A million years ago

It feels like a million years ago since...

That first text message I got asking me to come to youth group.
The various excuses I came up with to avoid going to youth group. (Lol)
Finally realizing that I couldn't hold back anymore.
Riding up to the church, scared to death of what would happen.
Crawling underneath of that little table while we played Sardines.
Walking away that night, beaming at how great of a time I had...

And so it began.

At first it was the Sunday mornings when I would wake up, excited that it was youth group day. And then in early January I started counting the days til every upcoming Walnut Street Church session, where I quickly made friends with a girl who I'd paid little attention to throughout high school and got to know two of the most incredible adults I've met to to this day. Pretty soon I went to a Baptist church (if you had told me a year ago that I'd be going to a Baptist church in Des Moines with two non-family adults, their three girls, Kyle, and three of my classmates, I would've faked laughed and slowly backed away), met two amazing NM graduates who I now see frequently at Walnut Street, learned to ride a bike, and went up to Des Moines to feed the homeless.

None of that would've happened without my first positive experience at youth group.

It's not like jazz band. Yes, I had a great time in jazz band, but the beginning of youth group marked a different transition in life... my transition to living for God. It was a process, and some other amazing people played strong roles in that process, but youth group marked one of the first events leading up to it.

And to think that I was so terrified of what would happen the first time...