[31 Days] Day 16 Life

It's Day 16 of the 31 Days in the Life of a TCK series! Welcome! You can find more info on the series here. Don't forget to subscribe!

Today I am very excited to have Katrin Dubach as a guest. We met while working for the European Youth Congress Mission-Net and got along right away (seems to be a TCK thing J). She writes beautiful poetry, and today she shares a bit of her story and a wonderful piece of her work on TCK life. 

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I was excited to start my gap year and I knew it was time for my high school years to end. And yet I was scared and sad. 

I was at the airport saying goodbye to them for the last time after our class trip and everyone was telling me that of course we’d see each other again and I didn’t have to cry. 

I was really glad I cried, I wanted to cry because for me it was like saying, "I loved this time we had together and I’m going to miss it." 

I’ve said many goodbyes in my life. 

I grew up in Mongolia as a missionary kid and went to an international school. 

In international communities, saying goodbye is so much a part of our lives. 

Relationships are never expected to last for forever, just for their season. 

I went to boarding school in Singapore when I was 10 and then with 14 I said goodbye to Asia for good and moved to my passport country Switzerland, where I’ve been living for 5 years now.

At one point in those weeks of change from school to something new in my gap year, I stopped and prayed. 

"God I don’t know if I can do this, I don’t know if I have the energy for this life. Saying goodbye so many times, finding new friends so many times, I don’t know if I can take the pain of losing more people close to me." 

God answered me by showing the beauty of this life I’m leading. 

The beauty of cherishing the days we’ve been given and the people placed around us. 

I came to a point where I knew for myself: I want to live this life fully, to let myself feel life because the joys of life are so worth it, and in God’s strength the pain is bearable.

The Constant

I’m ready to start this life adventure
To let people in,
To hurt, to bleed
Radiant faces of long-lost friends
Tears falling at every goodbye
Memories stored and saved on the way
A portable album of good and of bad
Laughter and hope, joyful tears
Blessings in an immeasurable dimension

Through the tossing and turning
Through up and through down
Next to new and old
Above fear and excitemen
You stand as constant
And it’s Your hand I’ll take,
For this life adventure