Re-entry: A Love Story

They told us re-entry would be hard. We are coming back home, a world all so familiar, with a whole new mindset, an altered perspective. I have spent the last four months waking up every morning awaiting a new adventure in Santiago. Everything was new and everything was exciting. We spent so much time planning our independent travels and mapping out how to explore our new city in the most genuine way. I have spent the last four months on a non-stop adventure. Being home, I realize more and more that this kind of lifestyle, this kind of constant adventure and discovering is a lifestyle that realy fufills me. There is something so mundane about comfort and I recognized that within the first few hours of being home. I then got to thinking. Was everything going to be boring? Can't I just go back? Wait, no one speaks Spanish here...bummer. So almost pessimistically I started my re-entry process. As soon as I got to my house in Annapolis MD with my parents, I felt familiarity fill my life once again. 

For the first few days I was home alone and did not have a whole lot to do. I unpacked, rearranged my room, rearranged my room again, watched (a shameful amount of) How I Met Your Mother, did dishes, made my own tea, and a variety of other tasks that I was so used to. It was nice getting back in to the home turf rhythm, but I now have this desire to make things new and exciting, which honestly is so incredible. Soon I began taking note of all the new things I was doing and all the possiblities of fresh activites. I ran with my dog for the first time, I wrote a blog post for a travel blog, I started looking for internships that would fufill my passions and desire for change, and I began the search for exciting new recpies that I could try. I met up with old friends and saw how much their lives have changes since I last saw them, reached out to old teachers and mentors that I wanted to share my expereinces with. Most importantly, I started looking for other ways I can use world travel to better my impact on the world. There are so many exciting things out there and having this experience has only peaked my interest in knowing and seeing more. 

My time in Chile taught me a lot about myself and what I want to do with my future. My re-entry into Annapolis MD has allowed me to enter a whole other love sotry with this adventure we call life; recognizing that even things that are familiar can be exciting and an adventure if you choose to experience them as such. Re-entry is not an end of a journey but rather an opportunity to revamp the much longer journey ahead.