Service Adventure - J O H N S T O W N

Last Sunday morning, I put on my Touring Choir dress for the last time. I sentimentally felt the slick black fabric that hugged my shoulders and arms. I clasped my pearls around my neck where they lay coldly until they warmed against my skin. I asked Erin Hostetler to tie the knot specific to EMHS Touring Choir in the back of my dress for the last time, something I still after two and a half years never bothered to learn. I walked into the choir room and saw Jared Stutzman's slanted, cramped scrawl on the board, Touring Choir Take a chair Sit in a circle This was the last time it would be for me. Even as our school year ended last spring, we still knew we would be together over the summer tour, and even when that ended, there was always the Homecoming concert when we could all come back and sing our songs together once more. There would be nothing left after this day. Reunited though missing a few After struggling a long time wondering how to reconcile reason with emoti...

It's been longer than I would have preferred since I last posted. Not that I'm holding myself to any schedule, but I just like the practice. In the past weeks, I haven't had much time, so much has happened - I traveled home to go to the Relief Sale along with the whole unit, painted my room (a process that lasted a whole week), had cooking duty for two weeks, invited over a lot of company, got behind on my journalling (no surprise there), worked the usual hours, and got just enough sleep to function. The unit in my backyard after the Relief Sale weekend, it was good to be home I enjoy the busyness, jumping from one good thing to another, getting all I can from every day. It makes this year in Johnstown feel worthwhile. Yet, I know also that I need the quiet, still times. Though I'm less convinced every week that I am the steadfast introvert that I often profess, calm remains essential. In these past weeks, I was impressed with this thought all the more. I hadn...