Anna's Initiation

When I wake up each morning, I get out of bed slowly and in a daze. I stumble into the bathroom and begin to brush my teeth, looking at the clock to see how late I have overslept. I splash my face with water and as soon as the ice cold liquid trickles down over the contours of my profile, I dry my face and glance up into the mirror. I see my fair skin and blue eyes shining back at me. I look at myself and the person I am today, and see that when I look back, I divide my life into two sections; the before and the after.
This summer, I was lucky enough to travel with my church to Ecuador on a mission trip. Our stay lasted a week and a half. Ten days seems brief, yet those ten days were some of the most significant of my life. To haul a stone over ones shoulder and look next to you to see someone who is so different yet so alike reaching up to help you bear the load, their caramel colored lips stretching across their teeth to make the kindest smile on earth, is a gift in itself. To eat and laugh and pray with a culture so far away yet so close to our own is a beauty I will never forget. For ten days I worked, minute after minute, hour after hour, day after long hard day toward a common goal with the native people of Ecuador. As I dug pits and painted buildings and mixed cement, a change occurred. I no longer brushed my hair into a neat braid before I left in the morning, or stared longingly at my out-of-service cell phone. I no longer grimaced at the strange food or thought about the wonders of a computer. Instead, I dug deeper holes and painted bigger buildings and mixed heavier bags of cement. I ignored my voicemail from friends at home and instead played soccer with the local kids. I saw their culture. For ten glorious days, I lived their life.
The before part of my life consists of shopping malls and friends and family and school. The after part of my life appears to be the same; however the differences that appear subtle to you are life changing for me. Shopping is no longer an easy activity, for it now entails consideration of every single dollar I spend on clothes I don’t really need. My friends and family remain the same, but with a new and fresh value. Every smile I receive form across the room, every hug I give and get, every laugh we share has a new ring to it, a new importance. School is no longer a requirement, but a wonder. It is a beautiful prize, an education to be treasured for the rest of my life and held up like a trophy above my head.
In short, I have been initiated. My initiation was slight, overlooked by many, but when I wake up in the morning and glance into my bathroom mirror, I see me. The girl I saw before my trip is still there, but revised, edited. I lived among some of the most wonderful people I will ever know for ten marvelous days of my life- ten days to be treasured forever. I lived their life, and I took a little piece of it back with me. I will never again be who I was before. I’m living the after.

Written and edited by Anna Holt