What. A. Year.
The Holidays. That time of year. 365 days of life come together in the final few weeks of December. People are mindful of a new year on the horizon, and the people they will share it with. At Moondance, we can’t help but smile when we think about 2018. Our memories fill us with joy and excitement for all the summers to come with people we love. This season, we celebrate alongside the Moondance community. We can’t begin to express our thankfulness for all we experienced, learned, and enjoyed this past year. Sometimes, on very special occasions, photos capture these feelings so precisely that when we look at them we feel it all again. Some photos embody the moments we cherish the most, so we look back on this year with a few photos and remember everything 2018 gave us.
1. One of the first words we think of when looking back on our year: WOW. Every summer students and leaders wow us. Looking at this photo, you can feel the French summer sun on your back and your pack’s straps resting on your hips. The fact that places like this exist and we can trek our way through these mountains alongside absolutely amazing people is almost too much to handle.
2. Some say you can’t walk in the same river twice, but boy would we love to walk in this river again. What’s better than cooling off in the Costa Rican jungle? Probably nothing.
3. What does happiness look like? This. It looks like being surrounded by your friends on top of a mountain, above the clouds, rising with the sun. The relationships we’ve made this past year are so much of what made it so good. When we pause to look around at the people we live life with, we are pretty happy with who we see beside us.
4. Summit. Reaching the top. You can hear everyone in this photo rejoicing at the top of Mt. Kilimanjaro. Their voices reach down the mountain they conquered, overwhelmed by their massive accomplishment. They stretch their arms towards the sky because 19,341 feet just isn’t high enough.
5. Moondance lights up the darkness as the stars speckle the sky. This photo recalls the nights that are just as memorable as the days, sometimes even better. We sleep under the stars, soaking up the cooler air, letting our eyes finally close. The days’ events play in our head as we listen to the sounds of the night. We sleep and we dream. The tents remind us of the rest that gives us the energy to accomplish all we want to everyday.
When we look back on 2018, we remember all of the ups and downs and twists and turns our year held. The memories pile up to the sky. They surround us and usher us into the year ahead of us. 2019 lies ahead as a blank slate, ready to be peppered with all the love and laughter we can muster. How exciting it is to have 365 days waiting for us. We can’t wait to continue to live life with Moondancers and see what everyone does in the new year.
Happy New Year!
– Moondance HQ
