The students came back

We live in a college town and while some will tell you otherwise, there is pretty much no down side to living here.  Sure there are crowds and some increased traffic, but as a home towner you know what restaurants to avoid and the back roads to take to get around.

While out with Kyle today amidst the students stocking up one last time on Mom and Dad's dime it occurred to me that the business owners must be so happy this week, for them this week means the money is back in town.

I am not a business owner but I too was excited this week as I noticed the students around town.  I love all the excitement they bring.  I love all the possibilities they have before them, that they are clean slates on which the entire adult life is yet to be written.  I love the way they don't hesitate to walk three blocks to get to church, the way they sit in the pew with their notebooks and take notes on all the pastor has to say, and that it goes without saying that they will be going out to lunch afterward.

I've had the opportunity this past week to spend some time with a student who came here from another country, a country that might as well be the moon for as foreign as it seems to me.  She inspires me with her bravery to leave behind her family in pursuit of something more than just a degree, she is searching to experience another life, one that will help her to better understand this world that we so often forget is bigger than the small towns in which we live.  In one week she has already become a part of our lives.

I live in this college town that while it stays the same, the people who inhabit it are constantly changing, starting over, moving on.  Classes are yet to start and one friend has been made and another contact is being pursued.  I realize that this summer I had allowed myself to become discouraged, to think that maybe I should just give up this idea of being surrounded by people who reflect back the differences I want my children to embrace.  Then the students came back and with them they brought me hope.