This is a contributed piece from a writer who submitted her work as a poem. Although the Clarion normally runs stories as editorial pieces, we decided to keep this contributed piece as\u00a0 it was submitted.<\/i><\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
My name is Mariah Quick<\/p>\n
and This I believe,<\/p>\n
that distance makes the heart grow fonder.<\/p>\n
As the fianc\u00e9 of a man in the Army, I know distance all too well.<\/p>\n
And I know distance goes by many names.<\/p>\n
Miles, minutes, deployments, days.<\/p>\n
I know what distance feels like.<\/p>\n
I know the power of distance.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ve seen the destruction of distance in the lives of others.<\/p>\n
But I\u2019ve also seen distance create beautiful things.<\/p>\n
When my fianc\u00e9 Dakota left for basic training and AIT<\/p>\n
With no leave between<\/p>\n
I was scared to death, heartbroken, overwhelmed.<\/p>\n
I would not see his face.<\/p>\n
I would not hear his voice.<\/p>\n
I would not feel his embrace.<\/p>\n
For oh so long.<\/p>\n
No, distance stood between.<\/p>\n
I thought I would break.<\/p>\n
July 17<\/p>\n
I vividly remember watching him board the plane, tears streaming down my face<\/p>\n
Holding on tightly to the broken sound of the last I love you and the lingering taste of our last kiss<\/p>\n
I was nothing more than a broken emptiness wandering in shock<\/p>\n
In such weakness I knew I couldn\u2019t do it alone<\/p>\n
I looked up to my Lord and Savior Jesus, and cried out for strength<\/p>\n
Cried out for him to fill the emptiness, the loneliness I felt<\/p>\n
And He did<\/p>\n
My God is a God who always provides<\/p>\n
Over and over again I wrote and read encouragement in the word<\/p>\n
Phillipians 4:13<\/p>\n
I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength.<\/p>\n
He gave me strength<\/p>\n
He still does.<\/p>\n
Despite the distance, Dakota and I grew stronger<\/p>\n
Individually and relationally<\/p>\n
The emptiness of the lack of time spent together was replaced<\/p>\n
By time spent immersed in reading and writing letters<\/p>\n
Encouraging each other, reminding each other of the depth of our love for one another<\/p>\n
There\u2019s just something about reading the writing of others that reveals a new side of a person<\/p>\n
Something so intimate about written thought<\/p>\n
It was an important aspect that grew us closer<\/p>\n
Aside from an occasional short phone call on some Sunday nights,<\/p>\n
It was our only form of communication<\/p>\n
I knew the campus post office hours by heart<\/p>\n
I knew when mail was picked up, and when mail was put in the campus boxes<\/p>\n
I knew it took two business days for mail to get from Cleveland, Tenn. to Fort Leonard Wood, Miss.<\/p>\n
I measured the distance that connected us, not that separated us.<\/p>\n
Waiting.<\/p>\n
Distance always implies waiting<\/p>\n
When distance is measured in time it can seem impossible to overcome<\/p>\n
And though I felt that sometimes<\/p>\n
I refused to let it consume me.<\/p>\n
I took each day one day at a time,<\/p>\n
Reminding myself that one day passed is one day closer<\/p>\n
One day closer to being reunited with the love of my life, my sweet Dakota<\/p>\n
Dec. 5<\/p>\n
The day the distance ended<\/p>\n
The day I watched the distance close<\/p>\n
The day I defied distance<\/p>\n
By passing crowds of tightly packed bodies, all trying to close the distance to be reunited with their loved ones<\/p>\n
My heart racing, I made a quick decision<\/p>\n
I hopped dozens of rows of chairs rather than walking the aisles<\/p>\n
My eyes were locked in on my Dakota<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t move fast enough<\/p>\n
I couldn\u2019t think straight<\/p>\n
I leaped into his arms and tasted the sweetest embrace of my life<\/p>\n
Felt the new deep bond that distance had created in us<\/p>\n
Felt the beauty distance had created in our relationship<\/p>\n
Once again, distance is a part of our relationship<\/p>\n
But we share more than enough love to reach 7,400 miles across the world<\/p>\n
365 days<\/p>\n
Or any new distance we face in the future<\/p>\n
And I do not, nor will I ever fear distance<\/p>\n
My love for Dakota still grows everyday<\/p>\n
And distance cannot hinder that<\/p>\n
No, it only makes me appreciate it more<\/p>\n
For I truly know and believe that,<\/p>\n
Distance makes the heart grow fonder<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Students are welcome to submit their own \u201cThis I believe\u201d writing pieces.<\/i><\/p>\n
The Clarion is open to other student-written opinion pieces that may have been written for a class.\u00a0 <\/i><\/p>\n
If interested, submit your piece to clarion@sinclair.edu.<\/i><\/p>\n
If submitted, we reserve the right to edit the writing piece before it is published. Students should also keep in mind that submission does not guarantee publication.<\/i><\/p>\n
\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
This is a contributed piece from a writer who submitted her work as a poem. Although the Clarion normally runs stories as editorial pieces, we decided to keep this contributed piece as\u00a0 it was submitted. My name is Mariah Quick and This I believe, that distance makes the heart grow fonder. As the fianc\u00e9 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tartan-news"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"cc_featured_image_caption":{"caption_text":false,"source_text":false,"source_url":false},"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p5s3vR-2sC","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9462"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9463,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9462\/revisions\/9463"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.sinclairclarion.com\/home\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}