The Magic of Experience

By Tressa Czysz

As I look back on the last 8 months, it's hard to find a way to sum it all up. And I think that's okay. Sure, I could make a list of all the fun trips we took, or rehearse our weekly schedule, or even share excerpts from what I've journaled this year, either in church, in class, listening to people's stories, or just reflecting on it all. But for me, the beauty isn't really in the details of what happened or fully captured by the pictures that we took; I think my favorite memories are the ones that were just experienced. It's the things that you couldn't really explain to someone else, those "you had to be there" moments that make other people roll their eyes, that are really special. 

Because every time that someone told a joke, it was the laughter that echoed throughout the room that was worth cherishing, even if I don't remember the joke or how to deliver it.
Closing morning prayer and family dinner with the Lord's prayer and the doxology was special for more than just the words that we recited, but the fact that we all came together and spoke and sang with one heart.  The fruit of week after week of seminary classes was in the conversations that occurred outside and beyond the classroom based on what we had learned and the things that we were wrestling with and trying to understand, and realizing that sometimes the greatest understanding is coming to the conclusion that some things are meant to be beyond our comprehension.  The sweetest part that I've found is having a mentor is sharing life, the ups, the downs, the questions, and the mess; no formula for mentoring will ever beat wholeheartedly welcoming someone into your home week after week to experience life together.

Even as I prepare to leave for Rwanda, I plan to take pictures and to journal about the whole experience, but I also know that there are sights that cannot be captured by a picture, and there are stories and experiences that cannot be summed up in a few journal pages. So much of life is lived in between -whether in the car traveling from place to place, or in the moments that don't seem significant enough to capture in a picture, but that fill all the spaces of our lives. There is a degree to which the best way for me to capture a moment is to just live it, and that is ultimately what I hope to do. Maybe I'll return from Rwanda with a handful of pictures and a few pages more filled up in my journal, but I'll get to look back and say that all things considered, I was present and experienced each portion of the trip to the fullest extent that I could. 

And I will look back on this year as a Fellow, and I will think of all the things that I should have written down, or the pictures that I should have taken, and I'll smile and remember that as I step into this next chapter, the greatest things that I carry with me are the relationships that I've built and the experiences that I've walked through. The pictures and journals stacked on the shelves may be covered in dust and someday lost, but who I have grown to be can never be worn out, faded, or lost.