Lately.

The past couple of days, I have really struggled with being apart from Dusty. Some days are harder than others. I suppose I probably sound like a lame loser to some, groveling over the fact that I am in a long distance relationship. Like some people haven't ever dealt with it before!

In The Odyssey by Homer, Odysseus is apart from his wife for nearly twenty years! This, of course, is if my memory serves correctly, as I am currently taking a class on Greek Civilization, but seriously? Twenty years apart?

In the third Pirates of the Caribbean movie, Orlando Bloom's character, Will, spend seven years apart from his true love Keira Knightley/Elizabeth Swan. Whenever I am having an emotional moment I sometimes YouTube "The Longer the Waiting" by Josh Turner and watch video montages set to the third Pirates movie (Wow, did I just completely throw myself under the bus or what??!)

Soldiers are separated from loved ones, sometimes for years. A friend of mine in the Air Force recently told me that he is going to Iraq this summer and will be gone for 6 months, and he has a girlfriend. She's gonna have to bear with the long distance.

So what do five-six puny little months even matter, anyway? Why am I so sad?

I sometimes blame Dust for all of this hardship. I get angry and defensive that he left. I tell myself that I am not good enough, that he didn't love me enough to stay here, and it sucks giving in to those lies. They are NOTHING but lies. While I can be the first to admit that I still don't completely understand why he had to leave, I will say that I am using this time, to the best of my abilities, to try and see what God can teach me. Find the lessons in it that God wants me (and him of course) to learn. I can't guarantee that there won't still be hard days in this journey, but that's just it... it's all a part of the journey.

It's not fun to be apart from someone that you love and care about. 6 out of 107. Thats the amount of days I have seen Dust in the last 107 day period. 6 FREAKING DAYS! It completely sucks, my friends. And I want it to be over. I find myself stressing out over the time that we do get to spend together when I prepare to visit because I want to enjoy it to the fullest, but the stressfulness of trying to enjoy it reminds me that its a temporary visit, and I get all the more sad. But... It is all part of the journey.

What can you say when encountering hard times in life? What do you do about it to make everything worth the tough that you went through?

I turn to my dad on this one. He has used the following clip from the movie "A League of their Own" a million times in his classes and football practices, and I think that it en-capsules exactly the answer to what God might say to me if I were to ask, "God, why is life sometimes just so hard?"



What will I say fifty years from now when this season of life is far behind me? Would I trade this time for a different circumstance?

No.

I have grown so close with my roommates this semester, and had more fun with them and my other friends than almost any other semester in college. I have wrapped up classes and done a good job doing so. I have made new friends, deepened my faith, enjoyed every last minute of this time I have in this season of my life. I have grown to even enjoy work more, embrace the time I spend with the elderly, and I have leaned into my family in a way that I never have, and they have fully given back to that in being supportive in helpful when I find myself down. Dust and I work at our relationship a thousand times harder because WE HAVE TO! It's our only choice right now! And it's teaching me things. It's hard, it's so hard to figure it out sometimes, and to just be okay. But it's worth it. The road less traveled is never easy. But it's worth it. I hold on to that hope every day that this will all be worth it in the end.

Thanks for sharing the truth Tom Hanks.