She's Home!

Girl Alex is back home. She returned from Guyana last week and she looks fabulous. We had lunch together yesterday.

"Tell me everything you did, GA," I said, wiping my mouth with a paper napkin.

She smiled and rolled her blue eyes.

"I told you not to ask me that, Dale. I can't remember every tiny detail from the past two months. Just ask me a specific question."

"OK," I said. "What was the first thing you did when you got off the plane?"

She told me and I nodded.

"Good. Now continue the story in chronological order ending with the words 'I had a great time but it felt good to be home.'"

She laughed and her eyes sparkled.

We spent about three hours together, she and I. Alex told me her trip was educational and she was grateful now for all the amenities we enjoy in Canada. But she hadn't really connected with anyone else from her group. I was surprised, Ms J, as Alex is quite sociable, quite affable.

"Were you homesick?" I asked.

She told me yes, all the time. Poor thing. I wrote her only one letter in the time she was there and I apologised for neglecting her.

"Don't feel bad," she said. "I did get lots of mail, but only after I'd been there more than a month. It's hard to get mail when you're in a remote village."

"Would you do it again?" I asked her.

"Yeah," she said. "I would. But not with YCI." (Youth Challenge International)

I asked her what she felt was the most important thing she'd learned.

"I learned I love to travel. I want to do more of it. There's so much to see, so much to learn about."

"What about work?" I asked. "Or school? Are you going to go back to school? What will you --?"

She held up her hand to stop me.

"I don't know yet. I'll probably go back to school in the fall. I'd love to study theatre arts. Right now, I have to find a job."

You know, Ms Journal, that's the best part about being young, isn't it? You don't know what you want to do, but it doesn't matter. You can take your time and try different things. Work a bit. Go to school. Travel. Party. You can do whatever you want because you haven't any responsibilities yet.

That's what I wanted for Daniel. I had envisioned those carefree years of fun for him. But he chose instead to dive head first into a Life of responsibilities, without the benefit of education or employment. It's not the path I would have taken, certainly not the path G.A. will follow, but in the end, Ms J, in the very end, we'll all arrive at the same destination.

Sometimes, by focusing too hard on the result, I fail to honour the process. And it's the process, the living of Life day by day, that really matters.

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