Welcome to Memory Lane

Wow..........wow.........hm..........
one year. one full year has passed....and I thought time on the mish went by fast...soon the fact that i served a mission/or how long ago I got back will never come up in conversation because who talks about something that happened over a year ago??? at least not in initial convo.....sad day....

I'll never forget that last day/leaving...President talking to all of us sisters and telling us to give every guy at least one chance-haha, we laughed and thought to ourselves: i can think of situations where we shouldn't do that but whatever.
President driving us to the airport and seeing us through everything-having to a pay a BUT load of money for us to get our bags out-sure you can bring in anything to Russia but taking anything more than 25 pounds out you get nailed with charges-no way out of it. Then President stood at the security check point and shook each of our hands saying "I think we'll see you again sister Richards" and I handed my documents to the surly gaurd who i realized wasn't intimidating but just looked bored with life-that's when i realized how far i had come from the first day in russia-i wasn't afraid anymore.
It was so weird sitting there with Annie and Marla waiting for the plane in a big open room with everyone else. Moscow was insane as usual-dragging our bags and cramming into a bus to get to the other terminal with everyone highly frustrated with us but at this point we really didn't care. I remember feeling so heart broken that I wouldn't be immersed in this beautiful language again-it had become so normal and comforting to my ears (never mind the fact that I would never be able to speak it as beautifully as they did). We took off three times that day (from Rostov to Moscow, Moscow to Atlanta, and Atlanta to Houston) and I cried everytime. (granted, it was just a few silent tears but have you ever tried crying loud in an airplane? Awkward!) I def cried the hardest when we took off from Moscow-could really feel the full impact of leaving Russia, wondering if I'd ever get to go back... Randomly enough there was a steward(male worker) on the plane who reconized us and came over and started talking to us asking us where we served etc.-was a member so that was fun.
I love the Atlanta airport-it will always hold happy memories for me. The workers were sooo nice. I remember dealing with culture shock in an opposite way-being so taken aback when people would just smile at me for no reason.....who does that?! and they of course were all calling me darlin' and sweetheart cause it's the south and it was just really overwhelming to have so much love from everyone. The guy checking my passport was cool too- and said: "so you're headin' to H-town huh?" I was so excited and said; "Oh Yeah! Sugar Land" he had been there once and talked about how all the houses were the same-red brick land etc.
Of course Atlanta was hard too because that's when we had to split to our different gates to go home. That was so weird....I mean we had been together for so long and we had never been alone in 1.5 years (i mean, don't get me wrong i enjoy being alone it was just a shock at first). I remember all the people were lining up at the gate and we were all hugging goodbye and Annie started crying which set the rest of us off and they stood waiting for me to board the plane and everyone was looking at me out of the corner of their eyes prolly wondering what is with this girl-it's not like she's saying goodbye to her boyfriend or something.
After that it's all a blur-getting in to Houston and seeing the fam with their lil sign/balloons etc. Man it was so weird...glad I don't have to live through that transition again 8)
I'm not sure if i've accomplished everything that I wanted to in the first year but so many good things have happened to me that I prolly dont' deserve so I must have done something right. A great job that bulked up my savings over the summer, good grades in classes, healthy and happy family, great roommates, and Cody-a wonderful caring, hilarious, spaztic, thoughtful boyfriend. Let's see what this next year brings...