2020 is the year that will always be remembered as the year that the world went to…well…shit. This year of course was full of disappointments: the loss of my senior season of rowing, cancelled graduation (not once, but twice), and the subtle yet overwhelming feeling of things being incomplete and unfinished. Even with all of the loss and challenges the world faced this year, there was a lot of change. With change comes growth. To shout out John 15 once more – there is indeed beauty in the pruning, in the uprooting of our lives. As I reflect on this past year, I can’t help but feel gratitude for how the Lord worked through the pain and loss. Even though some things about 2020 will always weigh heavy, there is a lot of good to be remembered as well. Some big, some small, some things that just make me smile:
· My last practice as a UVA rower: it was the morning of March 12, we were practicing in our lineup for our opening race of the season in Oak Ridge, TN. We had just spent the last several days completing a seat racing matrix to determine the fastest lineups, I had done well and had earned the seat I was sitting in. The boat felt quick and the pickup was light. We were movin’ n groovin’ if you will. More important than how fast we were, were the eight other girls in that boat with me. Some of those girls had been with me since the beginning and we had been through it all together. There was something so beautiful about sharing that moment with them and I can’t help but think God knew what he was doing there. To be able to hold that memory as my last time rowing in a boat is one that I will always look back on fondly.
· Saturday night boat rides on Lake Gaston with CWR summer staff: as I am writing this I can feel the warm summer evening breeze, I can hear Cruel Summer by Taylor Swift playing through the boat speakers, and I see the faces of some of my favorite people on this earth all piled on a boat. There is something inexplainable about the feeling of wakeboarding or wake surfing at sunset. The water is calm, its like cutting glass – nothing compares. When I think about those evenings, I can’t help but feel a wave of happy endorphins. One of those “make you fall in love with life” kinda moments.
· Summer Road trip with Laura: there is so much I could say about the beauty of all the places we saw and how connected I feel to the Lord in nature, but I won’t bore you with those painfully obvious facts of a cross country road trip. Instead, I am going to talk about the music. Thankfully Laura and I share a very similar taste in music so there was no conflict about what we would listen to during our many hours of driving. Every morning when we got in the car, we would play worship music for the first few hours. What made that time so meaningful was that we never discussed that we would start our mornings with worship music, it just always happened. There wasn’t much talking, but it was time to worship and listen to the Lord, to reflect, and to just be. I don’t think I fully appreciated those moments when I was in them, but now they are some of my favorite memories.
· Living at Home: if you had asked me a year ago if I would want to finish college living at home with my parents I would have said no and never blinked. Those 3 months living with my parents were a gift. Were they perfect? No, but they were unexpected and had God’s handiwork written all over it. It took me longer than I’d like to admit, but in those 3 months I grew to appreciate all my parents had done for me throughout my life to shape me into the person I am today. They are some of the most selfless people I have ever met, constantly putting others before themselves. There will never be two people who love and care for me in the same way they do and they are a clear picture of God’s unconditional love.
Thank you 2020 for teaching me to slow down, to sit, and to just be. To stop running to what is next, but to walk and enjoy the moment, enjoy the place, and most of all enjoy the people that God has set before me.
— Sara