Hold On, We're Going Home

Well, there’s not a lot of news here since yesterday. I just got back from having lunch at the EDR with Nate. We both go into work at three today, along with Maggie and Jen. Like I mentioned yesterday, it’ll be the last shift that I have working with Nate and Jen, which is kind of sad. This entire week is supposed to be pretty slow, so I’m sure we’ll get some time during the shift to just hang out and talk, which will be nice. Tomorrow I work the morning shift with Rob, David, and Rebecca. At first I thought that I wouldn’t be working with Rob at all anymore, but it looks like the schedule changed some, so I’ll actually be working with him one more time before I leave. It seems like a while since I’ve worked the back-to-back shifts (3 to 11, then 7 to 3), but tomorrow will be slow again, so I think it’ll be okay.

Today I’ve been continuing to clean up my room and get my stuff organized to pack up. Tomorrow after work I’ll probably pull out my suitcase from under my bed and start to actually get stuff packed up. The fact that I’ll be home in less than a week is getting more real all the time. It’s been almost exactly four months since I left San Antonio to begin this adventure; that’s much longer than anytime I’ve been away from it before. This was the first summer of my life that I didn’t get to go to Port Aransas for vacation, the first summer that I wasn’t with my family for the Fourth of July, along with many other firsts.

Grand Teton National Park- my home for the best summer of my life. I had some amazing, crazy, unforgettable experiences here over the past few months. Some were things I expected to do. For example, I went on some incredible hikes, saw some beautiful scenery, went cliff jumping into the super cold Gros Ventre River, went kayaking on Jackson Lake, and camped up on a hill with a perfect view of the Teton Range. Some experiences, on the other hand, were some I definitely didn’t expect to have. I witnessed my first bar fight. I sang in public for the first time. I played my first drinking game. I ate my first meal from McDonald’s. I took risks that the 20-year-old version of me wouldn’t have. I don’t regret one second of my time here; despite missing home, I loved everything about it. I got to share in celebrating Nate’s, Jesse’s Cristina’s, and Maggie’s birthdays here this summer. At the same time, though, I missed several of my friend’s and family’s birthdays back home. These past few days have been really slow, knowing how soon I’ll be home. I never thought I’d look forward to returning to the crazy heat and humidity that I know San Antonio is in right now, but I am.