https://youtu.be/66UlS9Xse5M

Three letters, one word: New.

It seems that as of late, everything is new. First off, (and perhaps most obviously) I am new to The Odyssey! I am incredibly excited to be sharing my thoughts with all of you every week! I hope you are equally as excited to follow along with me! I am incredibly grateful for this opportunity–I truly feel like it is a godsend! Maybe I should take this as an opportunity to introduce myself, seeing as I am in fact the new girl here.

My name is Katie and my hope is to bring you peace and inspiration through these articles. I am a follower of Christ and a lover of people. I enjoy writing, reading, sewing, being around people, being by myself, taking pictures, making tiny films and being outside. I love a good pair of socks and a good cup of tea. I don't know if I will ever know how to fully describe myself because like you, I am a complex person. However, my hope is that you can get to know me through my writing. Anyway, I am 17 years old and will be a senior this year.

Which brings me back to things that are new.

Yes, the start of a new school year. There is no feeling quite like it. A new school year means new school supplies, new schedule, new shoes, new smells, new teachers, new classmates–I think you get the point. Everything is new and along with all these new things comes a whole slew of new feelings.

After spending almost three months drifting peacefully through the calm waters of summer, the stress of a new school year is something that seems terrifying unfamiliar. Suddenly, it is time to think about getting to bed at a decent hour again. It is time to start considering picking up those summer reading books you thought might disappear if you didn't touch them long enough. It's time to consider all those people you haven't heard from in three months. Unfortunately, it's the time we start to remember what going to school sometimes feels like. We begin to remember pain and hurt and judgment. We being to recall all the late nights and early mornings. We begin to recall what it feels like to have deep dark circles form around the bottom of our eyes. We all begin to swear to ourselves that we will do a better job of getting sleep this year. The anxiety of it all is overwhelming to say the least.

However, as much as this new found feeling of dread threatens to take control, it cannot be triumphed by the other side of the spectrum.

Excitement.

Ah yes! The excitement of something new and fresh! Yes, that's right! We are also quite excited! With newness, there is hope! Think about that feeling you get at the beginning of each new season. The air changes and buzzes with something mysterious and magical. The colors around us are new each season: Orange leaves, green grass, grey skies, pink flowers. Perhaps the colors of our life begin to change a little to with each new thing that comes out way. New friends will be made, old hurts will be healed, our hearts and minds will be refreshed and rejuvenated! We all come flocking back to school as new people, as better versions of our former selves. Perhaps we are all a little more colorful, too.

But this year, there is something a little different about the colors of newness.
It may or may not have something to do with it being my senior year.
I'm a senior right? Yes Katie, that's right.

It's still digesting a little bit.

Senior year has taken the distinct form and shape of a feeling incredibly and utterly bittersweet. Yes, that's the word I'm looking for: Bittersweet. Bitter because it hurts to know the place you have found friendship and love and laughs will no longer be the place you find those things anymore. It's the place where you have grown and thrived and become better, but no longer. Sweet because it's been full of trials and tribulations. The era of blind high school gossip and unreasonable judgement is coming to a close. You are beyond that now. Time for bigger, better and newer things.

Time for things like a new school, new people, new feelings, new sorrows, new joys, new experiences and new....new things? Now I know not everyone is going to be a senior or is dealing with that "back to school" feeling, but I do know that everyone is dealing with something new.

And whatever your new things is, I hope you choose to look it right in the face and smile. Yes, new things are scary and they can fill us with dread, but they are full of life and hope. They are bittersweet and leave you full of happy tears. Rejoice in your new things for they bring you the opportunity to no longer be what you used to be! Be hopeful and brave in the face of new things.

I will try to do the same.