Rivers and Roads

                                  For Will

Well, off you go, rivers and roads away from home and from me.

Oddly, I'm not feeling as sad as I thought I would.

Sure, you're 10 hours from good ole Grove City, but it's this new chapter, these new pages that are somehow satisfying me at least for now.  These untouched, fresh pages of our lives that go on despite change.  These pages where God has already written in His plans.

*Some facts I know for sure are that

The house will be less filled with your strumming, your voice, and your music.
We will both continue our journeys - yours in Nashville, and mine here (or goodness knows where).
I will try my best to follow your examples - to be a better writer, a more dedicated Believer, and a more earnest Follower.
There will be days (many days) when my missing you will overrule my being happy for you.  But in those days (and in every day between), I am always and forever proud of you.*

As much as I'm excited to embark on this new chapter in both of our lives, I still have a stabbing feeling of nostalgia knowing that gone are the days of your (and very soon my) childhood.

Regardless of my few but stubborn attempts to stop time, it keeps pulling.  It keeps pulling at me slowly, surely, and completely.  And the child in me wants to scream and yell and pry its insistent hands from my arms.  And in a moment of defeat, or denial, or acceptance, if you please, I realized time has to go on.

You have to leave,
I have to grow.

So in one last effort to hold onto times gone past, I want to say a brief and sincere thank you.

Thank you for the imaginary places and games we made up when all Grove City had to offer was rain and gray clouds.
Thank you for the "Oh snappidity-dappity"s, the "FBI fights", for being the dog before we got Snickers, all the "sister of mine"s, "come on, son"s, and Sheetz runs.
Thank you for the Doctor Who marathons, the long talks, and the endless laughter and smiles you always provide.
Thank you for the bottomless pit of music you've opened my eyes to - Mumford and Sons, The Avett Brothers, The Head and the Heart, The Lumineers, Bob Dylan, Twenty-One Pilots, The Oh Hellos, to name a few.
And thank you most of all for seeing the greatness in me even when I didn't see it myself.

Simply, thank you for being my brother. 
Now go, pursue your dreams. 

"A year from now, we'll all be gone,
All our friends will move away,
And they're going to better places,
But our friends will be gone away.

And nothing is as it has been,
And I miss your face like hell.
I guess it's just as well,
But I miss your face like hell.

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh

Been talkin' about the way things change,
And my family lives in a different state.
And if you don't know what to make of this,
Then we will not relate.
Yeah, if you don't know what to make of this,
Then we will not relate.

Oh, oh, oh
Oh, oh

Rivers and roads,
Rivers and roads,
Rivers 'til I reach you..."

Love, always,
Anna

P.S. Here's a link to the song for those of you who don't know it: