There's No Place Like Home

Little things about being back home catch me by surprise still. At first I had to get over the urge to not drink the tap water and to keep reminding myself that I don’t need to carry hand sanitizer everywhere. For some reason, chain restaurants and book stores are bizarre because they appear so casually and confidently THERE, like they have a right to be there, even though the rest of the world has never heard of them. Seeing friends and family is probably the best thing in the entire world, but something happens every day that makes me want to be back laughing with my SAS friends. It feels a little like having two different homes. One is the one you know and love, and the other is this new home that you can’t quite place anywhere because it traveled incessantly and the only constant was the people. I no longer have a doctor telling me about the risks of leaving my front door so today, when I was walking down the notoriously safe streets of downtown Boulder, I felt slightly threatened because I was alone. That never used to happen before we traveled to a gazillion different big cities. Everyone has their giant panties in a bunch about American politics, especially with it being in an election year. I feel like people are incessantly frightened by our political leaders, but I can’t quite tell what they’re afraid of. I feel like, even if the worst happened, our standard of living would still be far higher than what most people. Even if the standard of living does drop, people can still be happy! What a concept. People also express everything from an amazingly United States-centric point of view. How could they do otherwise if they haven’t traveled outside of it? But the weirdest thing about it is that most Americans don’t even think about the people living their daily lives in the rest of the world unless their country posses some type of threat to us. Why should we ever ask “What’s best for Americans?” when the people in Cambodia are just like the people here. It doesn’t make sense that we’re not asking “What’s best for everyone?” When Semester at Sea began, everyone kept talking about how it would be a “transformative journey” and at different points of the voyage I would keep asking myself if I had transformed yet. Honestly, I never knew the answer. I still don’t know, but I do know that before I left I was asking “What’s best for Americans?” along with everyone else and never second guessed it. I love that everyone in Boulder knows what gluten is. I love the snow and the way it melts under the Colorado sun. Certain things, like making my own dinner or doing laundry feel about twenty times harder than they did before I left. I was afraid that everyone would be sick of my “One time in Vietnam” stories, but no one has said anything yet and my friends know how to be blunt so I think I’m in the clear. Every time I see someone that hasn’t seen me since I left I get the exact same question, “How was it?” And I have no good answer to tell them. My go to response is “amazing” because it was, but that doesn’t quite cover it. It was so many things like eye opening, terrifying, boring, heartbreaking, frustrating, exhilarating, funny, fresh, exhausting, and beautiful. Everything was intensified because I was doing so much in such a short period of time. This voyage has opened me up to travel like nothing else could. I feel like I could go anywhere in the world and be confident in myself. I love how peaceful being home is, but I also miss the drive and energy of GOING SOMEWHERE that living of a ship perpetuated.  I wouldn’t give up my memories from this voyage for anything and I know it was only the start of more adventures to come. THANK YOU SEMESTER AT SEA FALL 2011!