If you didn't already know this, I've just spent the last five weeks traveling through Europe (three with the university's Humanities Study Abroad tour and one and a half with my dad through Greece--he promised me he'd take me to Greece if I took his Ancient Greek university class).
It's hard to put in few words the feelings people get when they come home from a long trip abroad. Friends and family always ask how it was or what the best part was. Though their intentions are good and make me feel appreciated, I always find myself at a loss with words. You simply cannot sum up a life-changing journey, long and busy enough to feel like a lifetime, in only a sentence or two, no matter how much you wish you could.
I'm going to hope and assume that you, my reader, have had a similar, difficult-to-explain experience as I continue (by posting emotional and contemplative excerpts from my journal). Hopefully you will be able to relate and remember some of those feelings.
Homeward bound excerpts from my travel journal:
May 28th (Wednesday)
Today is the last day. The last day in Greece, in Europe, on this tour, away from home, living out of a suitcase, sleeping in hotels and strange beds...at least for this trip.
...
But I know that I'll miss my experiences, particularly since I already miss my experiences on the tour [as in, with the main university group] almost as much as I long for home.
I guess that is simply my fate or curse: to be torn.
I wonder what it would be like to be whole, like God is.
May 29th (Thurs)
4 AM (Athens time)
We're now on the bus to the airport. Our plane leaves at 6:30, so I'm awake at an ungodly hour, and my legs don't really like me for half running up to this square to catch the bus. But I'm on my way home.
... I've been there, and soon I will be back again.
...
6:45 AM
"Then the wind will set me racing
As my journey nears its end.
Down the path I'll be retracting
When I'm homeward bound again."
--Homeward Bound
The sunrise was absolutely beautiful! A nice farewell from Greece, I guess. :) [More photos to come later]
This trip has been a fantastic one, a tour I will always recall with fondness, memories of experiences I will miss. It was a good journey to take.
...
11:45 AM (home time)
We're about an hour and a half from landing...
Home is so near, I can practically feel it. It was almost a dream, but now, already, it's becoming the reality, and my experiences in Europe are becoming the dream. I find that terribly sad, though I'm immensely happy to be home.
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