Coming Home

9/4/10
Location: North Dakota and Minnesota

“Who says you can't go back?
Been all around the world and as a matter of fact
There's only one place left, I want to go
Who says you can't go home?”

“Who Says You Can’t Go Home”-Jon Bon Jovi and Richie Sambora

Those lyrics from one of my favorite bands say it best. After a trip around the world to exhilaratingly exotic and fascinating places, and a summer in Washington, D.C. with a fantastic internship during one of the most exciting times in American politics, all I really wanted to do was go home. I was so looking forward to stepping onto that plane (although I was a little worried that Delta might make my life difficult again), finishing my last book of the summer (No Country for Old Men by Cormac McCarthy) and meeting my family and Jake in the little Grand Forks airport. Seeing the quilt of green and golden squares of fields crisscrossed with gravel roads and dotted with farms was one of the most gratifying sights. The warming of the heart and fond memories that come racing back from the recesses of your mind—this is what coming home after a long absence feels like.

I was expecting home to be different somehow. I’ve been gone for four months and I think I’ve changed considerably after my experiences, so I assumed that everything I knew would be a little inconsistent with how it was when I left it in May. But it wasn’t. I fell back into things without even a stutter step. Home was the same, or at least the same as it always feels since I’ve been in college. I moved back down to Fargo-Moorhead for my final year at Concordia and while I’m in a new apartment, it feels similar to every other back-to-school transition I’ve had.

I only saw my boyfriend a few times over the four months, but now we’re back to seeing each other every or every other day and it’s just feels normal. I don’t even feel relieved; it’s just like how things are supposed to be. What surprised me the most was seeing my friends who studied abroad last semester. I thought things would definitely feel a little peculiar there. But it’s like we’ve been together the entire time—we talk about the same things, do the same things, tease each other about the same things. It’s…nice, for lack of a better word. I feel like I’m where I am supposed to be. While it’s exhilarating and exciting to explore to new places (how’s that for alliteration), it also means higher levels of stress and apprehension. It’s just nice to relax in the familiar with people I love for the foreseeable future.

So far, classes are going well and I think I’m going to thoroughly enjoy them all, especially my capstone course about 21st century technology and my religion 300 course. I’m also actually visiting classes with staff from my DC internship to promote the opportunity and talk about my experience this summer. I’m already busy with my two jobs, student organizations, and weekend plans, but I like being occupied even if it makes me a little crazy sometimes.

However, all of the class time, work hours, homework, social life, etc. that’s come back into my life means I’ll have little time to update my blog and nothing overly exciting to blog about. Consequently, I’m thinking that this will be my last entry. I’d like this to remain a travel blog. I started at home, and after six countries and living and working in the nation’s capital, I’ve now ended at home. I’ll keep this up for another week or two so everyone interested can read my final entry, but then I’ll delete this. I don’t like things I don’t regularly check floating around cyberspace, and I have my own copies.

Thank you to everyone who has cared enough about me and my travels to check out my blog. Extra thanks to those who commented—it means a lot. I have had nearly 2,000 unique visits (meaning that refreshes, etc. are excluded) on this blog, some from halfway across the world (I can see every visitor’s country, operating system, browser, and how long they were on here—a little creepy huh?), and some who linked to it on their own blogs or websites. That is mindboggling to me. Thanks to my parents for supporting me so much—emotionally and financially. Without them, the entire summer would not have happened. Finally, many thanks to my writing professors at Concordia who always encouraged me and believed in me—they told me that my writing was worthwhile and I can actually go somewhere with it someday. There may be nothing more empowering and motivating than having someone believe in you.

This blog has been a transformative reflection tool for me, and I’ve enjoyed it much more than I thought I would initially. It has not been a chore, but a process with tremendous results. I’m incredibly grateful that I recorded the events of my May seminar especially, since I already treasure the detail that has escaped my memory. I’ll always have my life in New Zealand, Australia, Hong Kong, India, Egypt, England, and Washington, D.C. right at my fingertips.

It’s been an unforgettable summer.


UPDATE:


Here's a photo of me and the new puppy, Ace.