Journal written on Saturday, March 12, 2016:
There is a part of me that wishes I could go back and just replay this week, over and over and over again. There is also a part of me that wishes we just had more time- more time to make a difference, more time to change peoples’ lives and change our own. There is a huge part of me that wishes I would have taken more in on the trip- experienced more, focused more, and met more people. But, there is a huge part of me that is utterly grateful and in awe of what I did and what we did together. I cannot believe that there were 9 fellow students of mine that were so willing to drop their lives to go on a trip to Scotland, spend lots of money on travel and fees, and most importantly- head off to a country where the climate is colder than ours. The outpouring and connections we made with each other this week are ones I will never take for granted. I can truly say that I had at least one deep conversation with everyone on this trip. We laughed, we solved tasks together, and we became closer. On the trip back home and in the airports we talked about upcoming events we will see each other at and how we need to stay connected. In addition, I titled this “Off We Pop” from one of the teachers at Torqueer, Mr. Flannigan. He was someone I shared my lunch time with everyday and we just talked about life- it was nothing extraordinary, but it was the genuineness from him that I loved. I hate whenever I hold conversations with people who can’t stay captivated in what I am saying or what they are saying. I like engagement and passion in talking with people and Mr. Flannigan, definitely had it. One of his lines that we said was “Off you pop” which meant ‘off you go’- I loved it, so it just stuck.
Our first flight by KLM was a very short one, but I sat beside a woman that was flying into Amsterdam with her husband to travel AMS. She was so cute and was so willing to show me what her plans were, we talked about our families and so many other things. I guess I always get to sit by the most interesting person on the plane rides- and for the long flight, I sat beside an older woman who went on a trip to Israel and a couple of other places to basically see monuments of events that happened in the bible. This amazed me because this is something I have been wanted to do. We became really good friends on that flight and she was someone I just will always look up to. She was from Oregon and had another flight after ours, but I hope that I made as big of an impact on her as she did on me. #home
With overflowing gratefulness,
Hannah Rull
