To The People Who Lift Me Up

To the people who lift me up,

You rock my world. You encourage me, love me, believe in me, and lift me up when I am fellin’ down. You provide me with support and jokes and the occasional tasty meal.

If I were to be honest with you, I would tell you this past year has been one of stress, confusion, excitement, promise, and frustration. It has been simultaneously challenging and beautiful. With all that being said, I have not always been the easiest person to be around or to handle. (I just rolled my eyes at myself because that last statement is kind of an understatement) Some days are filled with such craziness that I just retreat to my room for a few days and come out for just the necessities. You know, like waffles and such. The days of anxiousness are filled with like a hundred questions and look a whole lot like me rambling about nothing. There are days (months) I am overwhelmed by my busy schedule so whenever someone asks to hangout I cringe even though my heart says “Wait! They are cool! Give them a chance!!.” Oh, ick. Then there’s the days where I am just a cranky, insensitive, rude, jerk. I am so incredibly sorry if you have been around on those days… (I <3 U!) For me, the light at the end of the tunnel is this… That I have people in my life who love me through all of my messiness.

As I am preparing to embark on this crazy cool trip to Africa in just a few short days, I am overwhelmed by anxiety, stress and nervousness, but also overwhelmed with gratitude for the people in my life who surround me. We have been learning about ethnic tribes in Kenya and Rwanda; How they are wound together so tightly and how they rely on eachother for so much. So with these concepts in mind, I am also understanding how you all are part of my tribe. If the Maasai measure wealth in the amount of cattle they have, I measure my wealth by the amount of kindness and love I have been given.

To illustrate just how blessed I have been in the past bit, close your eyes for just a short second and come with me to la la dreamy imagination land….

…..Imagine you text your mom saying “today is a really really hard day.” and she then decides to send you a billion heart emojis and words of encouragement everyday or over a week, instead of being angry that you called her “so stupid” 5 seconds before, because she couldn’t answer your question the way you wanted.

You log onto facebook and you notice a red notification hovering over the message icon. You click on it to open up a simple and sweet message from a long lost friend who says they felt like they needed to just pop in and say hey.

You’re riding down the mountain and sharing a brownie the size of texas with your friend who you just spent the whole day skiing with. You’ve been away from each other for quite sometime so there is SO much to talk about and catch up on. But, instead of asking you about boys, or travelling, or wanting to gossip, she asks “what’s something you learned lately that is exciting to you?”

And then imagine when you go into a beauty store (Lush) to get new face wash and they ask you one simple question and you take literally two minutes to not even answer the simple question. Then you look at them, while feeling ultra pitiful, and say “i’m sorry”, and they reply “It’s okay, I have had a long day, too”. And you giggle because that honesty is refreshing.

There’s also that place called the coffee shop. For some bizarre reason you order a hazelnut latte even though you really really really do not like hazelnut. But the barista noticed your look of confusion and distaste when she called out the order with your name attached to it- and without a word uttered from your mouth, she asks “Can I remake this for you?”

Imagine you’ve just come back from a sweet trek around the globe or around your own state, and your best friend since way back when always welcomes you back home with a short text that reads “I can’t wait to hear about ___.” and then he patiently sits at the foot of your bed while you just ramble about random stuff you saw while traveling and how humanity is so messed up but so beautiful. And even if he’s not interested at all, he acts interested for nearly an hour.

So you’re sitting in your new living room, with roughly 15 people surrounding you. Then they say they want to pray for you and your new “adventure”. They pray for things like strength and faith and health. They call you friend and note how special you are to them and to the group as a whole.

Imagine you’re on a long drive back from a long day of skiing and you’re with three boys… in a small car… for like, 3 hours. They keep making fun of you for little things you shouldn’t be upset about, but inevitably it starts to get to you and you get sassy and frustrated. Then, the nicest one of the group notices your frustration and says “Hey, I know you have some Lumineers on your phone. You should put that on” because he knows The Lumineers are your favorite band.

And then there’s that one time when you move into a new home and inherit an empty refrigerator. You’re supposed to have a friend over for dinner, but somehow you forgot how burdensome that empty inheritance is. So you text them to say “hey I need to run to the grocery store, and then you can come over for dinner?” but for some reason they just “get it”. So they reply with “Don’t worry about it, we are already starting dinner, come over!!!”

So you have a car that is less than ideal, and needs work, and your gracious step-dad always services it for you and does it in a jiffy so you can make that cross-state trip you have planned to take, that is coming up in just a few days. You’ve never been known to be the one who plans ahead.

Imagine the moment when a lab technician at a radiology clinic tells you what the doctor won’t tell you, because she has the same condition as you and looks at you with pure empathy and understanding and wants you to know you’re not alone.

You're graced with the moment when…...

........Your friends buy you a cider and french fries. Someone flashes a smile at you. A girl compliments your “vintage” Patagonia sweater that you love dearly. A driver in an Oldsmobile waves you in to cut them in line. The pharmacist rushes your prescription order because they don’t want to make you come back after your bedtime (10pm lol). Notes are left on your doorstep. A whole week of sunshine-y weather brightens up life. You receive numerous encouraging texts from friends who you love. A couple you love buys you breakfast. Someone you admire asks you about your love of tiny homes!!! A guy you barely have had the chance to know invites you to come hang with his friends and eat tacos. Someone listens to you. Your roommate does your dishes even though you didn't ask her to. Snow falls in the mountains.

Friends text you asking if they can help you in any way. A close friend pays an application fee for you because you can’t make another 3 hour drive to bham to do it in person like the rental company requests. Your best friend offers to go to the post office for you, even though the post office is on the top five shittiest places in the world. A client sends you an email saying “Have a great adventure!!” or “good luck with finals!” with little mention of anything wedding related. The guy who moved out of the apartment you’re now occupying left a 24 pack of Rainier for you to enjoy (and toilet paper!). The classmates who you’ve spent all week with (and will spend all quarter with) continue to be full of kindness, humility, and strength. The guy repairing the roof on a house a block away says “watch out for ice!” as you begin an early morning trek up a steep hill (and you’ve already fell once).... I could go on, and on, and on again about the overflowing blessings in my life.

Can you imagine that? Doesn’t that world sound wonderful? Would you believe me if I told you that, that world, has been my world for the past couple of months? Would you believe me if I told you I hardly take the time to acknowledge the people who lift me up with such love and grace, who carry me, who get me, who understand, who listen to me? Would you trust me if I told you I take it all for granted ? Well simply put, you should, because it’s true. It’s true that I have the most supportive friends ever and that i’m selfish and that I rely on others and that I am too picky about my coffee and that I frequently can talk about my life for hours without asking “how are you?” back. It’s true, that the world is good; that the simplest of moments will lift you up if you let them.

So, You. My friend, my family, my acquaintance, a small (yet big) part of my tribe, I’m sure you know who you are. So please, I beg you, accept this big, fat, sloppy, genuine, and loud “THANK YOU” for lifting me up through the hard stuff, the good stuff, and the simple life stuff.. whether you knew you were doing it or not.

I look forward to sharing stories of hope, redemption, strength, and joy, when I return from Africa in March. I continue to carry you with me wherever I go!

Xxo

Shelby