Returning to St. Olaf today gave me the first sense of true quietness and calm that I have experienced for the first time in over a week. I spent the last week (my spring break, even) on a mission trip to New York City, where there was constant noise 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.
Truly, New York is the city that never sleeps. I was far from a newcomer to the city (several others on my trip were), and yet I discovered so many more things about the city in eight days than I ever did in four years of going to St. Thomas Choir School. Every night, we would hear people yelling in the streets, and every day we would enter subway cars jam packed with people. Not to mention the fact that I saw a guy high on something fall off the subway platform into the tracks, knocking himself unconscious and incurring several deep cuts across his head.
It was a challenge to connect with God this week. I mean, we had a great time sightseeing and going to Broadway shows, and we immersed ourselves deeply into the whole homeless shelter program for four days straight. But somewhere along the lines it seemed the message that it was all for God wasn't there.
But it wasn't all for naught. After all, God made sure he didn't neglect us, even if we seemed to neglect him. After all, the day the man fell into the subway tracks was the day that our group was meant to be on the wrong platform (we were on the outbound platform; inbound was closed temporarily) at the wrong time (we left the central Bronx neighborhood soup kitchen early). Literally minutes after a few brave NY'ers jumped in to drag the guy out, the rest of the crowd dispersed, preferring to continue on with their day as if nothing happened. So it was four of us who stayed to make sure the injured man stayed put while the MTA official ran to get help. And then there were those other events in which all eight of us exchanged stories with "homeless" people, in many cases one of those rare times that such persons had deep human contact.
There are so many more things that I could list from the trip that will stick with me, but given that we got up at 3:30 A.M. this morning to catch a 7 A.M. plane, many of the thoughts are not at hand right now. But perhaps that is a good thing. There are far too many to list.
It was definitely refreshing that we had a group meeting at Newark International Airport early this morning, each of us going around and telling what our favorite memories of the trip were, followed by a group prayer session. Even though we got to know each other, the city, and various other people pretty well, the best part was that we returned to God together before setting sail on our return journey.
So here's to Jake, Cara, Mackenzie, Joe, Sarah, Chandler, and Dan, for making it the fun and crazy week that it was. And for the 1,500 photos that they took. And the 3 shirts that I receieved (2 were T-shirts).
And it was great to actually spend some time with the few remaining adults at St. Thomas: Dreger, Sully, Mr. Eyerly, Ricardo, Dr. Silver (I totally had forgotten about her), and finally meeting GRA's successor at headmaster, Fr. Wallace.
But I think most importantly, as fun as it was, I'm glad to be back in Minnesota to tell all my other friends about the trip. Even though I could still use a break from all the classes that await me on Monday and Tuesday.