Lesson #49: "You Como now!"

Day five. Last day. My emotions didn't hit me until just now. We left Como about 20 minutes ago, and I can't stop thinking about those kids. Physically, I am exhausted. It's a good exhausted though. I am tired and sore and worn out, but I would do it all over again in a heartbeat. Emotionally, I'm happy, sad, depressed, pumped, and content all at once. I'm homesick, I miss my family. But if I could do something like this every week, I would. These kids amaze me. I'm so sad because I don't want to leave these kids. Spiritually, I feel filled. My cup is just overflowing. The past few weeks, I've felt lower than empty. I've been running on E for a long time, I felt like I was going to run out of gas soon. Coming to Como and working with these kids just filled me up completely. I don't normally cry at these kinds of things, but I can't help crying, I haven't stopped thinking about these kids since we left. The way their faces lit up when we arrived everyday made me smile from ear to ear. Today we went to iT'S, which is like a Mr. Gatti's but 173 times cooler and bigger. (It was a little easier to keep an eye on them in the small confined space, unlike the museum.)

One kid who is really just on my heart is Malik. He wasn't there today, which resulted in me being even more depressed when I didn't get to say goodbye to him this afternoon. I didn't really get to know him until yesterday when he was in my group at the museum. I only really knew him for one day, yet he is the one who impacted me the most. When we got back to the CCC, we made capes, since we were "superheroes foe God" this week. He ran up to me holding his cape and said "Look Jenae! Look!" the cape said, "Malik and Jenae." And that's all. I only knew this kid for a day. I didn't realize that just talking to him and being with him would make such an impact... He was going around showing everyone his cape, and his little face just had the biggest smile on it. So while I was making mine, he says, "Jenae, can I write something on your cape?" I said sure, so he grabbed a marker and wrote, "I luve Jenae. -Malik."

I will never forget these kids. I will make it a priority to come back here and Spend a day or two with these kids. They remember our group from last summer, so it comforts me to know that they won't forget us. I have so many stories, but I'm sure you all will hear them eventually.

Thank you guys for following my blog this week. It was an amazing week that I will never forget.