This August, one of our community members was married and half of our community was able to make the trip to celebrate her nuptials. (Side note: They say weddings bring people together and I think MercyWorkers through the years have truly taken that to heart. Obviously we’re always down to party, but it really provides a focal point for us to rally around and buy plane tickets.) We spent the weekend catching up, some of us seeing each other for the first time since we left the MW Apartment, and also spent a good deal of time reminiscing and thinking of our community who wasn’t able to make it.
Eight years ago, and some change, the MercyWorkers of 2008-2009 gathered in the MW apartment for the first time. Nervous and excited; anticipation wafting through the air. What had we signed up for? What was this year going to hold for us as individuals and community? Looking back over that magical and exhausting year, plus the follow-up years of employment at Mercy Home, I’m able to see the length and breadth of the ways in which my life was irrevocably affected. Of course, I couldn’t do this on my own. It was in the waning hours of the weekend that a list was compiled of things we’d started to learn in during our year, which have truly grown in the space and time between.
- Bonds Continue. We pick up where we left off, though we don’t (always) act 22 anymore, the relationships we have, have grown with us. Holding each other accountable in conversations, encouraging one another in challenging situations and pushing buttons. It’s what we did then and how we do it now. One of my roommates remarked that “conversations are immediately deeper with each other as compared to other friends”. We take it to that level because we spent much of a year there, knowing that we’re safe in the “loving challenges.” To the community members we don’t get to see much, or at all, we still miss you and wish you nothing but the best of blessings in life.
- Memories Extend Beyond Our Community. Like our year, much of it was spent with our homes, staff, and youth. Much of our experience and memories are from program. When we gather, we’re gathering these memories with us. Sharing bits of news about who’s graduated, who left Mercy, who’s been promoted, and youth antics. We can look back on a particularly trying youth and still, or maybe even more so, wish them all the love and luck as they grow up, where ever they may be.