As I move further along into adulthood, I feel that I’m gaining perspective on what gets us through life’s changes. When I graduated from UP in 2015 and began graduate school, I thought that was the hardest transition. Then, when I decided to teach abroad for a year and half, I thought, “I’m really in flux! It can’t get more chaotic than this!” You get the drift. We’re never quite prepared for what life brings us. So that leaves me with the question– how do we thrive through these unsteady periods in our lives?
If I could answer that question in one word, I answer with community. You may not realize it, but you are already part of dozens of communities. There are the standard family and friend groups, but you can also include fellow alumni, those you attend church with, your co-workers, or the people at spin class. These communities are so crucial when it comes to thriving during transition. It’s the continuing thread that you carry through all aspects of your life. That thread gets longer and more interconnected each day. That thread grows when we share a family tradition by inviting a friend to Thanksgiving. It extends when you give travel recommendations to your neighbor. It pulls you in when you’re invited to a night of Top-Golf by the person in the cubicle next to you. Without fail, wherever you go, some sort of community is there.
I learned the extent of community in a spectacular fashion two years ago while teaching in Santiago, Chile. I was starting my third month of living in a country where I knew no one, no Spanish, and very little about the culture itself. All that to say, the notion of community was not at the forefront of my mind. We had just started summer vacation, so I went to travel in the south of Chile and ended the trip with a pretty horrific car accident. I had six fractures throughout my left cheek, a broken nose, and a broken jaw. I was frustrated that it happened and that I would spend the rest of summer in recovery. What I failed to see in the moment was that I had my community supporting me from around the world. My friends canceled their plans to stay with me in the hospital. My neighbors from California had friends in the area and asked them to visit me, a stranger. My Mom moved to Santiago for a month to help me with physical therapy. This timing of the accident was not ideal, especially because I wasn’t even settled into my new home before my world was rocked. But now I find myself grateful that I was able to move past those frustrations and into recovery with the help and prayers of my community.
One consistent lesson that I experienced at UP was that community is a pillar of Catholicism. One passage that alludes to this is from Galatians, “Carry each other’s burdens, and in this you will fulfill the law of Christ.” God is truly present in community, because love thrives in community. When we take on other’s burdens, such as supporting someone during a period of change, we are doing God’s work in its most basic form. When you find yourself in the middle of a transition, I urge you to build your community first, get invested, and say yes to those connections. Then, when it comes time to support someone or be supported, your foundation is already sound. Trust your neighbor and help your neighbor, and you will thrive.
Reflection by Derek Block ’15
