Sleepless in Seattle

It's been coming all along.
Creeping slowly,
like a raccoon trying to get a snack while sun's still up.
Like the popping of your ears just as you get to the spot with the best view.
It sprang upon us. We had to face it. We had to discuss it. We had to overcome it.





We've hit the dreaded week 5. We we're warned this day would come. The honeymoon period would disappear, they said. Routine would settle in. Homesickness. Monotony. The realization of sacrifice.

And as we're rounding the halfway point of tour,
I'm having to remind myself of why I took to the road in the first place.

Why am I here? What makes this worth my time? Why is it worth unloading boxes and setting up a merch tables over and over while spending hours talking to high schoolers everyday when I could be in Hawaii or Home? Skateboarding, school, music, family, friends. All on hold.


In high school, I was late more often than not. In college, I missed some classes for over a month at a time. So why am I able to wake up early every morning now? What keeps me going? What is so different about these days than those?

This is my answer:


When I see kids like this realize that what they have has been given to them for a reason, and they begin to make changes in their own life to act upon that realization, I am changed.
They are changed. My team is changed. Their schools are changed.
And the lives of those in Northern Uganda continue to improve because of what is being done.

There is nothing like being a part of a movement.