On Sunday, my year as a Jesuit Volunteer came to an end. I left Casa Dorothy Kazel early in the morning and flew home from Los Angeles to Philadelphia. It was my 23rd Birthday, exactly one year after I flew across the country in the opposite direction to begin Orientation in San Jose. It was kind of poetic celebrating the beginning and the end of my JV year on my birthday, don’t you think? It also means that it was emotional. Last summer, I was excited about JVC but was also anxious, alone, and missing BC. This year, I am excited about my next step, but terribly sad about leaving the friends I’ve made this year. There’s no anxiety but there’s a lot of love that’s been grown this year.
My last week in LA was full of celebrations. The JVs in LA spent as much time as we could together; almost every night we did something as a group!
We celebrated Emily after she preached for the last time at her church in Hollywood on Sunday.
We celebrated all the time we've spent together.
We celebrated all the fun things we've done this year.
We celebrated our last papusas.
We celebrated our last dinner as a house at a Japanese BBQ Restaurant.
We celebrated the things we will miss about LA, like In-N-Out & Yougurtland.
We celebrated all our coworkers over lunch with a gang from Verb.
We celebrated the transitions at Urban Compass.
We celebrated our landlord, Al.
We celebrated my birthday.
We celebrated being FJVs.
One of the exciting things, and also challenges, thaa comes with leaving the LA JV community is that we will now be all over the country doing all sorts of things. My friends will be in LA, Berkley, Lincoln, NYC, D.C., Philly, Detroit, El Paso, Dallas, Nashville, Boston, Minneapolis, and Springfield. This means there are lots of fun visits in the future, especially while friends are going to be in one place for a while for grad school and new jobs.
Thank you to everyone who has been part of my JV experience. This year has been filled with so many blessings!
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