5 YEARS AGO TODAY.

2:05 PM


Lydia is currently in her crib, crying. I'm hoping she will fall asleep soon because this is normally when she takes her morning nap, but for some reason this morning she is protesting. I'm hoping to make this a short, quick post, but if I'm being totally honest, that is usually my objective with every post and...well, it almost never happens. ha.

Five years ago TODAY, I unpacked a suitcase full of my belongings (clothes) into a cute little room nestled in the gorgeous BYU Jerusalem Center, overlooking the Mount of Olives, the Kidron Valley, and The Holy City. 

Last night, I had dinner with some friends from that study abroad group, and when someone said it had been 5 years since we were there I honestly couldn't believe it. FIVE YEARS! It's true, as the group pointed out, that since returning home from the study abroad I got married and have one and a half babies, but I just couldn't get over the shock that it has been FIVE. YEARS. 

In an effort to find a nice, sentimental photo I could post on Instagram to represent my time in The Holy Land (HA! Yes, I know how silly that sounds) I started down the rabbit hole of old photos and blogposts from my time there. It only took a few minutes of searching though old posts before I became frustrated with myself for not blogging more while there! I lived and explored Jerusalem (and Jordan and Turkey) for FOUR months, and all I have are 16 measly blogposts to show for it. Pathetic. I'm embarrassed to admit that I can't even remember where over half of the photos I have saved were taken.

(Lydia's whine-crying has turned into scream-crying. I better go do some damage control.)

I started my first blog almost seven years ago (!) and whenever I go back through old posts, it's entirely too easy to pick them apart. My sentences were so choppy. What was I thinking making that picture so small?! My mind is filled with things I wish I'd done differently. I wish so badly I'd blogged more while in Jerusalem, or at least labeled more of my photos! I wish I'd gotten into photography BEFORE I went to Jerusalem because if I knew back then what I know now, I would have SO MANY great photos! After a few minutes of being annoyed with myself and counting all of the things I wished I could go back and redo, I started reading a few of the posts. Memories I'd long since forgotten came flooding back. The HUNDREDS of caterpillars on the "plains" of Judeathe letter I wrote to Kythan Millehan,  listening to I Will Survive while I ran a 10k through the streets of Jerusalem. So many forgotten tidbits made me laugh out loud as I remembered them in vivid detail. 

Maybe it's the pregnancy hormones or maybe it's the fact that Lydia FINALLY fell asleep and is already awake again (20 minutes naps ARE NOT MY JAM), but reading the first post I wrote after landing in Jerusalem (choppy sentences at all) made me tear up as I reminisced about my time there, the incredible experiences I had, and relationships I made. 

I just still can't believe it was five years ago. 
_ _ _
han.

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