One of the things about Starlite that I still can’t get used to is the coming and going of our college girls.  We have a lot of them, too — over 300 volunteered with us in some capacity during this past school year.  I obviously don’t get to know all of them, but the 20 of them that serve on our leadership team end up carving their own little places in my heart.

And then they leave me. 

One of my leadership team girls — Cate, to be specific — is graduating from college this coming Saturday.  This isn’t the first time one of them has graduated or transferred to a different college or even just decided not to serve on leadership team for another semester.  But this time is particularly hard for me because Cate is more than just one of our leaders.

She’s also my cousin.  Well, kind of.

When Cate became a Starlite volunteer, we didn’t know each other.  Never met.  Never spoken.  Nothing.  After serving with one of our programs in a local alternative school, Cate decided to apply for a position on our leadership team.  She was selected and has been a part of the team ever since. 

One night, I mentioned that I was going to a party at a house here in Cleveland.  Cate announced that she was also going to that party, especially since she’d be seeing her whole family there.  I corrected her and told her that it was my extended family who was hosting this particular party.  And then we simultaneously whipped out our cell phones and called our grandmothers to confirm the awful truth: we were related.

We’re still not sure exactly what we are to each other, but we’ve decided that the title of cousins will do for now.  We’re perfectly suited for each other as both of us claim “ya’ll” as our favorite word.  And remember how opposites attract?  Let’s just say that Cate has made my life a whole lot more fun and I’ve made her life a whole lot more… um… calm.

But back to last night’s party!  Normally one of the girls from our team would go and buy all the stuff, but with it being finals week here in college-ville, I opted to go to the grocery store.  As I started going down the aisles with my cart (I really call it a buggy but I don’t want to appear too southern), I began thinking about Cate’s experience in Starlite. 

The truth is that Cate lived quite a different life before joining Starlite.  I wouldn’t dream of trying to tell her story for her, but I’ll just say that being a leader in a ministry was very, very far from her plans.  When she became a part of our leadership team, she signed the “Starlite Covenant” — an agreement we all have about what is acceptable in our lives and what isn’t.  And when she signed it, she left a whole lot of things behind her.

And has never looked back.

By the time I made it to the frozen food aisles last night, I was almost in tears as I thought about the change that Cate has made with her life.  I tried to pull myself together enough to find some sherbet for the punch.  But as I stood halfway in the ice cream freezer trying to find raspberry sherbet, I just lost it.  I mean, tears everywhere — all over the ice cream!  The man picking out Rocky Road beside me looked a bit frightened and I really can’t blame him.  I had mascara running down my cheeks in little frozen rivers.  I brought new meaning to the phrase “the ugly cry.”  In fact, the Ugly Cry Association is sending out a press release later this morning announcing me as their new poster child. 

At this point, I decided it would be in my best interest to get out of the grocery store as quickly as possible.  I finally calmed down and made it to the front of the store only to see that there was quite a line waiting at the one register that was open.  To take my mind off the fact that my appearance was frightening small children, I decided to concentrate on the magazines next to me.

And that’s when I saw a headline that made me start crying all over again:  “Britney loses 30 pounds in only 20 days — something ONLY a star could do!”

Fabulous.  Now I’m gonna have to become a star so I can loose weight at an alarming and quite unhealthy rate.  Just another thing to add to my to-do list… as if raising a ministry two wayward puppies wasn’t enough already.