And yet, they choose to love me anyway. There's something about traveling with and living in a community this small...It doesn't leave any dark, shadowy places to hide things. It shines harsh, honest light on every part of who we were and how we treat the people around us, and it has been incredible to watch us learn how to meet each other where we fall short.
Plus, I'm quickly figuring out that it's more about those things and less about the places we go. Although that part is pretty sweet too.
1. Steph. My roommate and personal cheerleader. This girl has more energy and encouragement than she knows what to do with. She does things like get flowers for me after a long day of class presentations or surprise me with ingredients for a roommate cooking night just because I mentioned how much I wanted to use the kitchen a few weeks ago. She's also a morning person, which is convenient since I'm not. She lets me talk her ear off really late at night as we both try to process this incredible trip and even brings me coffee from breakfast when I decide to sleep through it because she's just that great. She asks me hard, good questions, and decides to find the fact that i'm all over the place endearing instead of highly irritating.
2. Jess. A seemingly normal girl who is actually just as strange as me. Jess is a dessert girl, and will always say yes to coffee and a pastry, so naturally, we get along well. She describes her dream style as "flower child bohemian meets rocker chic," which confuses the rest of us, who are slightly less savvy with fashion lingo, but we all agree that she is, indeed, half hippie and half rockstar. And although she's great at making anything more adventurous and fun, Jess has depth and wisdom beyond her 21 and a half years. She is rooted and steady, which makes her a fantastic listener and friend. Jess is one of those people who teaches you to float through life a little more, and I am a firm believer in the fact that everyone needs one of those.
3. Mads. The listener. And arguably our most valuable player. Madison is good at making anyone feel understood without uttering a single word. I think she's the easiest of us to be around because spending time with her is energizing. She is patient and kind and gentle with all of us, even if she's frustrated that we're running behind schedule. She doesn't want to talk about the fact that the fondue place we just ate at was really sketchy and weird and that I really shouldn't drink wine in warm restaurants, but instead just gives you water and a hug, which is what you really need. Mads is good at loving people consistently and WELL. Plus, she doesn't have class on Thursdays so we usually get to go on little train station dates which is kind of the best.
4. Kels. The nurturer. Kelsey is pretty much a more responsible and collected version of myself. We love to talk about Pine Cove things and introvert things and how much we both love Jessie Carver. We probably should have become friends a long time ago, but I guess it worked out okay. She's a little hard to get to know at first, mostly because she's so determined to get to get right to the heart of people. She just asks you so many dang good questions, and all of a sudden, you realize you've been doing all the talking. Kelsey lets the way she loves Jesus pour into all her conversations and interactions with people, which is wonderful and challenging. She likes to vandalize things, snapchat and drink coffee from a cute french press that doesn't actually belong to her in her spare time.
5. Lissa. Our resident hipster/Austin girl /cool, flannel-wearing girl. Lissa is basically up for anything all the time. She's a perfect mixture of being serious and silly, which makes her one of those people that you want to bring everywhere with you. She loves books, black coffee and doing English major things like reading out loud in class, so she's automatically a great person to see the world with. Our favorite ways to communicate include passing notes during philosophy and making strange faces across the table, neither of which involve actual words. Lissa has mastered the wool socks under lace up boots with a cable knit beret thing, so I am trying to learn her ways. A christian hipster if I ever saw one.
So, they're alright. I guess.
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