at their highest points in life.
I have been a part of hundreds of voices crying out "why?"
I have been a part of hundreds of prayers saying "thanks."

I have taken this hour three times a week for granted.
This opportunity is one that I will never experience again
in quite the same way after this week is over.
I will move off campus and begin the next chapter of life.
I will begin to teach in various classrooms, and instead
of walking into a chapel at ten am I will most likely
be teaching children something incredibly interesting and fun.

But a part of me will always be in that chapel at ten am because
that is where I really got to know my professors and peers.
We were completely transparent and raw with one another.
We came together in a way that is so rare in life.


Today I prepare to hear our President talk to us for the final
time this semester about how to be a cairn in someone else's life
or how to look back in life and see the cairns built by others.
I will sing, pray, laugh, and listen with everyone around me.
I'll leave the chapel different (in a good way) from when I walked in
because that is the impact that it has on me - every single time.

And I'm so grateful for the lessons I have soaked in over the years.

They have truly changed my life in more ways than I can list.