Natalie Hodde
Let me tell you about a girl named Natalie. I’ve got a lot to say, but I won’t keep you for long, this blog is meant to be a highlight reel of sorts for Natalie and I’s relationship. A spunky, freckled, Jesus loving lady that I’ve seen every single day for the past nine months. You know those moments you look back on and they make you say, “Wow, had that not happened, everything would be vastly different from the way things are now.” Well Natalie and I’s friendship has it’s foundations rooted in multiple moments like that.
The sultry month of June brought about my first big step in this great adventure called the World Race. I found myself sweating in the red, Georgia clay with 50 other squad mates as we participated in crazy team building activities which often involved us carry each other up hills as we were metaphorically inflicted with tropical diseases. At the end of the ten days leadership broke us up into groups of seven and said, “Look around, this is your first World Race team.” As I looked left and right around the circle, I scanned across seven pairs of eyes, one of which belonged to Natalie. I lingered on her expression a little longer, I realize now because it reflected mine. Eyes wide with fear and insecurity, face flushed. I think we had the same thought racing through our minds and threatening to escape our mouths, “This isn’t the team I’m supposed to be on.”
A few hours later and a Training Camp volunteer that had been helping with our squad’s team formations pulled me aside and let me know that after careful consideration on their part I would be getting switched to another team. I breathed a sigh of relief and headed up the hill where the final team reveal would take place. The team leaders lined up and read their list of names, it was the last leader, Courtney, that uttered my name and five others; Madison, Sydney, Maddy, Emily, and Natalie. I looked at Natalie across the field, she had been switched too and the peace she had with this decision was apparent on her face, again, I think we were probably sporting the same expression.
Over the first six months I got to know more and more about Natalie, we had a lot of things in common. We were both into photography, loved the great state of Texas, and both shared in the struggle of being just a little more awkward than the average human being. Something though, kept us from really getting to know each other those first six months. It could have been the divide that formed in our first team, it wasn’t anything horrible, just a natural occurrence I think happens in any group setting. Unfortunately Natalie and I were on opposite side of that divide, but still friends nonetheless.
When we arrived in South Africa I think 98% of us were relieved to hear we would be having team changes, don’t get me wrong I loved my first team dearly, but after six months I was ready to get to know some other people on the squad. We all had that person in our mind that we thought we would be kept with in the switch, for me it was Maddy and Natalie’s was Madison. So it surprised both of us when Maddy and Madison were called into one team and Natalie and I onto another, this time a co-ed team. We looked at each other again with that wide-eyed expression, some how communicating that no matter how bad some of us wanted these team changes, it would still be rocky going from one team to another. Natalie and I had to support each other in this change.
South Africa brought about a turning point in our relationship. I got to know Natalie more deeply and came to love her more intensely. It only took me one week to see what I hadn’t seen in her the first six months. First of all she is unbelievably hilarious, but you have to listen closely, it’s the phrases muttered under her breath in a loud room that send me rolling on the floor in a fit of laughter. She is also intensely passionate about small businesses, especially family owned doughnut establishments; because of this she hates Krispy Kreme. Her favorite food is toast because of the endless topping possibilities, but she is always more than willing to share some sort of baked good with you. Natalie is also concerned, very concerned, but not necessarily about the big things, she’s a details kind of girl. I think the thing I love most about her though is how this funny combination of personality traits rolls up to turn into one of the most beautiful women I’ve ever met.
I get a little teary eyed when I think about the fact that in two days (TWO DAYS) I won’t be waking up to Natalie’s face anymore. For the past nine months that has been the only constant in my life, Natalie’s face. I’m scared of what will happen when Natalie and I are sleeping states away from each other instead of just mere feet. But beneath all this fear there is also the reassurance that a friendship like this is not one that can be broken by distance or time spent apart. Plus, I’ll see here a month from now at the camp we’ll both be working at over the summer. LOVE YOU NAT. Thanks and go Pokes (also go ‘Noles).
