I Don't Want the Stink to Leave

To start off, I must first apologize to myself, and anyone crazy enough to be following this blog. Now that I'm heading home, hopefully I can get back in the swing of things :)

Today, I get to go back to Massachusetts. I have never felt more emotionally confused than right now. I am living in two emotional extremes. I am absolutely thrilled to go back home and see my family, as well as my friends. On the other hand, I am disturbed at the idea of having to leave my new home in Washington DC.

As I was beginning to prepare to leave, I was trying to think of the best way that I can describe why I don't want to leave. As I was thinking, I had a memory from this summer flash through my mind. Let me tell you the story of Megan :)

Megan is the blonde in this picture on the right. She was in one of my groups this summer, and their group had been scheduled to work at Kids Konnection, the VBS site that CSM partners with. If your group works with Kids Konnection, it is just understood that you will be hands-on with the kids at this site. These kids want to be held, played with and hugged. They love playing with blonde hair, because it's 'barbie doll hair' and it can be played with easily.

While this group was working at this specific Kids Konnection site in a neighborhood called Woodland Terrace, Megan had one of the kids just love on her. This little girl was focused in on Megan and just wanted Megan to hold her. Needless to say, Megan complied, because, who doesn't want to be loved by a little kid? Eventually, it came time to bring the kids back to their homes, so Megan carried this little girl back home.

When everyone returned from dropping off the kids, we piled into the cars to head to Union Station for our next activity. As we were getting into the cars, I heard Megan say, 'Ew! I stink!' I was a bit confused. We were with a group on a missions trip, by nature of a missions trip, we all stink. So, I turned around and asked her what she meant.

She pointed to her chest and said that her shirt stunk. So, I pressed and asked her what she smelled like. She said that the little girl that Megan had been holding had fallen asleep on Megan and rested her head on Megan. Megan explained that the girl little had smelled and her smell now permeated Megan's shirt. I smiled and turned around, continuing to give directions.

As we continued driving, we arrived at Union Station and could not find a parking spot. An hour and a half later, we were finally parked. Welcome to DC driving with out-of-state drivers :) As we were getting out, I heard Megan yet again, make a remark about the stink on her shirt.

As she complained, I started to think about the entire situation, and look for the teaching moment, because I knew there had to be one there. Finally, I talked to Megan and I got it.

Megan had reached out to this little girl in an act of compassion and loved on her. As she reached out to this little girl, this little girl had responded by (literally) rubbing off on Megan. As Megan had left the situation that this girl lives in, this girl had literally made such an impression on Megan that Megan couldn't get rid of her. No matter what Megan did over that hour and a half, she couldn't get rid of the stink of this little girl.

I explained to Megan that she needed to think of this stink in the bigger picture. I told her that she needed to realize that this stink was a good thing because it meant that she had worked that day, and let her experience in DC permeate her. I went on to explain that she should hope that when she goes back she should stink of DC and her time here. If she truly lived up her time on this trip, she would not be able to get rid of her stink of DC no matter how hard she tried when she went home.

My hopes as I go home are that I would so stink of DC that I would not be able to get rid of the 'scent' it has left on me. My hope is that no matter how hard I may push to blend in back home, I would be so permeated with DC that I would not be able to shake it off.

Let's see how I can smell :)