To my squishy faced friend

You are so young

The world is ahead of you

And for reasons only God knows

We have had a short connection

But in that time my heart has been tied

I can hear your thoughts

I can read your heart

And now I can imagine your future

Someday you will sink into these talents

You will grow into the incredible shoes you are slowly filling

And you will be great

And from that place, looking from the future back to the present

From those eyes I tell you

You are amazing

You are fantastic

You are so special

I can't wait for you to catch up to yourself

And look back and hear my words

And see for yourself what I can see

But until then please accept my sincerest compliments

Hide them away

Embrace them

And run, run with what you have

Let the abandon outweigh the fears and insecurities

Dive in and teach

Hold tightly and fly

Let go and grow

You are so young

But one day you won't be

And then you will see

What I see:

You are amazing

You are fantastic

You are so special

And you will be great

The calling

This is why I do youth work

To give the foolish wisdom

To gather wisdom from the foolish

To laugh so hard I cry

To cry until I can laugh

To protect the ones I love

To love the ones I protect 

To have my heart broken

To fight for broken hearts

To leave behind my family

To find my family here

To accept the rebels

To let rebels accept me

To show Jesus

To see Jesus

To make goodbyes harder than they would have been

And to know that it is not really goodbye

To share myself and be shared to

That is why I do youth work

This trip

You don't know me

You see only what you want

You let in what only you need

But I will keep coming

I will keep working hard

I will fight for myself

And as the backdrop

I will let myself out

I will prove my personality

And you will know me

And you will be sad to see me go

And you will wish you knew before

Saying these goodbyes

I knew it was coming

I'm doing better this time

But it hurts the same

Maybe more because it is compounded

And I hate it