Tour Blog — Day 9

We’re back in the U.S.!!

I spent 22 years in the United States Army, for those of you who didn’t know. Not that it makes my reentry any more special than any of the singers’ — but it does give me a little perspective on people in their teens and early twenties. Thirteen of those years I spent as an Army recruiter. Over that time, I either directly enlisted or helped facilitate the enlistment of more than a thousand young men and women — some of them New G kids you might even know. I bring that up only to say I know a thing or two about kids wanting to leave home. Plenty of them do. They want to spread their wings, go build a life of their own. But I can tell you this from experience: whether they wanted to leave town or not, they always want to come back home. Every single one of them, eventually.

I was talking to my buddy Eden Allen today about her plans after high school — she’s only going into her sophomore year, so there are at least four more changes of mind between now and graduation. Right now, she wants to go to school out of state, maybe UT Austin, to become a writer. I think it’s a good choice. Have you heard that dialogue she wrote? Yep — even our New G kiddos aren’t immune to wanderlust.

We’re at the turnaround point of tour now, just past halfway, and three things get predictable around this time. First, everyone’s energy drops to about a three. You probably couldn’t tell from the livestream tonight, which says a lot about this group — they want to give their all to every congregation, because they feel like the congregation deserves it. Two performances in one day will still leave a heavy fatigue hanging over the room by the end of the night, though. Second, that one person who started out funny has slowly morphed into annoying, and finally pushed someone over the edge. Don’t worry if your kid calls home and says something like that — it’s supposed to happen. It always happens. Just tell them, “I know, Joseph told me.” Third, the wanderlust and excitement about being away from home starts flipping into excitement about being back home. Over the next few days that feeling overtakes the other two, and suddenly everyone’s best friends again, every singer’s in a great mood, and they’ll be counting down the miles until they see you.

So I doubt this trip cures anyone of wanting to leave home the second they get the chance. But maybe it buys you some peace of mind: no matter how badly they want UT Austin, they will always, ALWAYS want to come home too.

Well, folks, mid-tour fatigue is setting in on me too, so I’ll leave you here. It’s 10:30 p.m. as I write this, but my body’s still running on Central time, so it feels like 12:30 a.m. to all of us.

Love you all!