be lovely: MY HOME

There's a place where people from all over the world gather together to learn. They all spend their Summers the same. Purchasing the same books, reading the same summer reading list, preparing for a full year. They all spend their school years the same, too. There are papers and assignments and final exams and tests and more books to read. And every Tuesday and Thursday, or Monday and Wednesday, or Wednesday and Friday, they meet in the same place.

But this school is not like the usual.

It's over the internet.

You can go to class in your pajamas with your hair looking insane. You can wake up four minutes before class and not be late (I don't speak from experience at all). You can listen to music during your final exams and discuss theology in a classroom while someone four thousand miles away does the same. It is literally the most awesome experience I have ever had the opportunity to have. To be part of this school is one of my proudest things to tell people. To be part of this school means I get pushed and challenged to a level I didn't think I could go. To be part of this school has taught me to have a better work ethic. To be part of this school has taught me to glorify God in everything. To be part of this school has taught me to love harder than I thought I could.

The only way you get to know your classmates is to read whatever they choose to put on their profiles. There's a tiny photograph of them, their names and their location. But that's all you get. You have to push and learn and be intentional and love. But that's been one of my most favorite things of this school. The ability to get to know a person in such a unique way.

I gotta admit, I had no idea I'd be such close friends with some of these people. Like the ones you look at for the first time and are like, woah, you're weird (you know who you are). Things change when you push yourself and don't judge. Nothing's felt quite as right to me as to sit down with these people I spend 360 days chatting with over the internet and looking at through a screen. To hug them and hear their laugh and watch their faces. To laugh out loud and not have to tell them you're laughing.

I love this school. It is part of me, part of who I am. It is some of what has helped to make me me. It is what feels like home.

It sucks to spend 5 days with your best friends face to face when you spend 360 over the internet. It really really sucks. It's not natural to train yourself to live without the people you love most. But it has to be done. And I am learning everyday that there is a purpose to this. One day it will all make sense.

& one day it will all work out.

I am holding onto that.

I love you all. So much. I miss you more than words can say. Thank you for who you are. Tears <3 p="">