Yet another semester has fairly flown by, and once again, I find myself plowing through that last week of academia before heading back to the arctic regions of Wisconsin to see my beloved family and friends. But as I sat on my bed this morning making a mental note of all of the things that need to be packed/organized/studied before I head out, I took a moment to stop and reflect on the 12 months that have passed since the last time that I made this trek halfway across the U.S. for this particular holiday. It’s been a year full of so many incredible memories, incredible experiences, and incredible friendships—a year perfectly orchestrated by an incredible God.

Last year, when I was preparing for this journey, it was with mixed feelings, knowing that I was going home to the craziness of wedding prep and the emotional chaos of trying to sort through what it was going to look like and feel like to give away my younger sister—who also happens to be my best friend—to her new best friend. For the rest of her life. It was one of those weird experiences where you feel both incredibly happy for the other person and yet inconsolably sad deep down inside…and yet you feel almost guilty for feeling sad, because you strongly suspect that your reasons for feeling sad are entirely selfish.

This year, in going back home, I feel somehow…more excited, but also more disconnected, more independent, older somehow—as though I’m a visitor rather than a resident at the home place now. And I suppose that’s what it always comes to when one has lived away from home for several years—but I was almost startled to realize that this change had taken place in my thinking. I suppose this is part of growing up—of being an adult (whether or not this means I’ve earned the right to jump up and down and excitedly proclaim the fact that I’ve officially “arrived” at adult status? Well, I’m pretty sure not).

But in the midst of this philosophical reflection on life in general, I was impressed with a tremendous sense of the fact that in the past 12 months, I have been soooooo blessed…in my friendships, my family, my mentors, my teachers, and in the random encounters that happen with an odd degree of regularity on an almost-daily basis. And I’m super duper excited to go home and meet both of the little munchkins that have joined the Beaty family since last I darkened the doors of the home place. Woohoo! I'm off to see the wizard.