One Year, Lots of Things

It was a year ago this past week that I went to Ecuador. I can't believe it's really been that long. So much has happened in my life between now and then. One minute I'm stepping off a plane in a new country; the next, I'm graduating from high school and getting ready for college. Some parts of this year are just a blur. It really does all go by fast. One thing that I'm not used to is talking about high school in the past tense. I feel like I should be doing that when I'm a lot older; not when I'm 18. Out of all the things I did this year, I will never, never forget that trip. It's going to affect me for the rest of my life. It has already changed me in just 365 days. I've talked about it, thought about it every day; I even wrote an essay about it in my AP Literature class. Our whole group has been changed by it. We all got together yesterday for a reunion. Seeing them again made me realize how much has happened since the trip. I discovered how busy I've been lately, and quite frankly, I don't really like it that much! I'm surrounded by these wonderful people that I had a life-changing experience with, and as looked around, I suddenly thought, how many of these people have I kept in contact with this past year? Barely any of them. The last time I saw one of them was over 3 months ago. It made feel sad that I hadn't put forth more of an effort to maintain a solid relationship with them. You don't just write these sort of people off. Being able to reconnect was so wonderful. I missed it so much. So I'm not going to let that happen again.