Megan Davison, 12-14, Midwest District, Burr Ridge, IL
The title of my post, “I Never Saw You Coming,” aptly describes how my second year is going. If you were to ask me in January of 2013 if I was going to be returning for a second year, it would have been a hard “no.”
The novelty had worn off for me. I didn’t know what was next, but I was not sure if my future involved a second year of being a Lasallian Volunteer.
Not one to shy away from challenges, I thought long and hard about what it would mean to stay and what it would mean to go. What would I do next? How would I reconcile my feelings with the reality that I had made the wrong or right decision?
In March, I learned that I was the first to submit my re-application for my second year, despite initially being one of the hard “no’s.” I was locked into the commitment for a second year.
Throughout your service experience, you can’t anticipate what you will learn, the hard or the easy way. You can only control how you react. Your only possession is self-possession.
I never saw you coming, second year. I never saw the joy and the truth that would come with my second year. The challenges that I harken back to, how could I have known they would have paved the way to experience pure joy and truth? How would I have understood the tenets of a treasured life if I didn’t stay?
Give compassion when the last thing you want to be is compassionate. Give others the benefit of the doubt. Be encouraging and supportive when you feel like you can’t give any more of yourself.
You can do anything that you will yourself to do, and through the grace of the Holy Spirit and a little bit of Providence, you will see it through. And if you feel like you can’t pick yourself up, you have 52 other people who are willing to pick you up.
Second year, I never saw you coming, but gosh I am glad you are here.
Megan Davison, 12-14, Midwest District, Burr Ridge, IL