By Murphy Obershaw, Staff Writer
I had a rough summer.
When summer began, I was so excited. I made plans to take a trip to Table Rock Lake and Silver Dollar City with some friends, visit a friend who works in Wisconsin, come back to Wichita for a weekend to hang out with friends, and attend the Obershaw Family Christmas in July.
The summer seemed like it would be amazing, but everything quickly fell apart.
I was only home for a few days when I received an email from the president of my high school saying that one of my classmates had died in a car accident.
It didn’t really hit me until I read the article about him in the Kansas City Star the next day. I didn’t really know him in high school even though we had a lot of classes together, but reading that article about the charitable Christian life he lead reduced me to tears.
There were moments where I just felt devastated and cried. I cried while listening to loud music, I cried in the back of my mom’s van, and I even cried on the phone to a couple of my Newman friends.
After that, any sort of sad news seemed to hurt worse. Slowly all of my vacation plans ended up getting canceled except for Christmas in July, and I also received news that Newman’s instrumental program was cut.
Summer was just not going well, but even though there were sad things happening, God still managed to bring some good out of it.
I did not get to take my trip to Table Rock Lake, but my family did get a spontaneous invitation to go to the Lake of the Ozarks with some family friends.
I did not get to have a girls weekend in Wichita, but I did end up having a girls weekend with my friend who lives 20 minutes from my house.
I did not get to see my friend in Wisconsin, but my best friend from high school finally started reaching out to me and wanted to hang out again.
Throughout all the sadness I dealt with this summer, there were always friends at home and in Wichita I could turn to that were willing to listen to me or try to take my mind off of things.
Things did not go as planned this summer and unfortunate things happened, but in the midst of all that, God still brought good things out of those events.
PHOTO: Courtesy Photo. mostateparks.com
