What a lovely time to be home in the States.
The winter weather (albeit we’re short a few inches of snow, to my liking), the cozy car rides, the mistletoe, the Christmas trees, the annual neighborhood Christmas party, the sleepovers with best friends and cousins, the overeating at every turn...even the dryness of skin from dry winters and washing dishes after meals with extended family. All of it puts me in mind of the countless blessings I’ve encountered in the past months--with special emphasis on the past few weeks.
The winter weather (albeit we’re short a few inches of snow, to my liking), the cozy car rides, the mistletoe, the Christmas trees, the annual neighborhood Christmas party, the sleepovers with best friends and cousins, the overeating at every turn...even the dryness of skin from dry winters and washing dishes after meals with extended family. All of it puts me in mind of the countless blessings I’ve encountered in the past months--with special emphasis on the past few weeks.
Adjustment has not been a simple process. I drink coffee now, here, which I did not do before; now, though, I miss the strength and fantasticness of the coffee in Argentina. I do not eat red meat now, and, with the choices available to me here, do not even miss it. I will not have opportunities to sunbathe or swim or go for a beach day, not for a while. And the countryside as I whiz through Western Pennsylvania on my way home from family Christmas today assaults me with the color grey, rather than the verde of Argentine summer.
All the same, it is lovely to be living with my family again. I realized that although it was a cool, growing, learning experience to manage and wrap my mind around my own apartment, I tired of the loneliness rapidly. I welcome life with sisters and parents again, and look forward to living with a family on my next leg of the journey, and with roommates in college. It will be good for me to have people around.
That’s another thing I love about this year--it’s still going. That was only three of my twelve-ish plus months of freedom to globe-trot, experience, broaden my mind, be stretched, face fears, make strides, and grow up. People often ask if the time in Argentina was a success; if I had something to compare it to, I would have a better answer. The value of this Gap Year will truly set in once I have all three internships laid out in front of me, with the quintessential 20-20 hindsight glasses of retrospection, and can make a complex mental Venn diagram of the ins and outs of each discrete experience. Until then, I am processing and pondering as well as I can. And savoring the memories.
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