Jasonville, Indiana USA (51 Days Later)

The summer is starting to settle down, and so am I.  I am finally getting used to living in the same place for more than 3 days.  I will not lie; it was a tough adjustment coming home, not a bad one, just hard.  Culture shock is definitely a real thing!  For a few days I came home and felt like an outsider; it took some time to catch up with everyone and regain my sense of belonging.

51 days after the adventure of my lifetime, I find myself editing photos from World Tour in the gatehouse at Shakamak State Park.  I work the evening shift and people tend to slow down as the night rolls on which leaves me alone in the gatehouse 5-6 hours every shift.  It sounds boring because it is, but I cannot say that I mind it.  Actually, the peaceful times in the park after everyone has left are what make this job worth it.  After the semester I just had, I welcome any chance to just sit down and relax. 

As work slows down in the evenings I try to edit a couple cities-worth of photos every night.  Every photo gives me a new memory to reflect on or something new to appreciate.  I am finally realizing how awesome it all was, and how blessed I was to be able to experience it.  The diversity of the places I have been is hard for even me to comprehend.  On the trip we were shuffled from place to place without much time to think and appreciate it all.  Thank goodness for pictures!  They have allowed me to relive my trip, the good and the bad. 

Along with the pictures I remember the stress I went through trying to get homework and my project done.  I look back at the 10 days of madness I had to put together my project board and it is obvious, only God would have been able to get me through that.  Not only did he get me through it, he guided me through a project I am proud to call my own.  I even presented it to the President of Ball State, Jo Ann Gora herself.  After my project was finished that week I had some fantastic days making up for lost time with all of my friends.  For once I was sad to leave Muncie; I had just arrived it seemed like and all my friends were leaving for the semester. At least I can look forward to seeing them when I go back in August!

As one can imagine, I have been drilled by everyone since I have been home.  What was your favorite place?  What was (insert country) like?  What was the weirdest food you ate?  Would you go back?  Even the simplest question prompts the most difficult answer.  Traveling the world is not something that can be understood.  Sure I could talk until I was blue in the face and show you every single one of my photos, but until you have experienced the culture and stumbled your way through everyday life in a different country you will not understand it. 

The thing that strengthened my experiences, appreciation, and understanding of life around the world is the fact that God walked with me every step of the way.  Living in the world, he showed me a greater understanding of life itself, what is really important, what to strive for in life, and how to be content with even the littlest things.  Even now, 51 days later, it is hard for me to comprehend that there was once a time on WT5 when all I wanted was to be able to read a restaurant menu, to have a good seat on the plane, to stay at a hotel with free internet access, or to have ten minutes of alone time.  The simplest things made me happy.  I have everything I have ever wanted in life at home right now, yet I still find things to make me grumpy.  What is up with that?  Another thing, I learned really quickly last semester is how to take a step back from the situation and re-evaluate.  Every time I got upset or caught up in a bad situation, I found God waiting patiently to share his peace.  It is little lessons like these that I will keep with me for the rest of my life.  Yeah this trip was awesome! I saw countries and cities that people only dream of visiting.  I stood before some of the best architecture in the world; but even more importantly, God taught me how to live.

The Journey Home

I woke up this morning knowing it would probably be one of the longest days of my life.  That still could not keep the excitement from spreading across my face every time it had a chance.  Our first flight of the day from Dublin to Washington, D.C. was the longest of the day at 7.5 hours, not to mention U.S. customs and security beforehand.  It took us three hours to get through it all.  The flight was relatively uneventful except for the fact that I could not watch free movies because the headphone jack on my seat did not work. 

We arrived in Washington on time and had about an hour layover.  Excitement was in full as we all dusted off our phones and began texting and making phone-calls for the first time in three and a half months.  You could easily tell everyone was ready to be back in America. 

The excitement quickly faded as we learned of a couple of explosions that happened at the Boston Marathon.  As the news developed, the spirit of the airport became more and more somber.  I got up to go to the bathroom and noticed that most people waiting for their flights were glued to the television watching CNN coverage of the tragedy.  I later realized that our plane had landed in Washington, D.C.  at almost exactly the same time as the bombs detonated.  Welcome home!  To make this even more dramatic, we boarded our plane to Chicago and the screens on the plane were playing the news coverage.  I’m not going to lie; I was a little worried as our plane took off.  I was flying out of the nation’s capital with a destination of one of America’s major urban cities, Chicago.  At this point the only thing I wanted was home and my family.  We made it to Chicago safely, thank goodness!  About half of our group had another flight to Indy, but nothing could break the excitement of me going home.  I watched some of my friends reunite with loved ones and then I headed through security one last time.  I boarded the tiny airplane to Indy and immediately fell asleep.  I opened my eyes to the lights of Indianapolis as we landed.  Finally after 103 days, I had made it home safely.

It is hard to pinpoint a time in my life that I was happier than the moment I realized I was back home.  I rushed off the plane and through baggage claim only to be kept waiting for several minutes outside.  Apparently our flight got in a little early so my parents had not arrived yet.  When I finally saw my blue Jeep pull up I was relieved.  A dream-like 103 days of traveling had finally come to an end.  Nothing could have prepared me for the semester that I just lived through.  The past 2 years of saving and preparation all ended with this night, but I was not sad.  I had 10,000 photos and three-and-a-half months-worth of new experiences to share. 

To top the night off, the face of one of my best friends, Jenica, was staring at me through the back window of my car.  She surprised me and came with my parents to pick me up.  It was a great time!  Perhaps my favorite part of the night, however, was the moment I got to crawl into my own personal bed, with my room and bathroom surrounding me.  It’s hard to understand the importance of this until you have spent the last 103 days living out of two bags and a hotel room.  Oh my, what an experience!