"Wow, just jumping from one thing to the next. I don't know how you do it."

I woke up this morning in Indianapolis. A Sunday with no staff meeting at 12:44, no new campers arriving, no closing campfire on the schedule. After the last 10 weeks, today felt weird to say the least.

Smoon had to leave early this morning to go back to Peoria and I took the opportunity to sleep in till 10:30 which felt pretty magical. Then I started unpacking, doing laundry and running errands to take care of all sorts of different things. 

By 3:30 I had checked almost everything off of my to-do list and I drove over to Yogi's for the Wyld Life leader call out meeting. KCraig is the new full time staff person for HSE Wyld Life. I'm totally pumped to have her take on this role and run with Wyld Life this year.

Today we sat with 29 HS kids who are interested in becoming our HS leaders for the program. We talked about commitment, the bible study we'll be doing together, the higher standard we're calling them to live by and the different things we want them to be part of. I'm so excited for this program to continue growing and for these HS leaders to grow spiritually and relationally in the next year. I know that God has big things in store for us.

Tonight was the 3rd Annual YL Amazing Race! 170 Junior High and High School kids signed up to participate in this crazy race that took them to 15 different houses in a local neighborhood to complete all sorts of challenges. The race part is sweet, but I loved just getting to see all my YL people at once.

It's a mental switch to start referring to all of theses friends by their current grade. Caitlyn, Cecilia and Cami are now my 8th grade girls and I couldn't wait to see them tonight. They're hilarious and fun and I can't wait to have bible study with them again this year.

SO many of the 8th graders were here and I hadn't seen them since Wyld Life camp in June or the last day of school in May. I'm so glad that we'll still be in HSJH together this year even if they're upstairs.

A bunch of freshmen girls were there. I was glad that Milly was here to visit, I got to talk to Emma about the start of Cathedral and catch up with the rest of the group.

I was so excited to see my sophomore girls Kunk, Kaitlyn, Julia, Morgan, Kara, Anne and Genna. It's only been a week since Young Life camp in Georgia but I missed them so much. I'm so excited to have cabin reunions this year, to show up at their volleyball and soccer games, go to Campaigners on Mondays and just live life together.

There were a bunch of Juniors there tonight. I can hardly believe they're upperclassmen now, time flies. They've been in YL since the beginning and are leaders in this community even when they don't realize it.

The start of the race was like the Running of the Bulls. Dozens of kids sprinted down the street to their starting spots.

I was at a station with the rest of the leaders. At our stop, the kids randomly chose a song and a prop and then had two minutes to make up a routine. We loved watching them be silly together. In between groups of kids we all got to hang out together which was pretty awesome. I've missed these people.

I saw a group of younger girls from a distance but didn't realize who it was till Kylie started sprinting towards me. Kylie and Hadley were Blazers week 7 and the three of us hung out all the time. Laura, on the far right, is one of the girls I stayed with for a few nights while her parents were out of town in the Spring. I loved seeing the girls and meeting their friends Ellison, Liv and Arden.

Tomorrow is Ryan's birthday so we all sang to him and surprised him with a giant cake. We then devoured that cake YL style by all digging in with forks at the very same time.

I was so excited to see all the 8th graders boys too like Sam, Henry, Dante, Troy, Caden, Nathan and Gavin. They were some of my best students last year and I will miss having them in room 124 with me. I think I'd be ok with becoming a Thomas kids with Gavin and Genna for a little while.

Transitioning back to "real life" after camp isn't easy, but it's easier with this Young Life community. I was talking to a couple people tonight about how I'm so glad that I can just jump right back in with all these kids and parents and leaders and families that know me and care about me here. This is home too.