Tuesday, July 21, 2009

Where's Waldo

I'm not sure what it is that keeps me participating in my blog some days/months, and completely unattached others. This has obviously been a bout of long separation - longer than I intended.
It is now just 2 weeks that I am home. 2 weeks from this very moment. In fact, at this time on the 20th, I will perhaps be passed out in my old familiar bed, or wired, sit shell-shocked in front of my TV. I can't imagine I'll have too much to say -- how do you answer a question that asks you to sum up an entire year's experience? "What was your favorite part?", they'll ask. "What will you miss most?", or "How is it being home?". Questions that will no doubt leave my head spinning. It's hard to crystallize the 365 past days. To me, they have been daily life. Wake up, work, come home, make dinner, socialize maybe, run? sleep -- A routine I slipped into within the first 30 days. Perhaps when asked what my favorite part was, I'll respond instead with, "You tell me what your favorite part was", "Of what?", "Your entire last year"...
Better is 'How has this experience changed you?', 'What have you learned?'. The answers to these, still a bit foggy, will at least be honest.
I learned that I am lucky to have grown up in America. Not because it's the land of opportunity or some other bullshit tagline someone made up, but because of the 'melting pot' or 'salad bowl' it truly is. I had no idea how lucky I was to be brought up understanding diversity to be such an ordinary thing. People from all over the world only sharing the same name on their passport (possibly). Diversity being ordinary. Wow.. I haven't felt that way in about a year..
secretly I'm excited to walk down the street and blend in (read: walk down a street where no one looks the same) To once again live in a world of Where's Waldo, where it takes more than a glance to find the American dude with glasses, a beanie, and a striped shirt.