Parting with friends is hard. Parting with friends whom you may never see again is especially hard. Ending one phase of life and starting a new one is also hard, but good. It is a known fact that most high school friends part ways, going to college, making new friends, getting married. For most, there are always high school reunions and the expectation leading up to them. But for me, there won't be. The friends from whom I parted live in different states and are going to different colleges. So what hope is there that our paths will cross again? Keeping in touch online only works for a while. Eventually, the friendship will die out. Face-to-face contact is necessary for the maintenance of friendship. My life this last semester has been like one big tournament. In the last six months I have gone to seven tournaments in six states. I just left the national NCFCA speech and debate tournament on the north shore of Boston at Gordon College. It was hard to leave (understatement of the century), but it was necessary. Parting and phases are facts of life. There are stages in life, and saying good-bye is only natural. But that doesn't make it any easier. Since we left, my mind has been struggling to lasso my heart back into its proper place. It has been pretty much a useless endeavor, so I wrote these poems to work through my emotions.
There's a sadness in my heart,
bearing down as a crushing weight.
There's a crossroads on my part,
choosing progress or past fate.
Future dawning, fresh and free
but, oh, how sweet the past
it seems, it seems to me.
Tears, you ought not last.
Oh, escape me,
free me,
fast.
There's a weighing in my heart.
Oh, plumb the depths of my distress.
Deliver me from deadly darts.
Turn my mourning into gladness.
Father, fair as morning light,
remove my sordid sadness,
brighten my dark night;
I want joyfulness.
Hear my plight,
true Knight;
bless.
Fair faith remove my fear,
dispel all doubts so drear.
God, grant me grace,
readily to run Your race,
patiently plodding at Your pace.
Tear the talons of temptation
carry me from condemnation
crossing into commendation.
Let my life be lived for love,
bearing blessings from above.
