That Bridge

I have a post planned in my head exploring the last ten years of my life. I have moved at LEAST once a year in the last decade. During college I moved multiple times in just one year. I plan on writing more about my thoughts of moving around and finding stability once I get caught up on Downton Abbey. Oh, and after homework and stuff.

But today I wanted to reflect on a place that is very special to me- Atchison, KS. The reason this little town is on my mind today is because the old Amelia Earhart bridge... the old rickety bridge that crossed the Missouri River and into Atchison... was partly demolished today. I saw the video online and I couldn't help but feeling sad.

Moving to Atchison changed my life. I was guilted into visiting the first time. My mom and uncle took me on a campus visit to Benedictine College. I remembering feeling a pull to the campus, especially when the tour guide took us to the river lookout and said many people find their spouses here. The excitement of finding my soul mate inflamed my heart, even though I was seriously dating someone at the time. When I told the guy I was dating about my visit to Atchison and Benedictine he actually encouraged me to go there. He was probably trying to get rid of me because a few months later he ended our relationship, but part of me would also like to think it was the Holy Spirit prompting him to lead me in the right direction. I decided not to go to Benedictine, but the Holy Spirit wasn't done with me yet.

During my "Dark Years" I still made my way back to Atchison. After a very large house party in honor of my birthday, my mom took my best friend and I to Atchison for a haunted trolley tour. Even in my hungover stupor I felt drawn to this small, historical town. Eight months later my mom and I went to Atchison on Mother's Day weekend.

About a month after that Mother's Day trip I felt a pull to leave all that I was comfortable with and move to a town where I knew absolutely no one. That was so unlike me because the majority of the choices I had made was because I wanted to be around my loved ones. But God had different plans for me. I told my mom I wanted to move to Atchison, KS and work to save money to go to nursing school. After the last two years of announcing decisions that seriously disappointed my mom, I was surprised that she was in full support.

So I drove across that bridge to my new life. I found a small studio apartment that happened to be under an awesome newlywed couple who introduced me to Benedictine. I spent four years of my life driving back and forth on that bridge. I crossed that bridge to go my Uncle Dave's bedside as he was dying of cancer. I passed back on that bridge with the seeds of reversion back to the Catholic Church planted in my heart. I crossed that bridge to drive home to tell my mom I had been accepted to Benedictine College. I crossed that bridge with my new boyfriend and his brother to meet his mom, dad and sister... to the family I would be married into and to call my own.  I crossed that bridge a new college graduate, a huge accomplishment for me since I had basically flunked out of two colleges before Benedictine.

I watched the bridge as the flood waters of the Missouri crept higher and higher up its pillars. I watched the bridge as planes swooped back and forth and fireworks boomed in the sky at the Amelia Earhart festival in the summers. 

The bridge was always like a mother welcoming her kids back home. It was always a welcome sight after driving an hour and a half or after driving through a treacherous blizzard. Ryan and I have been back to Atchison only a couple of times since I graduated in 2009. The campus has grown, the studio apartment houses I lived in have new tenants, but the bridge was always the same. Now it won't be there anymore.

This is about more than a rickety old bridge. I have experienced so many changes in these last 10 years and some of the most exciting and scary life events happened when I crossed that bridge to Atchison, KS. I will forever be thankful to that bridge that carried me into some of the best years of my life.