There's No I in Team

Upon entering the van Friday morning, most everyone riding in it was a perfect stranger to me. The only contact I had with anyone was through 2 brief pre-trip meetings and email correspondence with the leader.

Upon exiting the van in Ft. Pierce, FL 10 hours later, it seemed that these people were no longer strangers to me, but people who had the potential to be lovely additions to my circle of friends.

front row: Steph, Taylor, me, Joe, Abby, Missy

back row: Jonathan, Chad, Ryan, David, Ted, Tish

(and according to this picture, as much as I continually try to deny this fact, I am short)

 

On the team we had some married folk with children ranging in ages from wee ones to college age. And we had those of us that fall into the unmarried 20 something category (well one 19 yr old, but close enough).

 

With varying backgrounds, skills, and life paths and most of us hardly knowing each other, we meshed surprisingly well.

 

One of my favorite things throughout the week was how the world seemed to get smaller with each passing conversation. Connections were made and commonalities found.

 

Missy, who is a hoot to say the least, spent a number of years in a bible study with Leanne, my boss, and knows many of the people I work and play with.

 

Abby went to UNC where she had a best friend who happened to be a girl I volunteered with and thought very highly of at church when I lived in Raleigh.

 

Jonathan and David went to a small Christian college in the same division as mine and were quite likely at some of the same tournaments over our crisscrossing years of school.

 

The Dosters worked with the YMCA of Greenville and I am certain our paths crossed at some Y guides weekends and training we did when I worked for Camp Greenville.

 

Since the trip it seems that people I meet and continue to get to know keep falling into this weird connections category. At times, like when standing on the cliff at the Glass Window Bridge, the world seems so big and I seem so small, but at times when I meet people who know people who I know from other seemingly distant areas of life it seems that we are all connected. Much more connected that we can even realize.

 

 (just behind us is a very large cliff and drop off into the Atlantic)

 

In recounting the trip and the people I was with, I really do not think I could trade any of them out for a better fitting someone. Although that trip may be all I share with some of them, I am pleased to have had them pass through my small part of the world for just a brief moment.